CLOCKTOWER BUILDING FOR VICTORIA
PROPOSED ALONG WITH NEW DOWNTOWN STREET

On April 24th Hartman Communities submitted a concept plan for a retail/office structure in downtown Victoria to be called the "Clocktower Building."  As reported before, the building is proposed to be located on the north side of the C.H. Carpenter Building.
In giving some details and history on the proposed project, City Planner Mark Kaltsas said the downtown parcel consists of two properties acquired by the City of Victoria some time ago.  "Essentially, we'll be selling this property to the devel-oper, to be developed parallel with the downtown street projects," said Mark. 
The city will be constructing a new street which will allow access to the north side of the building, as well as to the west side from Victoria Drive.  Of the two parallel projects, public and private, he added, "Without the one, we probably wouldn't get the other." 
He said the city will sell just enough of the parcel for the zero-lot line to fit the proposed footprint of the building, and that the city will keep the rest for parking needs.  Proposed footprint is approximate-ly 5,500 square feet.
It is proposed to consist of masonry block with metal accent pieces and a stucco band.  It will be primarily retail on the first floor with "somewhere between three and five" tenants.  There will be elevator access to offices on the second floor.
Stated Victoria developer Terry Hart-man, "We're really excited to finally move this forward.  Brave action of the city has made it possible.  It allows us to get into gear so we can start getting com-mitment from tenants.  We'll start shortly after the street project and finish around the same time as the street project, this fall."
Stated Mayor Jerry Bohn, "We're certainly looking forward to seeing a new building downtown.  We thank you for the opportunity for retail."
Following further city review, a pub-lic hearing will be held to consider the conditional use permit for Hartman Com-munities.  The permit will allow the city to apply specific standards and conditions for this development that may not apply to other developments within the downtown, requirements such as the zero lot line.
Hartman Communities is expected to bring an application for the project to the city council in two weeks.

BID AWARDED FOR STREETS AND UTILITIES
FOR CONSTRUCTION IN DOWNTOWN VICTORIA
As downtown redevelopment is about to get even more serious, the City of Vic-toria must get even more serious about how it would finance downtown street and utility improvements.  As of this writing, no ground is moving this spring in down-town Victoria, but bids were taken and awarded to get that ground moving!
Needed improvements would include sanitary sewer, watermain, stormsewer, parking lots, roads, lighting, boulevard trees, brick pavers, building demolition and site preparation, property acquisition, street construction, and other project costs.
It was learned on April 10th that the above costs could easily total over $2.9 million.  The good news is that over $2.7 million may be funded by the issuance of tax increment financing bonds. 
According to Jylan Johnson, the city's finance director, "The primary source of repayment will come from the tax increment captured in the city's newly created TIF District #3 ... The pending projects could provide 75% of the revenues for repayment of the bonds."
Noted "pending projects" include the Wensmann condominiums slated for Stieger Lake in downtown Victoria and the Hartman Office/Retail Center pro-posed to be located on Main Street Vic-toria next to C.H. Carpenter.
Mayor Jerry Bohn pointed out that if these two projects "go away," it's not like the financing of downtown improvement projects isn't a necessary discussion.  And he said that if a third or fourth building is proposed for downtown Victoria, that will mean even more revenue.  Stated Paul Donna, financial consultant, "The market continues to amaze people with low rates.  The outlook is pretty stable."
Mr. Donna said a new law will take effect June 1st, whereby a project must be started or under contract by that time in order for proposed tax levies to qualify under special levies and therefore be out-side the levy limit for the repayment of bonds.
Also on April 10th, councilmembers awarded the contract for downtown street and utility improvements to lowest bidder Doboszenski & Sons in the amount of $1,647,131.57 -- which is about $300,000 below the engineer's estimate.  Four contractors had submitted bids.  Itemized description list of all the scheduled work consumes several pages related to the contract job in downtown Victoria.
Construction on the downtown streets and utility improvements is expected to begin in mid May.

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