Timetable, cost for project unveiled

Condos on City Hall site expected to open in three years

Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006

by Dennis Carter

Staff Writer

College Park officials estimate the long-awaited downtown redevelopment project, which includes a new City Hall, condominiums and a parking garage, could bring in nearly $5 million in revenue.

City lawyers and Mayor Stephen Brayman discussed the costs of the city’s downtown redevelopment with about 40 residents Sept. 21, revealing that the downtown parking garage — the centerpiece of the project — would cost about $7.3 million. Brayman said the city would not have to raise taxes to pay for the development.

The city hired Alabama-based Capstone Development Corporation to head all the projects.

If all goes according to the city’s plan, College Park will sell the current City Hall site on Knox Road for $5.3 million, have the structure torn down and have condos built on the property.

The city is expected to make about $4.8 million in profit after several development-related costs, according to a development report available on College Park’s official Web site http:⁄⁄www.ci.college-park.md.us⁄.

Last winter, the city unveiled plans to move City Hall to Calvert Road, leaving the current City Hall site open for new condominiums.

The city will operate out of another building – location undetermined at the moment – until the Friends Community School is converted into a new City Hall site.

City Hall construction, which is expected to cost around $6 million, is not scheduled to begin until May 2009, According to city plans. Condo construction will start next fall and should be finished around March 2010.

Construction on the 340-space parking garage should begin next July and be finished by July 2008, according to city documents.

The garage, which would be located at the intersection of Knox Road and Yale Avenue, will include retail space on the first floor.

City attorney Bob Levan said a market study designed to determine the feasibility of the 165-unit condos in the downtown area should begin next month. The final conclusions of the study will be presented to the City Council when it is concluded in January.

The council would then decide whether to proceed with the condominium undertaking.

‘‘It will be a judgement call on the part of the mayor and the council,” Levan said.

Levan and Brayman said that erecting new condos and a parking garage would be vital to attracting residents and retail shops to the downtown area.

‘‘The City Hall site is the one remaining site that really is available to be used to upgrade the overall appearance and use of the downtown city area,” Levan said, adding that residents of the condos could raise the area’s tax base.

‘‘Many people have told me over the years ... that some of the clothing stores that would not locate here now need to see parking in the immediate area to consider [coming to College Park],” Brayman said.

Some residents at last week’s hearing said they worried that the condominiums would become another building for student housing, bringing more University of Maryland College Park students into the city’s communities.

The city’s preliminary project agreement said, ‘‘...all [condo] units shall be owner-occupied, or occupied only by owner’s family members or domestic partner.”

This provision, Brayman said, could help the city avoid absentee landlords in the new development.

‘‘We’re wrestling with developers about this, and we’re going to do everything we can,” Brayman said.

College Park’s Planning Director Terry Schum said the preliminary plans were consistent with the Route 1 Sector Plan. The sector plan, approved by city and university officials in 2002, lays out guidelines for multifunctional construction on the city’s Route 1 corridor.

Although the condos’ design determines its agreement with the sector plan, Schum said, ‘‘this project is entirely consistent with the sector plan recommendations in general.”

E-mail Dennis Carter at dcarter@gazette.net.