***Updated to clarify that the $300,000 – $350,000 figure provided was for demolition of the building and construction of the parking lot ***
The Collinsville City Council, by a 4-1 vote Monday, approved the $250,000 purchase of the building and lot at 130 S. Center St., home to the post office for 50 years.
Artist rendering of the future parking lot at 130 S. Center St., Collinsville / image by Oates Associates
The building will be demolished and the land turned into a surface parking lot, City Manager Scott Williams said.
“There has been a desire all along to create additional municipal parking to relive pressure on uptown parking,” Williams said.
The City wants to have an aggressive timeline on the project, which will create an estimated 50 new parking spaces in uptown Collinsville. The United States Postal Service’s lease on the building, which expires in September, could complicate matters.
Williams anticipates that someone from the City will be in touch with the USPS Tuesday to determine if they have a further need for the building or possible storage space for items currently in the building. Details will vary based on the USPS needs, but the City plans to forgive the lease it inherits with the purchase in order to get a the parking lot ready as soon as possible, which will probably be at least a few months, Williams said.
It is too early to determine the cost, Williams said, but he estimated it may cost $300,000 – $350,000 for demolition of the building and construction of the parking lot. This is in addition to the purchase price of the building.
The Collinsville Area Ministerial Association’s Helping Hands Ministry had been another possible suitor for the building. The food pantry has been looking for a new home for at least two years.
Williams said the City did not want to compete with CAMA, but that the organization was not able to purchase it. Both David Amsden, from CAMA, and Williams said a third party was also interested in buying the property, which increased the cost.
A desire for more parking
The City received a petition last autumn, signed by nearly every uptown business, requesting additional uptown parking, Williams said. Wendi Valenti, executive director for the Chamber of Commerce, as well as local realtors Susan Landing and Linda Rayho addressed the City Council Monday in favor of the proposal.
Rayho spoke of the need for additional parking in uptown to attract new businesses to existing buildings. New businesses, she said, will increase the city’s tax base.
Creating a parking lot in the space currently occupied by the old post office is one more opportunity to complete the Main Street program that has been growing through the years, said Landing, who serves on the City’s Planning Commission.
“This is money spent in finishing a wonderful program that is working and is bringing more people downtown all the time,” Landing said. “And, because they are coming downtown, parking is a little bit more scarce than it should be.”
Opposition to the plan
The lone dissenting vote on the City Council was Karen Woolard, who questioned the decision to pay $50,000 more than the appraised value in 2012, expressed a desire for the City’s real estate purchase plan to be reviewed and questioned if the City made the correct decision when it voted to sell the APEX building in October, 2013.
During the meeting Monday, it was incorrectly stated that the assessed value of the property was $200,000. The City received an appraisal in 2012 that the property was worth $200,000, Williams said. The assessed value for the last several years has been $140,560. By State of Illinois law, a property’s assessed value is to be 331/3 percent of its fair market value. The fair market value, therefore, would be $421,722.17, much different from the value assigned by the appraiser in 2012.
City Attorney Steve Giacoletto said that, because the city wanted the property for improvements, it had the right to eminent domain. If the City had not bought the building for $50,000 over the 2012 appraised value, it would most likely have paid that amount in both price and legal fees as the eminent domain process played out.
“We would have paid the same amount and it would have taken two more years to get where we are now,” Giacoletto said.
Woolard said she thinks it is important for the City to reevaluate, on a regular basis, the plan that is being used to guide real estate purchases.
“I have similar concerns as Mr. Ashman, that the real estate investments that the city has made have maybe been part of a plan and part of a plan that hasn’t been looked at and hasn’t been reviewed and hasn’t been transformed in the midst of a changing economy,” Woolard said.
At a special meeting of the City Council on Jan. 27, 2014, the City of Collinsville’s 2014-2015 Strategic Plan was reviewed. The document makes no specific mention of real estate purchases. Multiple references are made in the document to the City’s desire to increase parking capacity in the uptown area, consistent with the City’s Uptown Master Plan. Williams called the session, he said during the Jan. 27 meeting, to ensure the plan was current and met the current Council members expectations.
The APEX decision revisited
Collinsville resident Joe Ashman spoke to the council Monday and questioned previous real estate purchases, including the APEX Building at 100-102 Main St. The building was donated to the city, which invested $468,000 in improvements to the building.
The City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 28, 2013 to sell the APEX building for $468,000 and later reimburse the buyer, Main Street Developers LLC., the same amount. Main St. Developers must incur redevelopment expenses of at least $700,000 as part of the agreement. The project – five upscale lofts on the second floor and a high-end sports bar and restaurant on the main floor – is estimated to be worth $1.2 million at completion.
“The APEX building, we gave that away. Is that accurate? we basically gave that away?” Woolard asked Williams Monday.
“Basically, yes,” Williams replied.
Woolard voted in favor of the APEX deal on Oct. 28, 2013.
Mayor John Miller said the APEX deal is actually saving the City money because the people who purchased the building would have come to the city to request Tax Increment Finance funds to help with improvements. Based on TIF rules, the owners would have been eligible for reimbursement of more than $468,000.
A shopping, business and resident friendly city
Councilwoman Nancy Moss said she only recently made up her mind to vote in favor of buying the building and converting the space into a parking lot. She had questioned, she said, the need for additional parking in Collinsville’s uptown district.
People walk long distance in Edwardsville, Moss said, but usually it is to handle required business in an administrative building. She has gone to Edwardsville for lunch, she noted, and left when she was unable to find parking near a restaurant when the weather was bad.
“We need to make this city as shopping friendly, as business friendly as resident friendly as we can and I think this is a step that we need to take,” Moss said.
