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HomeMy WebLinkAboutUrban Redevelopment Agency October 3, 2012 URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COMMISSION CHAMBER October 3, 2012 PRESENT: Barry White, Chairman; Betty Beard, Vice Chairman; James Kendrick, Erik Montgomery and George Patty, members; Jim Plunkett, Attorney; Chester Wheeler and Hawthorne Welcher of the Housing & Community Development Department; Jesse Wylds, Project Manager; Warren Campbell; Nancy Morawski, Clerk of Commission. Mr. White called the meeting to order. 1.Laney-Walker Bethlehem Revitalization Project – Power Point Presentational Update. Mr. Welcher: Good afternoon to you all. Since time was limited, I wanted to just focus on various developments where we have specific projects. I’ll start on page three and I wanted to first start with Heritage Pine. You are definitely familiar with Heritage Pine which is our signature street. We are actually to the process now where we have two remaining lots and we have a pre-sale on one of those lots. We have a bank commitment letter from a potential homeowner of up to about $200,000 for one of those remaining lots. These lots are on the end near Florence Street and we have two of the other three lots that were of a speculative nature th under contract. We’ve been able to move over to 11 Street now and Heritage Pine is actually thth composed of four streets, Pine Street, 11 Street, 12 Street and Florence Street. On Florence Street you have three duplexes and all six are currently occupied so we are on course with Heritage Pine. th Ms. Beard: Has anything taken place on 12 Street? Mr. Welcher: No as of yet, not development-wise. The only thing that has taken place th on 12 Street is acquisition. What we want to do is to provide a major impact and we want to try th to develop no less than two houses at a time. So we’re just not ready there now. 11 Street is very wide and we felt that it was a better fit. We have properties that are very contiguous in a thth block that back up to Pine Street and 11 is different from 12 because there is a lane that th separates Pine Street from 11 Street so people on Pine Street have to get to their garages. They th drive off of Pine Street and people from 11 Street share that lane together with them. th Ms. Beard: What about the convent on 12 Street? Mr. Welcher: The convent is being coupled with the Penny Savings Bank and we’re in the process of putting out an RFQ for those two projects. We will see what type of interest is out there for developers to come in and redeveloping these two properties. It should be sent to Procurement within the next two weeks. Mr. Kendrick: Do you own those two properties now? Mr. Welcher: We don’t own the convent but we do own the Penny Savings Bank. 1 Mr. Wylds: We met with the owners of the convent to see what their interest was and whether they would sell the property outright or be a co-developer with an experienced developer to develop the property and they have agreed in writing to do that. Mr. Kendrick: So you have an option? Mr. Wylds: No, we don’t have an option on the convent. We have a written agreement with the current property owners that we would like to introduce their property to the development community and if we have an interest, would they agree to negotiate a development relationship with that prospective developer and they have said yes. They don’t want to sell it. We want it developed and our solution to that is if we bring a developer to the table with experience in restoring this property and would you be willing to partner with that developer and put that in writing and they have done that. Mr. Kendrick: What is the plan for the Penny Savings Bank? Mr. Welcher: Let me talk about the supper club and then the bank. We’ve procured a th demolition company to demolish that building and they’ll start that on the 15. Then the plans are if we can get it approved to go back with a new office building for us to stay in the community. That has not be approved but it would change the look of that block and spur further development. If you’ll go to page 6 you’ll see Holly Street Commons. This is a partnership with Antioch Ministries, Inc. and all of the homes in this development have been sold. They plan to continue to focus just on their development and that is good. On page 7 you’ll see Foundry Place. There have been meetings with representatives from GHSU, Paine College, ASU and they all indicate that there is a need for student housing. We’re still working with a developer to put together a deal for this property. It is diagonally located where the old Wishbone’s used to be and is a foundry, factory site off of Wrightsboro Road. We have not bought this property but we’ve kept it under option. It is in a centralized location and may have some environmental issues which could be included in a future budget. Further up Wrightsboro Road going to James Brown is East Mill Village. We sold the land to the House of Prayer and they are using their own resources to develop rental units not too far from the House of Prayer and Mt. Calvary. Diagonally across from where they are currently developing, we have plans for development there as a complementary site and the House of Prayer is working there also. We sold them the property and they are now working so this is an example of how we were able to leverage to get additional development. You also have the area of Twiggs Circle. This is a partnership with the Augusta Housing Authority and they are using this area to place units that have been torn down in former public housing. They’ve committed to doing between 80 and 90 replacement units in the Laney Walker area. Mr. Kendrick: Are these single family dwellings or multiple dwellings? Mr. Welcher: There are both. Some will be for seniors and other for families. The first th phase of Twiggs Circle encompasses three streets, Wrightsboro, 9 Street and Twiggs and it will start in the first quarter of next year. The old units will be demolished and you’ll see new units erected with 16 duplexes and 8 single-family units. 