TRAVERSE CITY — Higher groundwater levels are forcing the developer of a hotel in Traverse City's Warehouse District to rethink parking options and could impact plans for a tunnel under Grandview Parkway.
The developer of the planned Hotel Indigo discovered the water table was higher than previous tests indicated, prompting them to reevaluate an underground garage. The hotel is slated for a site previously occupied by a muffler shop and two adjacent businesses.
If hotel officials opt out of underground parking, it could impact city costs for a related $1 million-plus pedestrian tunnel under the parkway, said Bryan Crough, executive director of Traverse City's Downtown Development Authority.
"The tunnel engineer is not too concerned because of the way it will be built, but if the hotel doesn't do underground parking, the savings aren't there and the tunnel likely will be impacted," Crough said.
The developer, Jeff Schmitz, of JS Capitol Construction Inc. in Rochester Hills, declined comment, but his engineering consultant Garth Greenan said a higher water table makes underground parking more of a challenge.
"In the area we're at, groundwater fluctuates generally in parallel with lake levels," Greenan said, adding that lake levels are higher than during previous tests. "I don't have any definitive measurements, but I do know where it was based on soil borings a year and a half ago, and I'm aware of the electric company down along the shoreline indicated groundwater had risen for them as well."
Traverse City Light & Power is burying overhead utility lines along Bay Street. Crews began work this spring, but stopped when heavy rains raised groundwater levels and forced Light & Power to suspend the project until after the busy festival season. Work resumed this month.
Crough said the DDA needs to draft a new agreement with JS Capitol Construction, since the initial agreement included a start date of May 2011. It could be amended further, depending on the developers' parking plans.
The DDA has a separate agreement with the developer regarding the tunnel.
"There's nothing to change with that unless they're not doing underground parking," said Crough. He hopes to hear from the developer soon.
"The last I heard was two weeks ago, they were going to sharpen their pencils and figure out (a) way to move forward with underground parking," Crough said. "They secured the funding issue and were ready to start, but it could increase costs. That's the No. 1 concern ... It's an issue we've run into before in the city. The cost of de-watering a site during construction is very great."
