Q&A
Provision of community facility space in the development
0:45:09
·
3 min
Council Member Susan Zhuang inquires about the possibility of providing community facility space in the development. Ken Fisher outlines two potential options to meet the community's needs for accessible event space.
- The developers commit to creating an event space available for community use on certain days each month, likely on the first floor of the office building.
- A floor in the office building could be reserved for community facility use, available on commercially reasonable terms.
- The community facility space could be condominiumized and sold to a not-for-profit organization if needed.
- The developers are open to discussing the size and terms of the community facility space based on user needs.
Susan Zhuang
0:45:09
Thank you.
0:45:10
There's a demand in the area for accessible space for community events.
0:45:17
Are you able to commit to provide community facility space?
0:45:21
If so, how much?
0:45:22
So
Ken Fisher
0:45:25
based on conversations that we've had out side of this hearing room, we've been giving a lot of thought to it.
0:45:32
And there are there are two things I think that we can offer to meet the the community's needs.
0:45:41
One would be to create an event space that would be made available for a certain number of days each month.
0:45:49
There would be no charge for the space itself.
0:45:52
There would have to be arrangements for security and cleaning.
0:45:56
And that space would otherwise be available for tenants of the building or other permitted uses.
0:46:05
We think that that space would work well on the 1st floor of office building.
0:46:11
I can't give you the exact dimensions of it yet because we have to work with the architect a little bit to figure out what that is.
0:46:18
The floor played each each floor, I think, is only 5000 square feet.
0:46:23
But we think and we would have to accommodate elevators and staircases and things.
0:46:27
But we we the developers are are committed to creating a community event space or an event space that can be used by the community And I would point to the discussions that we had with respect to the Parkchester rezoning that Melania staff is familiar with.
0:46:48
In addition to add and also using one of the development sites in Parkchester as a model, the developers are prepared to, in effect, reserve a floor for a community facility used.
0:47:04
The community event space is different from community facility, which is a zoning designation.
0:47:11
If there's a community facility user, that would be interested in space in the office building.
0:47:21
They're prepared to make a floor available where effectively they're providing the core and shell.
0:47:27
The fit out would be up to the to the user.
0:47:31
As with the Parkchester project, it would be made available on commercially reasonable terms.
0:47:39
They're not necessarily looking to make a huge profit off but they're not also prepared to to lose money on it.
0:47:45
And the user would have to be identified and be prepared to close and I'll explain that in a second.
0:47:52
By the time we're ready to start construction because we in order for our us to be able to get our construction loan, we're going to have to know what we're building and and for who.
0:48:02
The reason I mentioned the closing is because if it is a not for profit organization, but is a tenant, the building would be subject to full property taxes.
0:48:13
So what we would be prepared to do would be to condominiumize that floor so that that floor could be sold to a not for profit organization.
0:48:24
Council Finance staff here is very familiar with the use of capital funds if the council is interested in supporting a project like that, but it could be any user.
0:48:34
It could be a school, day care, medical offices, anything that's permitted under zoning resolution.
0:48:40
We're prepared to hold the floor.
0:48:42
And if they want more than a floor, we can discuss that also, but it on commercially reasonable terms.
Susan Zhuang
0:48:48
Thank you.
