Title
CRA Office NW 5th Ave Locations Options (B)
Explanation
The CRA's offices are currently located at 300 E University Ave, Suite 240 in the Commerce Building. A one-year option has been exercised on the lease and will expire on February 29, 2010. When the lease option extension agreement was presented for approval, the CRA Executive Director asked that staff consider alternative locations, which was consistent with on-going City Commission FY09/10 Budget discussions.
Staff was asked to consider four options for locating the CRA's office:
1. Remain in Commerce Building
2. Relocate to Thomas Center
3. Relocate to Depot Building (post renovation)
4. Relocate to a new Office Building on one of two CRA-owned NW 5th Ave lots
4a. 414 NW 5th Ave
4b. 802 NW 5th Ave
Staff prepared an analysis with the pros, cons, and partial financial implications, if known, for each option. The analysis was then presented to each Redevelopment Area Advisory Boards. Each Advisory Board member was asked to rank the options in order of their preference, with 1 being the most preferred and 5 being the least preferred. The scores were then tabulated. The results were as follows:
Final Ranking (Average)
1. 414 NW 5th Ave Avg = 1.25
2. 802 NW 5th Ave Avg = 2
3. Commerce Building Avg = 3.25
4. Depot Building Avg = 3.75
5. Thomas Center Avg = 4.75
On October 9, 2008, the CRA Board approved the final rankings and asked staff to perform a detailed analysis of the two NW 5th Ave locations and present a recommendation at the November 17, 2008 meeting.
Location Analysis
414 NW 5th Ave (Location 1)
This site is located east of the Santa Fe Blount classroom and is the former site of the Rose Theater. The lot is approximately .41 acres and is currently zoned MU-1 (mixed use low intensity). A streetscape project was completed earlier this year to underground utilities, provide decorative lighting, and add brick pavers that help enhance the visual aesthetics of the site. The site is also home to at least three (3) Live Oak trees with trunk diameters of greater than 30 inches. The site offers relatively easy access for construction and room for staging of materials.
The planning and engineering considerations, however, are significant for the site: 1) Site has very limited on-street parking so a significant portion of the .41 acres would be dedicated to on-site parking. 2) Stormwater retention will need to be handled on-site and requires a St. John Water Management District permit, which will increase construction costs and delay timeline. 3) Removal of "Heritage" Live Oaks trees will require additional permits and additional costs for mitigation.
802 NW 5th Ave (Location 2)
This site is located directly across the street from Duncan Brother Funeral Home at the intersection of NW 5th Ave and NW 8th Street. It is the former site of St. Paul CME Church. The lot is approximately .14 acres and is currently zoned MU-1 (mixed use low intensity). The site offers easy access from three sides for construction and room for staging of materials.
The streetscape project completed east of NW 6th Street will be continued from 6th St to 10th St in Phase 2 of the project, which is currently in the engineering planning phase and not expected to be completed until 2010. Because this project is new development, undergrounding utilities on-site may be required per the Land Development code. However, staff is hopeful that given the scale of the overall streetscape project, the on-site streetscape can be included in Phase 2 and not handled as a standalone project.
While this site has no Heritage Oak trees and is a "cleaner" site, there are still some planning and engineering considerations that must be addressed: 1) Parking - there are no dedicated parking spaces available and the lot is not large enough to add on-site parking. There is, however, an adjacent city parking lot, but discussions are required with City of Gainesville Planning and Public Works departments to understand if the parking lot can be used for parking demand generated by a new commercial building. 2) Stormwater retention, based on an initial analysis, it is anticipated that the development will not go over threshold requirements for on-site stormwater retention, but further investigation is required.
Public Meeting
On November 6, 2008, a public meeting was held with FAPS residents, property and business owners to solicit input, feedback, and voice issues/concerns. The primary point of feedback was that the residents feel that the "5th Ave" side of the FAPS area has been "left out" and they would like to see some redevelopment take place west of NW 6th. The meeting participants agreed unanimously that 802 NW 5th Ave was the preferred site to locate the CRA mixed-used office building.
Additional analysis is included as back-up.
Conclusion
The 802 NW 5th Ave location has fewer planning and engineering issues to address and has full support of the community. Therefore, staff recommends 802 NW 5th Ave be selected as the site of the new CRA office building.
Financing
Total construction costs for a building at 802 NW 5th Ave are estimated to be $763,000. The building will be located in the FAPS redevelopment area, but because the building will house the offices for the CRA, all four of the redevelopment areas will contribute to the construction costs. The building's square footage will be allocated to either commercial or CRA office space. Therefore, the four redevelopment areas will contribute $511,000 towards construction. The remaining $270,000 for the non-CRA commercial space will be financed through a private-sector loan, with the debt service payments made from FAPS tax increment.
Fiscal Note
Total construction costs are estimated to be approximately $763,000. Since the building's total square footage will be used as CRA office space, $511,000 will be contributed by the CRA redevelopment areas. During the FY2009 CRA budgeting process, $45,000 and $46,000 were budgeted for estimated construction costs in Eastside and Fifth Ave/Pleasant Street budgets. The remaining $420,000 of equity funding will be provided by CPUH, Downtown, and Eastside. We will request those transfers once approved by the Advisory Boards. The remaining $270,000 of construction costs will be funded through debt.
Recommendation
CRA Executive Director to CRA: 1) Hear a presentation from staff; and 2) approve 802 NW 5th Ave as the site of the new CRA mixed-used office building contingent on the resolution of parking availability at the adjacent City-owned lot.