Title
Rehabilitation of the Glover and Gill Building (B)
Explanation
For the past several months, the Fifth Avenue Pleasant Street (FAPS) Redevelopment Advisory Board has been discussing ways to revitalize the Northwest 5th Avenue corridor. A part of that discussion has been the development of anchors along the corridor that bring people into the neighborhood and draw people up and down Northwest 5th Avenue. Several projects have been identified as possible anchors for the corridor; including a small park near Mom's Kitchen, the new Santa Fe Community College Building, and the Glover and Gill building (also know as Wabash Hall) at 905 Northwest 5th Avenue.
The Board believes that the Glover and Gill building would make an excellent anchor for the corridor for a number of reasons. It is centrally located and could serve as a mid-point between Northwest 13th Street and Northwest 6th Street. It is one of the primary historic sites within the district, playing a significant role in the social, economic, and political lives of the African American community in Gainesville, and its wide, open space lends itself to meeting space, performance space, and display space.
Cleve and Barbara Sharpe currently own the building. While the Sharpes are unwilling to sell the building, they are amenable to a long-term lease in return for the rehabilitation of the space and the guarantee that the building would have a public use during the term of the lease. A long-term lease would allow the CRA to seek grant funding for the rehabilitation of the building. Once the building is rehabilitated and a public use is identified, the CRA could do a Request for Proposals and assign the lease to another group set up to manage the facility. The lease would be rent-free until the cost of improvements and maintenance for the building through fundraising or grants were covered.
Fiscal Note
The CRA would need to seek grants for the rehabilitation of this build...
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