| Developers make case to buy downtown Chelsea's Longworth property The Chelsea Downtown Development Authority moved closer to a decision on how to develop a historic downtown building last week, as they listened to an overview of two proposals planned for the Longworth property . I'm not concerned about parking," he said of potential customers for his proposed restaurant. "It's been our intent to put this property back on the tax rolls," said DDA Chairman Pete Flintoft. Both financial proposals - one by a 110 Longworth Building Development Company and the other by Michael R. The DDA purchased the property in 2008 for $400,000 and members would either like to see it redeveloped or demolished to make way for new development. He said compared to what he's dealing with in Ann Arbor, Chelsea's situation was a "dream. Roger Hewitt, a member of the 110 Longworth development team and Ann Arbor DDA member, was asked to address potential parking problems that might come into play with his portion of the project -- a new restaurant. "It's free. This is a dream situation. It includes 20 loft-style apartments with geothermal heat and air conditioning, solar electric and solar thermal systems. In January, the DDA agreed to look at two parallel tracks, one for adaptive redevelopment and another that includes the demolition of some of the structures on the site with public walkways on the northern side of the parcel connecting the Main Street sidewalks to the Chelsea Depot property. Prochaska said the interior of the building "is shot," and there is a considerable amount of environmental cleaning that needs to be assessed and dealt with before the apartments and commercial space can be constructed. According to this group's financial plan, 42 percent of the financing is coming from tax credits, which raised some concerns. Abe Kadushin said members of the 110 Longworth had years of experience working along with projects of this type and were looking forward "to putting a historical building back into use. The project will "retain history and keep the façade," he said. When asked about a timeline, he said the group needed six months to get started, and planned a late 2013 occupancy. A discussion and final decision on the fate of the buildings is expected on June 7 at 7:30 a. Either way, members said, the sooner the better. The Prochaska-Zachary proposal is quite different project as Mike Prochaska acknowledged during his presentation. Developers make case to buy downtown Chelsea's Longworth property |
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Developers make case to buy downtown Chelsea's Longworth property
