Ann Arbor News - Midtown plan has lofty goals
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Midtown plan has lofty goals -
Trendy shops, restaurants seen as draw to revitalize Division Street area
BY TOM GANTERT
News Staff Reporter - Source The Ann Arbor News
On a recent sunny afternoon, Frances Todoro-Hargreaves surveyed the intersection of Division and Washington streets in what could be called the midtown area of downtown Ann Arbor.
She was surrounded by surface parking lots, a vacant one-story building, an old two-story house and a nondescript, five-story bank office building - nothing that would attract a downtown consumer.
It's a place where people pass through to get somewhere else.
"Right now, why would you walk here?'' asked the project manager for the McKinley Towne Centre redevelopment.
Todoro-Hargreaves says that will change once that pocket of downtown is transformed into a thriving "destination'' place, flush with housing, trendy shops and restaurants with outdoor seating.
McKinley has plans to do just that. The idea is to build a place between the well-traveled Main and State streets on either end of downtown that will capture shoppers, visitors and residents.
McKinley, which is already one of the biggest real estate holding companies in Ann Arbor, paid $17 million for the entire project site, said Todoro-Hargreaves. She expects it will be worth $85 million once completed.
At its core is the former TCF Bank building, which fronts on East Liberty Street, at the corner of Division Street, but runs a block north to Washington. It is undergoing extensive remodeling both inside and out.
When it is complete the building will have about 100,000 square feet of office space on four floors. Perhaps more significant, though, is that there will also be 40,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space on the main floor along Liberty and Division streets.
To kick-start the transformation, McKinley also plans to add about 130 condominiums and apartments in nine-story and 10-story buildings that will be built catty-corner from each other at Division and Washington streets. Those two buildings fit in with the city's drive to bring more residential development downtown.
Both of those buildings will also have retail, including restaurants and shops, on the ground floor.
The company has already signed Bar Louie, an upscale national chain restaurant/bar that is popular with urban professionals in Chicago, as a tenant in the Towne Centre. Bar Louie will go in the corner of the building at Liberty and Division streets.
Bar Louie is expected to be open by January. The Towne Centre portion of the project, which includes remodeling of the existing building plus a one-story addition in an adjoining parking lot, is expected to be completed by Sept. 1. TCF Bank, the old owner, is moving its headquarters elsewhere but will keep a branch in the building.
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McKinley is following the playbook prescribed by many local architects as necessary to create an attractive hot spot.
- The retail will be on street level and the storefront will be at sidewalk level. That's unlike the nearby office building at 301 E. Liberty St., considered to be a design failure by local architects because of inconvenient stairs that lead up to storefronts set back away from the sidewalk.
- Pedestrians will be able to look into the retail stores. For Bar Louie, for example, the developer will have the existing cement walls blown out and replaced with windows so pedestrians will be able to see into the restaurant. That's considered pedestrian-friendly architecture.
- McKinley is trying to attract "magnet" tenants, such as Bar Louie, which doesn't yet have another restaurant in Michigan.
- Unique retail and dining experiences is what will attract,'' said City Council Member Chris Easthope, D-5th Ward. "The key is unique."
But Peter DiCola, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, said there is nothing unique about Bar Louie. He is from Chicago, as are a lot of people at U-M, he said.
"It's the kind of bar you'd find in the bottom of a hotel in Lincoln Park,'' he said. "The kind of places that are cool are like ABC (Arbor Brewing Company). It's local people committed to the town.''
- The area will be well-lit at night. The McKinley Towne Center building will be uplighted, in which lights from underneath are projected onto the building. The sidewalks will be lighted from above. The outdoor eating areas will be lighted.
- Washington Terrace, the 10-story condominium building to be erected at the northeast corner of Washington and Division streets, will be set back 10 feet, which will allow for outdoor eating, highly popular on Main Street during the summer. Pricing for the condos is expected to start at about $220,000.
- At the McKinley Towne Centre, the first floor will have a 5,000-square-foot spot that could draw a major retailer or another restaurant.
Several other local developers say they think the project will be a success.
Peter Allen, who is building the Kingsley Lane condominium project in the northwest part of downtown, said the street-level retail will attract people.
"I think that adds to the excitement,'' Allen said. "The excitement at the sidewalk are important urban principles. ... The goal is to make all those streets exciting at night and day with a good variety of retail.''
Ed Shaffran, a developer and former chairman of the Downtown Development Authority, said the McKinley project "could be a new Kerrytown.''
Even DiCola said he thinks it could turn into the hot spot its developers are hoping.
"Maybe,'' he said. "It's not a long walk from everything else. It's not far from the (Michigan) Theater. I could see people walking there after a movie instead of down to Main Street.''
The project will rely heavily upon parking structures.
For Metro 202, there will be one parking permit for each of the 44 apartments to be used at the city-owned Liberty Square parking structure. Washington Terrace will have 107 underground parking spots provided for residents.
Patrons will have also have access to the nearby parking structures at Maynard Street and Fourth and Washington streets.
Not everyone is in favor of the project.
City Planning Commissioner Ethel Potts doesn't like the architecture. She says too many of the downtown's proposed taller buildings look the same.
She also said nine- and 10-story buildings dwarf the rest of the surrounding area.
"These massive buildings ... these are going to overpower it,'' Potts said. "It's not so much height as it is mass and architecture.''
Tom Gantert can be reached at tgantert@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6701.
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