Developers of a $25 million, mixed-use project in downtown Fredericksburg have gone back to the drawing board for the third time.

Faced with a weaker-than-expected demand for condos coupled with strong demand for commercial property, siblings Tom and Cathy Wack have eliminated the residential portion of Liberty Place and substituted a 4-level, above-ground parking garage for the previously proposed underground parking component of the project.

Were responding to the market, Tom Wack said.

The new design calls for the parking garage to face Amelia Street and be connected to the upper floors of a three-story, 86,000-square-foot commercial building that would face William Street. A 15-foot-wide private driveway between the two buildings would serve as a loading area connecting Winchester and Douglas streets.

Together, the two buildings will mostly fill the block between the former Free LanceStar building and the Amelia Square townhouses and Sedona Taphouse. Its now the site of the vacant William Street Executive Building.

Wack said that he hopes to have enough preleases for office, retail and restaurant space in the commercial building over the next three or four months to qualify for loans. Hed like to begin construction this fall and have Liberty Place completed by late 2018.

Downtowns gotten pretty hot, and I think that the fact that we will have parking next to the commercial building will make our project much more in demand, he said. You wont have to hunt for space on the street.

City Council will vote on a new memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the Wacks and the Economic Development Authority that would lead to an agreement for the developers to offer free public parking in the garage. The EDA meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in City Council Chambers at City Hall, 715 Princess Anne St. The EDA will also take up the MOU at its Aug. 14 meeting.

The memorandum would give the City much-needed parking spaces in that area of downtown, and the developers would get an economic incentive in the form of 100 percent of the incremental real estate tax revenue from Liberty Place. The Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, is estimated at $240,000 a year and would be good for 20 years with two, 10-year options to extend it under the same terms.

Weve been trying to build a garage in that area for some time, but have never been able to get the property, said Bill Freehling, director ot the Fredericksburg Department of Economic Development and Tourism. We think its a fair contribution from the city.

By way of comparison, the City would have to shell out $7.7 million if it owned and operated a parking garage on the Liberty Place lot, according to the MOU. Thats assuming it was able to get a 20-year, taxable general obligation bond.

The proposed brick parking garage is modeled after the Calvert Street Garage in Annapolis, and would feature a landscaped buffer between the building and the Amelia Street sidewalk. Wack described it as just a nice design thats not an obvious attempt to recreate something historic. He and his sister are still tweaking the design for the commercial building, which he said will be a blend of traditional and contemporary elements.

The garage would be several feet shorter than the Amelia Square townhouses, and have its entrance and exit on Winchester Street. Inside would be approximately 303 parking spaces, 30 more than in the Wacks last proposal.

Walker Consulting, the citys parking consultant, found that the garage will provide more parking than will be necessary to meet demands generated by Liberty Place, especially on nights and weekends.

Liberty Places commercial building would have 58,700 square feet of office space along with 18,000 square feet for retail and 9,200 square feet for restaurants. The amount of office space is roughly double the amount proposed in previous plans, and would tie in with City Councils goal of making downtown an employment center.

It will be one of the nicest office spaces downtown, Freehling said. We think it gives us a great new product to help sell the city.

Tenants would have exclusive access to 40 parking spaces in the garage at all times, and another 160 spaces between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. The Wacks will make the remaining 103 spaces, all of which will be on the lower levels, open to the public for free at all times, and an additional 160 spaces available for free on weeknights and weekends.

Freehling said that was important because it would encourage those who work in nearby businesses, such as restaurant employees, to park there instead of on the street.

The Liberty Place Condominium Association would be responsible for the garages operational costs, and it would remain in private ownership and be taxable. Under the previous agreement, the City would have paid $1.96 million upfront to own 119 parking spaces in Liberty Places underground garage, and returned 45 percent of the incremental tax revenue from the project to the Wacks for 10 years.

The estimated value of that TIF was approximately $200,000 annuallyor $2 million over 10 years. In addition, the City would have been required to pay for half of the parking access and revenue control system, an estimated $75,000, as well as $75,000 a year toward maintenance and capital reserves.

The overall cost to the City under the new proposal would be $4.8 million over 20 years compared to $5.5 million in 10 years in the previous plan, according to the MOU. According to city officials, Liberty Place is expected to generate $600,000 in annual commercial tax revenue for the City.

The Wacks and City Council have worked together since 2014 to reach an agreement on Liberty Place. They signed their first MOU that year, and a revised version in 2015. The latest MOU lays out a road map for unwinding some of the agreements from the last one, and entering into a new performance agreement. Steps that need to be taken include terminating the last MOU, terminating an air rights lease, and allowing a special-use permit to expire because the 44 condominiums have been eliminated.

The developers also will have to finalize their site plan and prepare building elevations for the project and submit them for review and develop an easement for public parking in the garage.

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Will third time be the charm for Liberty Place developers? - Fredericksburg.com