MONROE - A proposed senior housing project is fine, but spare the downtown parking ramp, Monroe business owners are telling the city.
Tom Sather, president and CEO of Silverstone Partners, Inc., a Middleton-based real estate development and investment firm, wants to build a 56-unit senior housing complex at the site of Monroe's only public parking ramp, a source of 220 free parking spaces, located just one block west of the downtown Square.
Silverstone Partners is also asking the city to invest about $350,000 in the project, mostly for the demolition of the ramp.
Before making any decisions on the ramp's future demise or investing city money into the project, the Public Property Committee and Finance and Taxation Committee Monday voted jointly to ask Pam Christopher, director of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), to help Silverstone identify alternative locations for the project. Christopher works though the chamber for the city to promote economic development.
One site, a parking lot in the 800 block of 16th Avenue, north of the Stop-N- Go, was suggested at the joint meeting Monday by Alderman Thurston Hanson, alderman for Ward 7 in downtown Monroe.
"(Finding) alternative sites is fine; whatever is best for the community," Mayor Bill Ross said, following the meeting. "People are positive about the project, but it's location, location, location."
Some council members, business owners and residents criticized the loss of the ramp meeting.
"The parking ramp is a great asset to us," said Chris Soukup, co-owner of Baumgartner Cheese Store and Tavern. Soukup said residents living above the businesses downtown also use the ramp.
Christopher agreed people see the parking ramp as a needed facility for downtown merchants and residents.
According to Christopher, more than 60 MCCI members, about 90 percent of those who responded to a questionnaire on the proposed housing complex, like the project, but want it at another location. Four people liked the project and the location; three people were against the project. Christopher said the MCCI questionnaire had about a membership response rate of about 30 percent.
She also noted that the Monroe Arts Center, located nearby at 13th Avenue and 11th Street, schedules 70 events and is host to another 150 events per year. MAC, which has limited parking and is in a residential neighborhood, estimates an average of 125 vehicles use the ramp during each event.
Christopher said she counted 92 vehicles parked in the ramp on Saturday, during the Monroe Youth Hockey Chili Cookoff. She also said it would be hard for the city to construct another parking ramp because of the cost and the lack of available sites.
"As economic developers, we all want to see you here. Let us find you a good location," she told Sather.
Sather said the ramp location was suggested by Ross.
"Monroe's downtown is so healthy, there's not a lot of vacant spaces," Sather said.
The ramp location is a good site choice for senior residents who like to be "where activity is," and because his architects and builders believe the parking ramp to be aging and in need of repairs and maintenance, Sather said.
According to Al Gerber, city engineer supervisor, the budget for annual maintenance on the parking ramp, which includes electricity, cleaning and concrete deck repairs, was about $20,000 to $50,000, up until 2008. For past two years, the city council has reduced the parking ramp spending to between $10,000 and $15,000 annually.
Three large deck joints were replaced three years ago, but only minor deck repairs have been made since, Gerber said.
Gerber said the city should be spending $60,000 to $70,000 annually for the next five years to catch up on maintenance, and then $20,000 annually for general maintenance.
The ramp, 24,000 square feet, was built in 1966. Its 220 parking spaces represent about 20 percent of the more than 1,000 total spaces available on the Square, one block off the Square and in seven public parking lots in the downtown area.
Gerber said typically about 20 percent of the ramp's spaces are used on a day-by-day basis, and any proposals for building another ramp would have to take into consideration the low use of the current ramp.
Hanson said the biggest flaw he saw for the proposed site is that the project relies on funds from Tax Increment District No. 7. The fund is struggling to make its loan payment, he added.
"We cut the facade program because the TIF was underperforming," he said.
Sather said the city area was being considered "precisely because it is underperforming" and predicted that as much as four times the current revenue could be raised.
There is no timeline for the city to reach a decision on the project, but Silverstone has said it wants to submit an application for funding to Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) by Feb. 5.
Tom Sather, president and CEO of Silverstone Partners, Inc., a Middleton-based real estate development and investment firm, wants to build a 56-unit senior housing complex at the site of Monroe's only public parking ramp, a source of 220 free parking spaces, located just one block west of the downtown Square.
Silverstone Partners is also asking the city to invest about $350,000 in the project, mostly for the demolition of the ramp.
Before making any decisions on the ramp's future demise or investing city money into the project, the Public Property Committee and Finance and Taxation Committee Monday voted jointly to ask Pam Christopher, director of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), to help Silverstone identify alternative locations for the project. Christopher works though the chamber for the city to promote economic development.
One site, a parking lot in the 800 block of 16th Avenue, north of the Stop-N- Go, was suggested at the joint meeting Monday by Alderman Thurston Hanson, alderman for Ward 7 in downtown Monroe.
"(Finding) alternative sites is fine; whatever is best for the community," Mayor Bill Ross said, following the meeting. "People are positive about the project, but it's location, location, location."
Some council members, business owners and residents criticized the loss of the ramp meeting.
"The parking ramp is a great asset to us," said Chris Soukup, co-owner of Baumgartner Cheese Store and Tavern. Soukup said residents living above the businesses downtown also use the ramp.
Christopher agreed people see the parking ramp as a needed facility for downtown merchants and residents.
According to Christopher, more than 60 MCCI members, about 90 percent of those who responded to a questionnaire on the proposed housing complex, like the project, but want it at another location. Four people liked the project and the location; three people were against the project. Christopher said the MCCI questionnaire had about a membership response rate of about 30 percent.
She also noted that the Monroe Arts Center, located nearby at 13th Avenue and 11th Street, schedules 70 events and is host to another 150 events per year. MAC, which has limited parking and is in a residential neighborhood, estimates an average of 125 vehicles use the ramp during each event.
Christopher said she counted 92 vehicles parked in the ramp on Saturday, during the Monroe Youth Hockey Chili Cookoff. She also said it would be hard for the city to construct another parking ramp because of the cost and the lack of available sites.
"As economic developers, we all want to see you here. Let us find you a good location," she told Sather.
Sather said the ramp location was suggested by Ross.
"Monroe's downtown is so healthy, there's not a lot of vacant spaces," Sather said.
The ramp location is a good site choice for senior residents who like to be "where activity is," and because his architects and builders believe the parking ramp to be aging and in need of repairs and maintenance, Sather said.
According to Al Gerber, city engineer supervisor, the budget for annual maintenance on the parking ramp, which includes electricity, cleaning and concrete deck repairs, was about $20,000 to $50,000, up until 2008. For past two years, the city council has reduced the parking ramp spending to between $10,000 and $15,000 annually.
Three large deck joints were replaced three years ago, but only minor deck repairs have been made since, Gerber said.
Gerber said the city should be spending $60,000 to $70,000 annually for the next five years to catch up on maintenance, and then $20,000 annually for general maintenance.
The ramp, 24,000 square feet, was built in 1966. Its 220 parking spaces represent about 20 percent of the more than 1,000 total spaces available on the Square, one block off the Square and in seven public parking lots in the downtown area.
Gerber said typically about 20 percent of the ramp's spaces are used on a day-by-day basis, and any proposals for building another ramp would have to take into consideration the low use of the current ramp.
Hanson said the biggest flaw he saw for the proposed site is that the project relies on funds from Tax Increment District No. 7. The fund is struggling to make its loan payment, he added.
"We cut the facade program because the TIF was underperforming," he said.
Sather said the city area was being considered "precisely because it is underperforming" and predicted that as much as four times the current revenue could be raised.
There is no timeline for the city to reach a decision on the project, but Silverstone has said it wants to submit an application for funding to Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) by Feb. 5.