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Speaking to elevations, Mary said her tallest building [Building One] would be 7 feet taller than the Clocktower and 13 feet taller than the current Antique Shop-Notermann Building, and 14 feet lower than the Victoria bank.
"We're trying to create a place where people want to gather," she said. "It's the condos that help to offset the price of the office and retail. It is the housing that drives the project."
Regarding the various properties that must be acquired for the proposal, Mary said, "We'd never ask for condemnation or eminent domain. We don't like those things. We don't want to harm any exist-ing business. Schmitty's would not want to relocate. They'd want to be bought out. It's okay if they stay too."
Responding to a question from Coun-cilmember Roden about late hours and noise or music on the streets at night, Mary said, "The Victoria House wants to operate as they do now. They like closing down at ten o'clock. We don't believe a restaurant is a good use for below residen-tial units … We don't know how the acquisitions are going to happen."
Regarding the height of the tallest building, Mary pointed out that she has strategically located it in front of the Cal Haasken apartments to be the least ob-structive.
Councilmember Richard Tieden com-mented, "When you look at those very successful places downtown Minneapolis, it's phenomenal the amount of develop-ment going on that is similar to this. It's upscale. It works."
Mayor Bohn asked about the sale price of the condominiums. Replied Mary, "The starting price for the new condos at Spring Park is $699,000. We know there's a market for it. Wensmann sold all of their units in Victoria on the lakeside, and they started combining units to make them bigger. That was their mar-ket, for bigger units. We're going after a market that's coming out of 4,000 square feet and moving into maybe 1,800 to 2,600 square feet."
She added, "From our perspective, this would be a phased plan. Building One would be the first in order to get the people down there and generate a tax base … There'd be a partnership with the city on the infrastructure. It's an ideal project for Tax Increment Financing. We'd be coming in as a property owner …
"It would take everybody working together. It does take a spirit of wanting to see it succeed and trying to find solu-tions. We wouldn't want an antagonistic spirit. It would take a strong cooperative effort. You know there would be 100 roadblocks to deal with every day."
Councilmembers indicated they ap-preciated the work and the interest. Stated Mayor Bohn, "It's exciting for us to have a project come before us."
Mary was asked to return with addi-tional information regarding parking, sightlines from various vantage points, and building elevations.
LAND SWAP A DONE DEAL
GOOD FOR VICTORIA AND CARVER PARK
On April 27th, Victoria councilmem-bers unanimously approved the land sale-swap of approximately 14 acres each, and a development agreement by and be-tween the City of Victoria and the Three Rivers Park District.
The land exchange will provide land and lakeshore to the Park District that is contiguous to their existing parkland. In return, the exchange will permit the City of Victoria to double the size of down-town Victoria and permit the city to en-gage in additional downtown redevelop-ment activities should it chose to do so.
Stated Victoria Planning Consultant Mark Kaltsas, "This has taken about three years. We started this in December of 2003. The city has two parcels with this agreement: an easement and an acreage."
About the 14 acres acquired by the City of Victoria with this agreement, Mark said, "It is agreed that the city does not have to do anything with this land. You don't have to plat it or build it out, but we do have to construct a trail as part of this and give the Park an easement for trail purposes. Development of the prop-erty is up to the city. There is no timer on it."
Mark also reviewed the economic im-pact this 14 acres could have on the City of Victoria in terms of tax base. "Based on 2005 tax rates, and estimating a build-out of land, in local city taxes this could generate $300,000 a year. Right now the city collects $2.8 million, so that's 10% of the tax base in one 14-acre parcel. Right now there is no tax base from that land. Right now we have no significant com-mercial tax base. Plus it can bring new businesses and residential units."
He said the 14-acre parcel could gen-erate $825,000 in local taxes per year, including city and county government.
Councilmember Mary Thun com-mented, "Either way, the city pays the cost of getting that easement. I think some citizens have been mislead on that point."
Mary was referring to an easement that the City of Victoria is expected to acquire from the Lake Auburn Moravian Church in order to construct a connecting trail.
Mark Kaltsas said, "The easement started out as a side issue and became a deal breaker at the last minute. The Park doesn't have any purpose for it right now. They may use it for a trail connecting a-round the lake. The easement acquisition for trail would have to be completed by 2009."
He stated that the Park will negotiate with the church for an easement. "Obviously the city is willing to pay for it," he said. "It could be taken by eminent domain because it'd be for a public pur-pose, a trail. We're talking about 14-foot easement adjacent to the highway, not their best property."
Councilmembers voted 5-0 to ap-prove the land sale-swap with Three Rivers Park District. Said Mayor Jerry Bohn regarding the possibilities for in-creasing the commercial tax base in the City of Victoria, "It certainly is exciting to see the potential in property value."
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