Skyway News: Park Board Floats State Deal To Save Riverfront Townhome Project
by Scott Russell »Plans to convert the old Fuji-Ya restaurant site on the Downtown riverfront into 15 to 18 townhomes hinge on an amendment pending at the Legislature.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board owns the land and is negotiating to sell it to Jeff Arundel of Columbia Mills Development for $2.5 million. It will require a profit-sharing plan with the state.
The Park Board acquired the Fuji-Ya property in the late 1980s, part of the West River Road expansion, a Park Board memo said. The Board needed the Fuji-Ya parking lot, not the restaurant, but was forced to condemn the building and buy out the business because the owners said they could not survive without the parking. The business buyout added $3 million in unanticipated public costs.
The Park Board used state tax-exempt bonds to buy the Fuji-Ya property, located between West River Road and 1st Street South, in front of River West Apartments. Brian Rice, Park Board attorney and lobbyist, said current law would give the sale proceeds to the state.
That would effectively kill the condo project. Don Siggelkow, the Park Board's general manager for administration and finance, said if the Park Board doesn't benefit from the sale, its Columbia Mills contract allows it to cancel the deal.
Rice is pushing an amendment at the House of Representatives that divides the money three ways, he said. First, Columbia Mills would use at least $750,000 to build an 85-stall parking ramp along the river; the Park Board would get a 99-year, $1 lease. The Park Board needs more river parking, especially if it reopens the historic headrace above St. Anthony Falls, eliminating an existing parking lot., he said.
The state and Park Board would split the remaining $1.75 million Rice said. The state would use its $875,000 for its bonding bill; the Park Board would use most or all of its remaining money to buy more riverfront land.
If the townhouses are built, they will have a prime view of St. Anthony Falls, and a prime pricetag. According to a Park Board memo, Arundel plans to build units averaging 3,200 square feet, with a median sale price of $1.5 million.
Legislators might be less disposed to a new deal after reading a Feb. 19 Star Tribune column, which suggested the Park Board is getting its comeuppance for its greed. Columnist Doug Grow said the Park Board made Fuji-Ya owner Reiko Weston "miserable because it lusted for her land." He wrote that Weston's daughter believes the stress it created eventually led to her mother's fatal 1988 heart attack.
Patty Hillmeyer, Park Board Commissioner at the time, disputed Grow's interpretation. The competition for Asian restaurants had built up, she said, and the $3 million-plus Weston received for the business was a decent price. "We didn't give Rieko the heart attack," Hillmeyer said. "We tried to work with Reiko, but she wanted out."
Rice also took exception with the Grow column, but said it was anyone's guess how it would affect the Park Board's lobbying efforts at the Legislature.
Even if the amendment passes, Columbia Mills condos face historic preservation challenges. The Fuji-Ya building is not part of the nearby Mill Ruins Park, but it does sit on top of the old Columbia Mill that occupied the site from 1882 to 1941.
The city's Heritage Preservation Commission and the State Historic Preservation Office would review the project. It would need to get various city approvals, just as any other development.
In the event the historic preservation issues prevent development, the $2.5 million purchase agreement has an escape clause that allows Arundel out of the deal.«
Comments
Seems to me that the group of investors purchasing the Fuji-ya site has changed their name for the 3rd time. Just who is buying this property???
Posted by Liz Wielinski | Tue, 03/08/2005 - 5:08pm | Login to post comments