Traverse City Record-Eagle

Our Views

THE ISSUE:

- West-end parking deck

Our view:

- Plan, timing are right

June 27, 2010

Editorial: West Front needs kick-start

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The issue of building a parking deck on the west end of downtown long has been framed as a chicken-and-egg question: Which should come first — new development to pay for a deck, or a deck to provide needed parking to spur development?

The best answer — and the one Traverse City appears to be moving toward — is both.

The city is right now considering a deck at 305 W. Front St., directly north of the 10-story Riverview Terrace public-housing complex. According to plans, the city could issue bonds and break ground on the roughly $8 million, 405-space deck at about the same time developer Jerry Snowden starts work on his proposed "RiverWest" mixed-use complex right next door.

The two-pronged approach goes a long way toward resolving the city's biggest issue — how to pay for the deck. Property taxes from Snowden's development are expected to pay for about half the $8 million over the years. What the city is counting on is that once the deck is built, it will spark more west-side development, enough to pay the rest.

That's a gamble. But given the potential for development there and past interest in the area, the odds seem to be in the city's favor — and are certainly good enough to proceed.

There are at least two large tracts ripe for redevelopment within a few hundred feet of where the new deck is planned (plus smaller sites), one at the southeast corner of Pine and Front streets and the second at "Hole West," the big pit between Front and the Boardman River (between the Record-Eagle and J&S Hamburg), where the old Grand Traverse Auto dealership once sat.

Riverview Terrace also wants to expand into its existing parking lot, making the need for a deck there all the greater.

While the east end of Front Street has seen significant growth and revitalization in the past 10 years or so, the west end has languished, and plenty of observers say that's because there is nothing but limited surface parking there taking up the very sites where new buildings are supposed to go.

Plans for a huge office building and city-owned parking deck at 123 W. Front St. collapsed when city voters rejected issuing some $16 million in bonds for the project by a nearly 70 percent margin. Much of the opposition centered around the fact that the deck was to be the foundation for the mixed-use development. A companion project that was supposed to go in at the Grand Traverse Auto site dissolved.

The west end needs a kick-start, and this seems the time and the plan. For developers who can find financing, this is a good time to build, with many construction firms dying for work. Prices are great, the labor pool is big and talented, and the city is a willing partner.

While it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, the success of projects on East Front can give developers confidence that the local economy can support more business on the west end. The Glik's department store chain is opening a new store in the former Milliken building, a testament to someone's confidence in downtown, and the mixed-used 110 N. Park building is nearly ready for tenants.

After years of dithering and failed plans, it's time to move.

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