Apartment Choice

ARVADA – A citizens group aimed at stopping an urban renewal plan dubbed “the $30 land deal,” are questioning executive sessions being held by city government in response to its efforts. Arvada For All the People has started a petition drive to amend the city charter, specifically the sections dealing with the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA). According to the group’s website, a deal with a developer by AURA to sell land valued at millions of dollars at an “already traffic- congested Wadsworth Bypass and 56 th Avenue” for just $30, sparked outrage. “Lack of city council response to the deal has now generated this petition drive to bring more democracy and accountability to City Hall,” the site says. The proposed amendment would require voter approval before the city could sell publicly owned land to private parties when the land is valued at more than $1 million and before the city could offer sales and/or property tax subsidies/incentives ( Tax Increment Financing ) to...

A grocery store and apartment project planned for downtown would benefit Lawrence and likely deserves economic development incentives , but a low-interest loan from the city shouldn’t be among them. At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive an incentives request from the grocery store development group led by Lawrence businessman Mike Treanor . The group is requesting a special financing district , bond agreement and a $2.25 million loan from the city to help complete the $26 million project at Seventh and New Hampshire streets on the site of the former Borders bookstore. The old bookstore will be torn down and replaced with a three-story building with an underground parking garage . The ground floor of the building would house a Price Chopper grocery store and pharmacy, and the upper two floors would house 73 apartments, according to the incentives application. In accordance with the city’s incentives policy, 13 apartments would be designated as affordable...

The city of Indianapolis is prepared to commit up to $4.6 million to the downtown Bottleworks project , with most of the amount needed to move an electric transmission line running through the site. A 38- page project agreement between the city and developer Hendricks Commercial Properties , set to be approved Wednesday by the Metropolitan Development Commission , outlines city costs associated with the project, along with other details. Beloit, Wisconsin-based Hendricks in July won approval from the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission to build the $260 million project on the 11-acre site of the former Coca- Cola bottling plant . Construction on the property at North College and Massachusetts avenues is expected to begin early next year. Plans call for a 136- room West Elm hotel , an eight-screen cinema, office and retail space, and apartments and condominiums. To help prime construction, the city has agreed to pay Indianapolis Power & Light up to $4 million to move ...

Lisa Eckelbecker Telegram & Gazette Staff @LisaEckelbecker WORCESTER – The company building 365 luxury apartments downtown plans to spend about $90 million on the development and thinks Worcester is ripe for such construction. Nearby highways, bus transportation, commuter rail lines and employment opportunities make the area perfect for development, and no one else is building the kind of high- end housing units that Mack- Cali Realty Corp . of Edison, New Jersey, is constructing, Ivan M. Baron, the company’s chief legal officer said Wednesday. “We’re providing a niche that we think we can fill,” Mr. Baron said. He spoke after a celebration that drew Worcester politicians , government workers and business people to the CitySquare neighborhood between City Hall and Union Station for a ceremonial groundbreaking. Some said the rise in private investment in Worcester development provides the opportunity to connect the city’s neighborhoods, attract residents and change...

Woodside Village apartments ." width="714" height="473" /> Residents have begin moving in to the Woodside Village apartments . The Woodside Village development in Westwood has begun moving in its first residential tenants. Westwood officials said last week that eight or nine tenants have moved into the apartments at Rainbow Blvd. and 47th Place and that about one-third of the apartments have their temporary occupancy permits . The first phase of the development has studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments in different arrangements and different amounts of square footage. Prices range from $1,339 per month for a 593 square foot studio apartment to $2,812 for a 1, 512 square foot three bedroom. The first phase of the development has 91 apartments. A second phase, across 47th Place, will add more than 200 more residential units to the mix along with additional retail. The second phase will follow renovations to the Woodside Health and Tennis Club. An av...

Scott Hilyard Journal Star communities reporter @scotthilyard PEORIA HEIGHTS — The boundaries of a proposed tax increment financing district have been drawn to help attract a 36- unit apartment complex to the downtown area. The newly defined area , which would be the village's fourth TIF district , also encompasses an area where as many as 60 townhomes have been proposed. Taken together, the projects would add a transformative, upscale residential element to a developing commercial district of restaurants, shops and offices in a mix of new construction and renovated historic structures . "The board voted (this week)  to enter into an agreement with consultants (Jacob & Klein and The Economic Development Group of Bloomington) to perform the study and prepare all the documents necessary to establish the TIF at a future date," village Administrator Matt Fick said Thursday. "Likely by the end of this year or early next." Developer Larry Herman of Grand...

There was some confusion among Planning Commission members during their Nov. 26 meeting this week. Will The Tiburon apartment complex be built if the city doesn't create the public infrastructure necessary to sustain it? Commissioners weren't sure of the answer. In October, when City Councilmembers approved preliminary plans for The Tiburon, the council liked the idea of new development, but knew the proposed location on Olson Memorial Highway would need some public improvement, like sidewalks and improved street lighting . Councilmembers asked the Housing and Development Authority to explore the idea of designating the area near Tiburon as a Tax Increment Financing district , or a TIF district. But on Monday night, when the Planning Commission was asked to recommend approval of final planned unit development plans for the apartment buildings, some commissioners weren't sure if they should approve plans without knowing if the area would become a TIF district. Planni...

Leesha Posey remembers cutting across a vacant lot in North Portland on her way to Harriet Tubman Middle School . "It's been empty since I was a little girl," says Posey, 41. That was three decades ago. But the lot still sits empty—a rarity in a city where vacant land is coveted, especially in the red- hot North Williams Avenue corridor . Its emptiness is a reminder of what the city and its urban renewal agency , Prosper Portland , took from the black community . In the 1960s, the city-owned agency, then known as the Portland Development Commission , condemned vast tracts of inner North and Northeast Portland . The takings—including the still-vacant block at the northwest corner of North Williams Avenue and Russell Street—allowed urban renewal, including construction of parts of Interstate 5, the Oregon Convention Center and Legacy Emanuel Hospital . But in the process, the agency gutted neighborhoods and dispersed the black community . In a belated ef...