About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2011)
KEVAN WILLIAMS WHAT'S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT Five Points Bottle Sho BEER j WINE ~ LIQ1 The mayor and commissioners have expressed a bit of wari ness regarding the risk involved in the financing of something like the proposed river district. Twenty-five million dollars is a lot of money to wager, and while the benefits of the project seem generally to be good for the community, there's some skepticism about whether or not this amount of money is a good investment, or a sure one. The best place to begin to address this might be to look at how this project stacks up to other efforts with which we are all too familiar. For comparison, the government will spend about $12 mil lion on the new parking deck, half from SPLOST and half from meter revenues, and $23.7 million on the Classic Center expan sion, borrowed from future SPLOST revenues. The Classic Center expansion is forecast to create 200 jobs. Meanwhile, the river district is forecast to create around 2,500 jobs for this com munity, according to a feasibility study, with a $3 billion eco nomic impact. Those 2,500 jobs, on a $25 million investment, would be created at $10,000 apiece. We're buying those Classic Center jobs at around $120,000 each. Assuming both sets of jobs predictions are fairly accurate, and using job creation as a measuring stick, the river district is a much better use of taxpayer dollars. Even if the actual yield of river district jobs forecast was only a third of what was predicted, it would still be more than double what the Classic Center expansion was supposed to bring in terms of economic development. Speaking of the Classic Center, developers of a proposed hotel adjacent to the convention hall claim that they'll be building soon after the expansion is underway. Assuming that that hotel building (located within the river district boundar ies) is worth $15 million (comparable to the other two hotels built downtown recently), it would reduce the river district’s risk to taxpayers by around $5 million or so, by my conserva tive math. Each project built within a river district tax alloca tion district would produce an increase in property taxes that would help pay down the bond of $25 million borrowed to build the initial infrastructure. While the big report produced by the Bleakly Advisory Group focuses on some more complex versions of this sort of math, what's interesting here is how the tax revenues produced by an essentially unaffiliated devel opment could be captured and used as part of this economic development effort. What other projects might be on the horizon that would reduce the project's riskiness? A recent proposal for a five-story apartment building on East Broad Street across from the Jittery Joe's Roaster, if similar in cost and scale to 909 Broad (a $17 million building) could knock another S2-3 million off that calculation of riskiness. If all else fails with the River District, $25 million worth of debt becomes only $20 million if two projects of that scale are built. Those two projects are located within the river district boundary as initially proposed, but suppose we broaden the definition and think of a downtown economic development zone as a wider area, ringing our established commercial core. Capturing the tax increase within a larger boundary would be a less risky strategy to channel money into more tightly constrained economic development projects within that area. Projects proposed on West Broad or near Hotel Indigo on the north end of downtown could contribute to a "phase one" near the river now, with the next phase focusing on a different catalyst project in a different part of the downtown district. Although the vetting of the project has been a little slow out of the gate, it's worth asking whether there might be other, smaller projects that fit the theme but wouldn't require the borrowing of money that the river district does. The appeal of that site was the cluster of public property around key pri vate parcels. Another such cluster is located along Dougherty Street, which includes three Athens Downtown Development Authority parking lots, low-rise offices and a fire station, among other things. A concerted effort along that corridor could apply the same incentives model designed to attract offices to the river district, but without the need to build new roads or buy much land. With existing money, this part of town could easily be jumpstarted in a way that out of town firms are looking for. The area already has a world-class hotel, an art museum and a park a block from one another. That part of town could be marketed today; with the ADDA deck coming online, there's no reason to retain surface parking. How about commissioners send a memo over to the Economic Development Foundation to put the lots on their website and start look ing for interested parties? In the meantime, they'll do just fine as parking lots. Improving the streetscape along Dougherty, and perhaps creating a public square as a focal point for the area, could be another easy step toward pumping some life into what now feels like a dead end of town. One SPLOST project approved in 2005 that has perpetually fascinated me is the $7.7 million for "Business Corridor Infrastructure Improvements." As of yet, that money hasn't been used for anything but staff analysis. How's that coming? Here is the project's current status, according to the SPLOST website: "The proj ect concept was approved by the mayor and commission on Apr. 7, 2009. The approved concept included a four-step methodol ogy to be utilized for identification and development of recommended priorities of locations for infrastructure improvements prior to initiating preliminary design. The implementation of the methodology is in progress. On Apr. 6, 2010, the mayor and commission approved the central business district corridors *or further evaluation completing step one and step two of the concept methodology. The mayor and commission authorized staff to proceed with step three and step four of the concept method ology to determine priority recommendations for infrastructure improvements. These steps are in-progress." This is not the way to deliver a simple and compelling project that can contribute to economic development, as you might expect from a project called "Business Corridor Improvement." Basically, the objective seems to be to look for the worst spots and patch them up. What we could really use, if economic development is what we're after, is a big, transformative project that serves as a catalyst for a given area of town. Spreading that money around into isolated projects won't produce anything with much punch. If we were to take on something like Dougherty Street, perhaps turning that into a tree-lined boulevard with on-street parking, it could not only address immediate traffic concerns, but serve as an eye catching reminder to out-of-town folks looking to invest here that we're a town that invests in itself. If the appetite for bigger risks isn't there yet (though it ought to be, considering we've already hit statistical rock- bottom in terms of poverty), we should be looking at how we can create some smaller wins that build momentum for bigger projects. Using existing money to tackle some low-hanging fruit—and then capturing that success to reduce the risk of something bigger and bolder—could be the way for an idea like the river district to become a reality. Kevan Williams athensnsmg@flagpole.com Dougherty Street currently a risky proposition for pedestrians and cyclists, should be upgraded into an attractive boulevard as part of an effort to attract businesses to repurpose city-owned parking lots in the area BEST SELECTION • EVERY DAY LOW PRICES FRIENDLY, KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF Stock up foi the “Home” game before you leave home! (@® IDsissgjsS s POINTS Get the freshest draft beer TOGO GROWLERS beer b brew supply 1655 S. Lumpkin St. 368/ Atlanta Hwy www.5pointsgrowlers.cofn 706-543-6967 706-316-2369 ^ *>rr. NO FAKE I.D.S • NO CRYBABIES fit www.FIVEP0INTSB0TTLESH0P.com Join Our Mailing List for Information on Events & Specials! CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK & TWiTTER! 1655 S. LUMPKIN ST. 706-543-6989 3685 ATL. 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