Grand Traverse County commissioners Wednesday will reconsider their vote on a proposed land deal that would pave the way for a new parking deck in downtown Traverse City.

The deal would allow Traverse City to purchase property at 145 West Front Street for $1.3 million from Great Lakes Central Properties (GLCP), with the eventual goal of building a public parking deck on the site. The developer is offering to sell the land to the city below market rate in exchange for officials’ help in securing funding for environmental clean-up at a second GLCP property across the street.

That parcel, 124 West Front Street, is planned to be a five-story, mixed-use development. But heavy contamination at the site – including leakage from an underground storage tank – will require an estimated $1.4 million in clean-up costs before construction can begin. The parking deck deal is contingent on both city and county officials accepting a $700,000 Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) loan through the local brownfield authority to help pay for the clean-up.

Traverse City commissioners and Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA) members approved acceptance of the DEQ loan earlier this summer. But at their July 6 meeting, county commissioners rejected the loan by a 4-3 vote. Several commissioners expressed confusion over the project’s complex financing structure, as well as skepticism over the use of brownfield funding and a desire for more details.

“The fact I voted no was only so I could have the chance to get a second look at it,” said Commissioner Dan Lathrop, adding later that he “felt caught a little flat-footed in that issue.” Commissioner Bob Johnson agreed, saying “there just wasn’t enough information” presented to commissioners to make a decision on the deal.

Commissioner Alisa Kroupa, who sits on the BRA and so was “privy to a lot more information” about the proposal, encouraged the board at their August 3 meeting to revisit the issue. “I think that this particular vote reflected upon the board in a negative manner,” she said.

Commissioners agreed to revisit the loan vote this Wednesday (August 17). Several community leaders – including Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Executive Director Rob Bacigalupi, BRA Chair Mark Eckhoff, and Traverse City Manager Marty Colburn – encouraged commissioners to support the deal. Colburn said the agreement would put a “significant piece of property back into production” at 124 West Front and help the city address its parking issues through a new deck.

Grand Traverse County Deputy Director of Planning and Development Jean Derenzy, who is coordinating the property negotiations, says she’s met with county commissioners one-on-one since the last vote to answer questions and review project specifics. One notable area of confusion, she says, has been how brownfield and tax increment financing (TIF) dollars will be captured and used in the deal. Judge Thomas Power warned commissioners at multiple meetings that the DEQ loan was “the linchpin” that would allow millions of TIF dollars to flow to developers to build “half-million dollar condominiums."

According to Derenzy, GLCP – which plans to invest $33 million into 124 West Front – is approved for $1.49 million in brownfield funding for non-environmental activities, including site preparation ($250,000), geotechnical work ($45,000) and private underground parking ($1.2 million). Those costs will be paid for through the capture of state taxes, not local, Derenzy says. “Private underground parking is a brownfield-eligible activity, and helps the DDA by reducing the need for additional public parking spaces and freeing up other surface lot parcels to be developed.”

State taxes will also help pay for the city to construct its new public parking deck, with up to $5.49 million approved for that project. Any local tax dollars captured on either property, says Derenzy, can’t be used for private development but only public improvements – such as helping fund the future parking deck, or paying off the Garland Street reconstruction and Pine Street pedestrian bridge. Without the DEQ and brownfield funding, Derenzy says, "the project as proposed will not occur."

While Kroupa says she shares concerns expressed by Power about brownfield funding in general, she also supports the deal proposed for 145 and 124 West Front Street, calling a west-side parking deck a "critical piece" in community economic development. “We’ve enabled a culture of corporate welfare in Traverse City via the brownfield, there’s no doubt about it,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean that every project doesn’t have value.”

Pictured: 145 West Front Street (far right), site of planned public parking deck, across the street from 124 West Front Street (far left)