A four-phase Park Place Hotel redevelopment that would bring a new conference center, parking, and workforce and market-rate housing to downtown Traverse City is being revived after sitting on the backburner since last spring. The project has many moving parts, not the least of which could be a revisiting of the recent tall buildings debate.

According to project representative Eric Helzer of Advanced Redevelopment Solutions, developers will submit a formal application for brownfield funding at the January and February meetings of the Grand Traverse County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA). BRA board members heard an update from Helzer with the latest project details at their recent meeting.

“The project is essentially the same” as the proposal presented to city and county commissioners in April, says Helzer. Plans call for the demolition of the Park Place Dome and pool building in order to build a conference center (phase 1), construction of workforce housing along Washington Street (phase 2), a mixed-used development just east of the hotel at 326 State Street (phase 3) and a new parking deck in the Park Place lot (phase 4).

But some key aspects of the project have changed. For one, Helzer said, plans to incorporate the Governmental Center into the plan – constructing parking in the new Park Place deck for government employees in exchange for building a mixed-use development in the existing Governmental Center parking lot along Eighth Street – have been scuttled.

Another challenge, Helzer told commissioners, and a key reason for the project’s hold-up, has been securing a developer for the workforce housing component of the project. “We’ve been working really hard on it all year,” Helzer said. “It’s been very difficult to get the numbers to work, and to bring in a proper fit.”

Helzer says two undisclosed firms are now finalists for that phase. Depending on the developer, 48 units – either 100 percent workforce housing or a mix of workforce and market-rate housing – would be constructed in a building with an integrated parking deck in the far corner of the Park Place lot along Washington Street.

According to Helzer, including workforce housing in the project is contingent upon phase three of the redevelopment: A 99.5-foot mixed-use building at 326 State Street. That project, spearheaded by developer Tom McIntyre, calls for the demolition of a law office adjacent to the Park Place Hotel in order to build a nine-story development featuring market-rate condos, commercial space and private parking. Helzer explained that revenues generated by the development through the brownfield plan would help fund activities in the other three phases, including workforce housing.

Though this new building would be adjacent to the ten-story Park Place – and is in a corridor zoned for buildings up to 100 feet in height – recent controversy over tall buildings could be a roadblock for the project. Attorney Grant Parsons, who plans to file a court appeal to a recent city commission decision granting a special land use permit (SLUP) to a proposed nine-story development, also plans to pursue a city charter amendment regulating tall buildings in the city.

Judge Philip Rodgers recently ruled city zoning ordinances can’t be amended by a public referendum, but Parsons says the city charter itself could be amended to require a public vote on buildings in excess of 60 feet. Citing the Park Place’s proposal, Parsons says that rather than pursue an outright ban on tall buildings, his goal now is to give residents a voice on projects as they arise.

“We understand that the Park Place may have plans, Munson may have plans, NMC may have plans,” says Parsons. “So we’re trying to be flexible…and say you’ve got to submit those to a public vote.”

Even without a legal challenge on building heights, Park Place developers are already anticipating juggling “many moving pieces” relative to project approvals, according to Helzer. Governing bodies including the BRA, city and county commissions, city and state historic preservation boards and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) are all likely to weigh in on the redevelopment. Helzer stressed to BRA members, however, that all four phases of the project are interrelated – and contigent upon the tall building component to move forward.

“From the early numbers that we’ve run, without the 326 (State Street) project, it’s financially not a feasible project,” Helzer said.