Panel throws out proposals for park, town square atop underground parking deck

The Downtown Development Authority's governing board on Wednesday is being asked to vote on a resolution to provide the city with a $50,000 grant to hire a real estate consultant to help assess development proposals for the Library Lot, a 1.2-acre site where the DDA currently is building a four-level underground parking structure.

The idea of bringing on a consultant received strong support in DDA committee discussions, said Susan Pollay, the authority's executive director.

"I think what I heard from the committee was if we could hire some expertise it might be helpful to all of us as a community," Pollay said. "The city would really benefit from having somebody who could look at a project and help them understand the feasibility."

The city recently issued a request for proposals - or RFP - and received responses from six development teams with plans ranging from open space to high-rise hotels. One project will be selected by the City Council to go atop the DDA's parking garage.

Council Member Stephen Rapundalo, D-2nd Ward, is chairman of the RFP advisory committee that has been evaluating the six proposals - now whittled down to four after a first round of eliminations.

Taken out of the running by the committee was an idea for a community commons - or urban park - by a grassroots group of citizens called the Ann Arbor Committee for the Commons.

Also eliminated was a popular proposal by Dahlmann Apartments Ltd. for a town square project with an outdoor ice skating rink and pavilion - a concept that received 46 percent of the vote from 1,483 AnnArbor.com readers who participated in a non-scientific online poll to see which of the six proposals they liked most.

Rapundalo said the two "public option" proposals didn't demonstrate a financial benefit to the city - one of the RFP requirements. In fact, he said, both might even have ended up costing the city money.

"The Ann Arbor Committee for the Commons, they provided no financials whatsoever - no cost estimates or even a basic description where the monies would come from," he said. "In the case of the Dahlmann proposal, the only mention there was of a possible $2.5 million donation - again no cost estimates, and certainly no discussions about future operations and maintenance."

The four proposals left now include a 150-room hotel and conference center plan by Valiant Partners LLC, an 84-room hotel with condos and retail space proposed by Jarratt Architecture, a 190-room hotel and retail center plan by Acquest Realty Advisors Inc., and a 148-unit senior apartment complex by Beztak Land Co.

At least one City Council member stills want more information about the two proposals that were eliminated.

First Ward Democrat Sabra Briere plans to bring forward a resolution at Monday's council meeting asking that backers of the proposals rejected by the RFP advisory committee submit all relevant financial information about their projects to the City Council as soon as possible. Briere says the RFP advisory committee ultimately is charged with making a recommendation to the entire City Council and council members should be given equivalent information about all six proposals.

Briere thinks Ann Arbor may be missing out on a good thing if it doesn't give full consideration to the idea of an urban park to enhance the mix of variety and entertainment options downtown.

"I certainly see upsides to the open space proposals that are so positive for Ann Arbor," she said. "And I see negatives to some of the proposals for structures that are enormous because they require a financial commitment on the part of Ann Arbor that I don't think we can afford ... and I see ways to get around the financial commitment for park maintenance."

Rapundalo said the advisory committee will continue to work to narrow down the proposals to an even shorter list by the end of January before the consultant is asked to evaluate whichever ones remain at that point. He said tying to have the consultant review all six proposals - or even four - would be cost prohibitive.

The advisory committee has set aside Jan. 20 as the date it plans to conduct a full day of interviews with each of the prospective developers. Rapundalo said each interview will last 90 minutes, which includes a half-hour presentation, a half hour for questions from the committee and a half hour for questions from the public. He said the exact time and location still is being worked out.

Rapundalo said he expects the advisory committee will make its final recommendation to the City Council in March. He said the committee is being careful to make sure the right project is chosen - one that is designed to fit its surroundings, provides a financial benefit to the city and offers a significant public component.

"I don't think any of us have our sights set on one proposal or concept over another," he said. "We want to make sure each one is thoroughly vetted. And it has to work financially. That's just the bottom line. This is basically a business proposal."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.