Editorial: Pieces are in place for city’s downtown plan
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 9, 2002
In the complicated puzzle that is downtown Albert Lea, many pieces need to fall into place for suffering areas to have a chance at being rejuvenated. Buildings, sometimes owned by landlords who don’t live here and who don’t always care about what happens to Albert Lea, aren’t always available for those who want to do something positive with them. Other times, there just isn’t an interested party who would invest in improving a building or a block. And government bodies are sometimes hamstrung by a lack of funding to encourage development and change.
But all at once, it seems the stars have aligned properly for the City of Albert Lea to make a go at reviving a two-square-block portion of downtown that includes the historic but neglected Freeborn Bank, or &uot;The Vault,&uot; and the huge but largely empty Lea Center building.
The city already owns Freeborn Bank, and an opportunity to do something with Lea Center has come along. The building is on the market for a relatively cheap price. A Twin Cities redevelopment company with a proven track record is interested in investing millions to turn it into a mostly residential complex. And the city, if it lands a Department of Trade and Economic Development grant for which the state agency encouraged it to apply, can do even more good by shoring up parking, alleys and other public spaces to make development even more attractive.
What’s more, the city can use what is essentially found money to pay for Lea Center before practically giving it to the development company. Interest from the city’s police and fire pension fund would essentially pay for the building. The money can only be used for police and fire purposes, but by using the cash to pay for those costs, the city frees up money in the budget to pay for other projects.
There is little risk in the city’s plan; the redevelopment company would be bound by a contact to spend a certain number of dollars fixing up Lea Center. The $350,000 the city would spend now &045; which won’t have an impact on local taxes &045; would likely be repaid through increased taxes on the Lea Center property, which can only go up in value after a developer pours millions into it.
City Manager Paul Sparks is right when he says the city is facing a window of opportunity that doesn’t open often. The window will close by August, so the council must act at its next meeting. The Lea Center proposition and the city’s other plans for the two-block area have the potential to be the start of new prosperity for the downtown area, and it’s an opportunity Albert Lea should not pass up.