Midtown staff outlines property acquisitions, mixed‑use plans and neighborhood projects; no board votes due to lack of quorum

Michelle Tolliver, redevelopment project manager for Midtown, updated the Midtown Redevelopment Board on Sept. 9 about several active projects and pending property purchases that staff said are intended to support mixed‑use and multifamily development in the neighborhood.

"The Midtown Sundays, which is the second Sunday of each month, will continue," Tolliver said, adding the program will run through October, November and December. She told the board that HomeSpring Hope is completing six homes near George Ingram by Childs Academy and that the organization plans a home‑warming event "on the sixteenth, next Tuesday, from 4 to 05:30." Tolliver said those six houses will produce "6 new homes for 6 new homeowners." (Transcript: Michelle Tolliver.)

Tolliver described multiple city efforts to clean up problem properties and to assemble parcels for redevelopment. She said the city has agreed to pursue purchase of a deteriorated property on Garden Street (a parcel the board discussed as having high grass and unauthorized entry) and that staff would buy the land rather than rehabilitate all existing structures on it. "So as we told the broker, that property is something that we would buy just to just to clean it up. We're just buying the land, not necessarily gonna rehab the the structures," Tolliver said.

She said neighborhood services is preparing a request for proposals (RFP) for small developers to build duplexes, triplexes and quadruplexes (two to four units) and suggested an assembled parcel could be suitable for a quadruplex. Tolliver also said staff had found funds to install a fence around Johannes Park, similar in appearance to the fence at Daisy Stockton Park, and that the Dickerson Center recently received more than $100,000 in new gym equipment.

On larger acquisitions, Tolliver and other staff told the board they have a signed contract to seek commission approval for the purchase of six properties totaling about $1,300,000 to support town‑center development that fronts ISB and Helmi Place. "Michelle is taking at the meeting on Wednesday coming up, city commission meeting, we have a purchase of, like, 6 different properties, in the neighborhood of, $1,300,000 that we're purchasing, to continue with the town center development. So that that part that fronts ISB and Helming, that is a reality. We got a signed contract. We're taking to commission, and, hopefully, they're gonna approve it," a staff speaker said.

Staff also said a closing on the property associated with Irvin White (on Bethune Boulevard) was expected "no later than the fifteenth," after which the city plans demolition of the damaged convenience store and other structures on the parcel. Tolliver said staff have prepared demolition cost estimates and will proceed after closing.

Tolliver said the city has conceptual renderings for a proposed mixed‑use project that show ground‑floor commercial space with apartments above and townhomes on an adjacent street; staff plan to share those renderings with the board at a future meeting once purchases close and an RFP process is launched.

Board members asked about visibility and communications with residents; staff suggested simple pamphlets or talking points for board members and said they would continue to provide public, meeting‑based information. Tolliver and other staff emphasized that purchases and redevelopment steps require city commission approval and that the board had no final voting authority on the acquisitions because the meeting lacked a quorum.

No formal motions or votes were taken on redevelopment items at the Sept. 9 meeting.