INTRODUCTION TO WEST SIDE STORY
VICTORIA MOVES ALONG WITH MATT CROWE

Topic of conversation at an October 26^th city council workshop was the devel-opment of 13 acres located on the west side of the downtown Victoria bridge just west of the existing business district.
Reported City Administrator Dave Urbia, "We received two proposals.  We have one of the proposers here tonight.  One of the proposals is purely commer-cial.  The other proposal is from CEI Ven-tures."
Stated Mayor Jerry Bohn, "We're here to see if one of them is on the right track."
Said Planning Consultant Mark Kalt-sas about the small number of proposals received from the city's solicitation, "It's an indication of the market right now.  It's not a function of this project but of their own workload."
Of the two submissions he said, "I think the proposers have given concepts and not the plan.  I think the city will have a lot of ability to maneuver."
Matt Crowe, who is the face of CEI Ventures, the firm that renovated the Notermann Building in downtown Vic-toria and who filled it with the promise of tenants before it was finished, also wants to develop the 13 acres just swapped to the City of Victoria in a land trade with the Three Rivers Park District.
"I want Victoria to be nice," said Matt.  "I'd love to do this.  It's a great opportunity for the city to do a nice city office/library.  I think I've selected the best team to do this for you.  I'm show-ing you what it could potentially look like."
He passed out a colored sketch plan of that acreage just west of the city bridge.  It included a high density (170 units) apartment building, 40 to 50 units for senior housing, other medium density apartments and condos, all with under-ground parking.  It shows two large retail-commercial buildings, each four to five times larger than the Clocktower on Main Street Victoria, with lots of surface-street parking.  It shows a large city hall-library building.
This west side of the Victoria busi-ness district would be connected to the east [current] side of the Victoria business district with walking paths.
Said Matt, "My interest on this site is to do the plotting and the selling of it in three to four lots.  My interest is not the residential."
About the residential possibilities he said, "Twenty years ago I'd have said it would be 75% condos and 25% apart-ments.  In today's market I'd say it's just the opposite.  Today it should be 75% apartments and 25% condos."
Mr. Crowe said, "I've proposed high end apartments, not your standard apart-ments -- tile floors, not vinyl."
About the property itself he said, "I think it's a beautiful site, sitting up on a hill like it does, with a view of 3,000 acres of untouched parkland."
Matt Crowe mentioned financial assistance.  Replied Mayor Jerry Bohn, "TIF (tax increment financing) doesn't apply here.  It's vacant land.  It's all green field."
Replied Mr. Crowe, "There are other forms of tax subsidies, I believe.  My developer would be requesting financial assistance, not myself."
"I think cities need to look at how to produce more revenue," he said.  "This project would produce a ton of revenue."  He pointed out that at least two of the large retail buildings he's proposing for the acreage are each 22,000 square feet.  "They're each four to five times larger than Terry Hartman's building."
"Currently there's a large boom in office and retail," said Mr. Crowe.  When a councilmember commented on his apparent confidence, he replied, "There are some people that jump out when there's a net.  I don't need a net."

Councilmembers offered little com-ment on the second development pro-posal before them.  Councilmember Terry Bishop said, "Everything they show is a variation on a strip mall."
On the other hand, Councilmember Mary Thun stated, "Matt Crowe has met our qualifications.  I think we now have staff sit down with him and get a little more concrete.  We have a track record with this developer.  We don't have a reason to not push forward at this level."
Mary made a motion that city staff sit down with CEI Ventures and start ham-mering out details and stick to a time frame, acknowledging "there is no com-mitment here except to further discussion with this specific developer."
"We don't have to do this tomorrow," said Mayor Bohn.
Replied Councilmember Thun, "He [Matt Crowe] readily admits there's lots more work to do.  If we come to a certain point and the market falls out, then we have to deal with that.  Let's not get bogged down right now.  Let's keep mov-ing."
The motion to keep moving passed with a 5-0 vote.

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