2 Ms. Beard: What do they look like on the outside? Mr. Welcher: I can get you pictures, but they’re a townhome style. Mr. Wylds: The architecture will be comparable to the homes in the Pine Street area. Mr. Welcher: They will be rental units and Housing Authority is complying with that historic look that we’re trying to get across. Mr. Kendrick: Do they have anything in the city now with that similar look? This will be something new? That’s good if it is. Mr. Welcher: It is a townhome style and we can provide you with some architectural renderings. Mr. Kendrick: On Twiggs Street do you have any plans to do anything there? Mr. Warren Campbell: The first phase of Twiggs Circle is the senior housing. Then we will restore some of the units down further to historical accuracy in the second phase and then the third phase would be a mixture of some multi-family. Ms. Beard: When would you do something with the Hornsby house? Mr. Campbell: We would start that after we finish the first phase with the senior units and that would probably be in about two years. We would also want to coordinate our work with the city’s road work that is proposed in that area. Ms. Beard: But shouldn’t that house be stabilized fairly soon? Mr. Wylds: The attorney is cleaning up some title work at Mrs. Hornsby’s request so that title can be conveyed into the Land Bank. She has been ill and has missed three meetings where this title work could have been expedited so we are trying to meet with her, close on the property and then go onto the property and stabilize it. Mr. Welcher: We have one more area and that is The Boulevard. This is a commercial area on Laney Walker and we’re forecasting the types of businesses that could come into this area, but at this time we don’t have commitments. This will bring back the heart of the community and at this point that’s all I have from an update standpoint unless you have some questions of me at this time. Ms. Beard: Are you using tax allocation districts as one of your tools? Mr. Welcher: Yes, ma’am, we are. We are educating people through that process before they buy. 3 2.Authorization to Purchase A. 1474 Wrightsboro Road B. 1430 McCauley Street Mr. Wylds: We are requesting permission to move forward with the acquisition of these properties. They are key acquisitions as it relates to assembling property along McCauley Street and Wrightsboro Road. These have all been assembled except for three parcels. One property owner does not want to sell. The other is under contract. We have tried to identify the property owner on McCauley for the past two years and then have tried to get him to sell. One is a vacant house and the other is a vacant lot. The house is an eyesore on McCauley and is the last remaining property on McCauley that we need to get under site control. We finally got the owner to agree to sell, but at $40,000. The two properties combined appraise at $23,000 and they finally agreed to sell for $40,000. We recommended to Mr. Wheeler that we acquire this property because they’re the last of properties in this stretch that we need to acquire. Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Russell okayed it, we talked to Barry about it, but we wanted to bring it to the board first. We want to be sure it is okay with this board that we move forward with this acquisition. Mr. Kendrick: Why is this so valuable to you to pay so much more than it is appraised for? Mr. Wylds: Because on the McCauley Street side, it is the only parcel in that segment that we would need for the Foundry Place development that we don’t have under site control. Everything else we have either acquired and it is in the Land Bank or we have it under contract to purchase except this one parcel. On the Wrightsboro Road side it’s the only one of three parcels on the south side of Wrightsboro Road that we don’t have under site control or have already closed on. It’s an impediment to being able to develop this site. Mr. Kendrick: So they’re playing hard ball with you. Mr. Wylds: Yes. We haven’t had many instances like this. I’d say 95% of the properties have been acquired at appraised value but as we get close to closing out a site, we’re going to run into folks just don’t want to cooperate. We need the property to finish out the area. Mr. Patty: That’s $40,000 for both properties? Mr. Wylds: Yes. Mr. Patty: How long have you been negotiating with them? Mr. Wylds: At least two years. The owner lives in DC and is an elderly person. We tried to meet with him there and couldn’t do that. We’ve talked and talked to him and then one day he said he’s ready to sell and these are my terms. We started out at about $50,000 and got him down to $40,000 but that’s as far as we could get it down. 4 Mr. Kendrick: Are there any structures on these properties? Mr. Wylds: There is a structure on McCauley. It is a blighted property and an eyesore. Mr. Kendrick: So you have no other option? Mr. Wylds: None other than, well, on the McCauley Street side we’d have to abandon the project without acquiring this parcel because it faces onto the site and we have to have all the properties in order to make this work. We also need all the property on the Wrightsboro Road side and this is one of three we need and we will probably be coming back to you again on another parcel. Mr. Kendrick: Do you think that this will be setting a precedent? Mr. Wylds: To be honest, I don’t know. It hasn’t been nearly the problem that we’ve experienced in other markets where we’ve done similar market acquisition work but as we get near finalizing a project, we may have this discussion again. Ms. Beard: I do support the purchase and I so move. Mr. Patty: Second. Motion carries unanimously. thth Ms. Beard: I did not hear you speak of Wrightsboro between 12 and 11 and the other side of Powell Point. Have you purchased the land in those areas? Mr. Welcher: We have purchased some property. We are dedicated to a number of thth streets but that path between 11 and 12 is still a question mark. We have not totally defined what’s going there as well as the area from C. T. Walker up to Augusta Avenue. Mr. White noted that regarding the frequency of meetings he felt that biannual meetings would be appropriate with meetings to be called as necessary when they were needed. It was suggested by Mr. Plunkett that the next meeting date be set for April 17, 2013 and there was consensus that this would be acceptable. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Nancy W. Morawski Deputy Clerk of Commission 5