City, DDA to Meet on Potential Property Purchase

Traverse City commissioners and Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board members will meet for a closed session Monday at 5:30pm to discuss a potential property purchase, according to Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes.

The city has not yet posted public notice of the meeting, nor released any meeting agenda items or documents, but Estes says he was "led to believe" it related to the potential purchase of property on West Front Street for a future parking deck. "I believe it came out of discussions between the city manager (Marty Colburn) and (Grand Traverse County Deputy Director of Planning and Development) Jean Derenzy," Estes says. "I don't know what else we would purchase land for other than a deck."

Commissioners had originally considered purchasing property at the corner of Pine and Front streets - at the site of the proposed nine-story Pine Street development - but balked at the owners' nearly $2 million asking price. Estes speculates a parcel adjacent to that site on the south side of 145 West Front Street, owned by Federated Properties, could be on the table Monday.

"I don't know of any imminent plans to build a deck," Estes says. "My impression is we would be buying some property for a parking deck down the road."

City commissioners met in closed session in June to discuss an unrelated property purchase on Eighth Street. That deal fell through, and Estes and other commissioners questioned the need to meet out of the public eye to discuss it. Estes tells The Ticker that while he understands negotiations can require discretion, he hopes at least some of the property discussions will take place in public.

"I have made that point endlessly," he says. "I can't disclose (closed-session information) by myself...but I absolutely want to have those discussions in public."