Downtown buildings’ future uncertain

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 14, 2003

The denial of a grant here and the deterioration of a building there could force the city of Albert Lea to scramble for a new downtown redevelopment plan.

An effort to get two of downtown’s most significant buildings &045; Lea Center and the Vault, also known as Freeborn Bank &045; could be in jeopardy if grants don’t come through and if the Vault continues to deteriorate and reaches the point of no return.

The onset of state budget problems is causing the city more headaches than just worrying about local government aid. It is also heightening worries about what will happen if grant applications are stymied.

Email newsletter signup

At issue is a Department of Trade and Economic Development (DTED) grant for which the city applied last year. The money would help the city make public improvements in the area near the Lea Center building, like street and sidewalk work, that were expected to pave the way for redevelopment of deteriorating downtown buildings.

&uot;Our application is being reviewed right now,&uot; City Manager Paul Sparks said. He expects that the city will know the outcome by March 21.

The state gets around 100 of these applications a year, according to a letter sent from City Planner Bob Graham to Sparks in December, around a third of them are usually granted. This may change with a tighter budget year.

Metro Plains, the redevelopment firm who has made a purchase agreement with the city for the redevelopment of the Lea Center building, says much of the project is contingent upon the city receiving the grant.

&uot;It is fairly important,&uot; said Larissa Tadavarthy, assistant vice president and development coordinator for Metro Plains. &uot;If the city gets the DTED grant we’re going to be in better shape to get housing tax credits.&uot;

The company agreed to buy the building for a nominal fee last year after the city paid $350,000 to buy it. They plan to make 37 apartments in the facility, but the company considers housing tax credits crucial to redeveloping the building.

The agreement with Metro Plains is open ended; neither the city nor the company is strictly bound by any contract.

&uot;We’re not locked into Metro Plains,&uot; Sparks said. &uot;If they fail to get the financing they need we’ll look into other alternatives.&uot;

Other alternatives are scarce in the redevelopment business. But Sparks said grants are still possibilities, if not state, then federal.

But the city does not have any specific plan for if the deal were to fall through.

&uot;We are going to have to explore other alternatives,&uot; Sparks said.

Time isn’t on the side of the city with the Vault building. A study done last October by the Zenk, Read, Trygstad and Associates engineering firm showed that the building is in need of work.

The study recommended that the masonry on the building needs to be re-pointed, the roof is leaking, the wall interiors are getting saturated with moisture, the basement extends under the sidewalks around the building and should be filled in those areas, and many windows need to be replaced.

Tony Trow, president of Destination Albert Lea (DAL), says action needs to be taken to solve these problems immediately.

Sparks has said there are no immediate plans to fix up the building.

&uot;As a city we own the building and are responsible for the building,&uot; Trow said. &uot;As a group, DAL is frustrated with Paul’s statement to do nothing. If we can’t get the city to do something, we might be forced to do a fireworks fund raisers to properly mothball it.&uot;

Mothballing would mean securing the roof parapets, patching the roof, and sealing up windows.

Trow says DAL plans to start raising funds for the project if the city remains inactive on the building over the next few months.

&uot;Every little deterioration could put that building out of reach for investors,&uot; Trow said. He argued that by not investing a small amount of money to maintain the building, the city is actually putting themselves in worse predicament for private investment.

&uot;We’re being penny wise and pound foolish,&uot; he said.

Sparks said the city can use funding for downtown redevelopment to address these problems. But he also said that the city is in a catch-22 situation.

&uot;We want to minimize the amount of public capital and maximize the amount of private capital,&uot; he said. &uot;But private capital isn’t easy to find. In downtown redevelopment it is hard to find any investors.&uot;

Trow said the city needs to think of the building as not only an investment, but part of the city.

&uot;If your roof at home were leaking, would you just let it leak?&uot; he said. &uot;No, you’d fix it as soon as you could before it does more damage.&uot;

He said if the deterioration isn’t addressed soon enough, it may become too late.