Downtown board backs TIF amendment, conditionally approves up to $98 million subsidy for 901 Main redevelopment

The Downtown Connection Tax Increment Financing (TIF) board recommended on Sept. 30 that the TIF district boundary be amended to include 901 Main Street (the Bank of America Plaza) and approved staff’s recommendation for a TIF development agreement offering up to $98,000,000 in incentive assistance for the building’s redevelopment.

The board’s action followed a multi-hour staff briefing and a presentation from the lead developer. The motion accepting the staff recommendation included an amendment requiring the new parking garage to be designed to accommodate the structural loads equivalent to 200 residential units (or 200 hotel keys) and authorized an increase of up to $5,000,000 to the proposed award to offset that design cost. The board voted to approve the amended recommendation; the motion carried unanimously.

Staff said the proposed redevelopment would reduce office inventory in the tower from roughly 1,800,000 square feet to about 1,500,000 and add a roughly 330,000-square-foot hotel with about 275 rooms. The plan calls for a new multi-level parking garage (about 1,100–1,150 spaces), an elevated pedestrian connection, replacement of a sunken plaza with a glass-and-steel structure for the hotel lobby and ballroom, and new ground-floor retail and streetscape work. Total estimated project cost given in the staff packet was about $409,000,000 with a minimum required…