Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council discusses spec commercial shell, transformer costs and development readiness
Summary
Council members discussed building a city-owned spec commercial shell to help buyers who cannot afford renovation, and staff warned that electric transformers and utility hookups for new developments can be costly and take years to recover.
Council members discussed ways to make downtown commercial property more attractive to buyers, including the idea of a city-held “spec” building that would be delivered as a rentable shell so small business buyers could obtain financing without shouldering renovation costs.
A Committee member (S1) described a longtime owner who repeatedly declined to sell because prospective buyers could not afford repair costs, and said a ready-to-occupy shell could let buyers borrow against a completed structure and start immediately. “If we could find a way to do that,” the member said, “we could kick start some of this because there’s property everywhere and buildings people cannot afford to fix up.”
Staff and council members cautioned the approach requires substantial upfront expense. A Committee member (S2) referenced a past 70,000-square-foot spec build their group leased and said leasing rates and market realities make the model plausible but costly. The Moderator (S3) and staff noted the city already uses incentives in some cases and that large projects often amortize infrastructure costs more easily than small developers.
On utilities, staff explained the usual division of responsibilities for new subdivisions: developers typically install main water and sewer lines while the city often provides certain electric infrastructure, notably transformers. The Moderator (S3) said transformers can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars (about $25,000 cited as an example) and that cost recovery from developers can take three to five years, depending on project size. “That may be one of the areas where you just ease that up to make it an easy environment for people to come invest,” the Moderator said.
Speakers said the city has some inventory of transformers and that larger employers or multi-million-dollar projects absorb those costs more readily than smaller builders. The discussion closed with a call to monitor cost-recovery policies and consider targeted incentives where appropriate.
The council moved from this discussion into a priority-setting exercise set to follow the break.
