Downtown Duluth gets look at block plans

Around 50 Duluth residents gathered Nov. 19 at City Hall to see the update on plans for the "bookend" development on West Lawrenceville Street at the opposite end of the new City Hall.

They were concerned about what would become of the former church and parsonage that the city now owns (the church being the former City Hall). Representatives from the developer, Batson-Cook Development LLC, and the architectural firm, Hill Foley Rossi Architecture Engineering, were on hand to answer questions and to take suggestions under consideration.

City officials and development experts quickly put to bed the notion that the church and manse could somehow be saved with some kind of adaptive reuse and remain an economically viable project. The question then became what sort of development would be suitable.

The Batson-Cook project that was presented comprised of four buildings. Two of them were retail but containing a space for a 6,800-square-foot white tablecloth restaurant. The third building facing south toward the Town Mall, was 14,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and 28,000 square feet of office space on the two floors above.

At the western end of the block a 33,000-square-foot building would be residential, either condominiums or lofts. The entire development will about 63,000 square feet.

Parking of course is a critical issue, and residents had said they did not want a parking garage facing the square. What the developer came up with was street level parking on the plaza in the center of the development all but hidden from view from the street with additional spaces in front of the shops. The entrance would be from Ga. 120 on the north side of the development.

Under the plaza was another level of underground parking to service the residential and office use. This means retail customers park at ground level and can easily enter any of the buildings to shop or eat. In all, 257 spaces would serve the development.

Mayor Nancy Harris said there was still time for input as to what the project will "look like, be like and feel like."

Among the citizens' suggestions were:

• Make West Lawrenceville Road pedestrian only. This would increase connection to the mall area and open more space to events.

While Batson-Cook presented a site plan and some elevations, John H. Starr III, senior vice president for development, said the plans are still jelling and no final plan has been forwarded yet.

The idea of the meeting was to make sure the City Council, residents and the developer were all heading in the right direction.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Dugan said he did not see any "deal killers" in the presentation.

Some concerns were raised about the project matching up with the architecture that has come before in the downtown redevelopment. That should not be a problem since the same architectural firm that did those projects is designing this one.

The plan is to have the project go in at the same time as planned improvements to Ga. 120 are finished in about three years. Meanwhile, Batson-Cook has some work cut before that time as well. In today's economy, it will need to pre-lease 65 percent of the project to get the financing it wants in place.

"Ideally, we want to be ready to build when the Ga. DOT is improving 120," said Starr.

Dugan said he expects the City Council to approve the project sometime before the first of the year.
- www.gwinnettherald.com

Sphere: Related Content