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April 25, 2005
Redevelopment plans will be unveiled tonightDeveloper also has proposed building hotelByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - A vast revamp of several prime West Front Street properties could be "one of the greatest" redevelopments in the city's history, a city official said. It also would be one of the largest. City officials said Howell developer Michael Uzelac, a representative of Federated Properties LLC, "secured a measure of control" on two properties owned by the Harry Calcutt Trust and the Gourdie-Fraser building on West Front Street. The Calcutt properties include the former Grand Traverse Auto site on the north side of West Front Street and the lot on the southeast corner of Pine and West Front streets. Ulezac also has proposed building a hotel near the heart of downtown and the bayfront. The project could be "one of the greatest redevelopments in our history," Bryan Crough wrote in a memo to city commissioners, planners and the Downtown Development Authority board. Crough is DDA executive director. Crough's memo described details of the plan previously not made public. Uzelac's proposal calls for construction of a ground floor retail space topped by three floors of offices on the north side of West Front Street. As many as 100 public parking spaces could be built under the building. Gourdie-Fraser would be a tenant in that building, and demolition of its current building would begin once its offices move across the street. The project on the south side of the street includes "retail on the ground floor with parking behind and three stories above" and a "remaining four stories" for residential use, Crough wrote. Uzelac also proposed that the city trade a parking lot at Union Street and Grandview Parkway across from the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau for "equity" in the West Front Street parking, Crough's memo reported. Uzelac would build a hotel on what is now parking lot T. That idea "makes sense from a downtown development point of view," Crough wrote. But, it requires "community-wide discussion." City commissioners, planners and DDA board members will meet at 7 p.m. tonight at the Governmental Center to learn about the proposal. "We have waited quite a long time for something to happen there," said Jody Bergman, chairwoman of the city planning commission. "It is exciting. We are just hoping that something is feasible." Research must be conducted on the entire project first, said Peter Schmitz, a downtown business owner and DDA chairman. "The last thing we want to do is build a building that would end up sitting there empty," he said. "As long as we do the due diligence, then I think everybody wins." Bergman thinks a mixed-use development with more retail offerings would create a "vibrant, 24/7 type of downtown." "I think we really need some life at that end of downtown," she said. "We kind of have two blocks of downtown. It would be nice to make it three or four." Uzelac also is working on a large-scale private and public building project in Petoskey. He declined to expound on the Traverse City plan before tonight's meeting.
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Billed as "one of the greatest redevelopments" in Traverse City history, plans for the downtown Harry Calcutt Trust and Gourdie Fraser Associates properties will be unveiled at a meeting tonight.
