AUBURN – The city will trade small lots in Great Falls Plaza with developer Tom Platz to make room for a parking garage, councilors agreed Monday night.
Councilors reaffirmed a vote from a year ago, agreeing to the land trade. Councilors voted 4-3, with Councilor Kelly Matzen abstaining. Councilors Bethel Shields, Robert Hayes and Eric Samson voted for the land swap, and Bob Mennealy, Donna Lyons Rowell and Belinda Gerry voted against it. Mayor Normand Guay cast the deciding vote.
The vote wasn’t a surprise to any of the 70-plus people who packed Auburn Hall for the meeting.
Ron Potvin, speaking on behalf of the Small Property Owners of Auburn, urged them to pass it.
“We’re tired of the debate,” Potvin said. “We are tired of rehashing the same thing over and over and of arguing about things that cannot be changed. We are stepping up, in support.”
The trade gives developer Platz about 0.94 acres in the plaza, including the back corner, north of The Esplanade and east of the access road. Platz plans to build at least one office building in the plaza.
The city will get about nine-tenths of an acre near the middle of the property. The city plans to build a parking garage on the site.
City property tax money won’t be used to pay for the garage, according to City Manager Pat Finnigan. It will cost about $7.3 million to build – including construction and debt payments – and about $2.5 million annually to operate.
Those costs will be covered by $2.6 million in parking revenue from the garage and TIF revenues from Great Falls Plaza developments. If those include the Hilton Garden Inn hotel and one Platz office building, it will generate about $8.2 million in TIF property taxes. That’s more than enough to pay for the garage.
If Platz builds four buildings, that will generate about $14 million in TIF taxes.
But critics were more concerned about the trade itself. They doubted that the two lots were equal in value. The city was getting a narrow lot near the center of the plaza. Platz is getting a square lot that directly overlooks the Great Falls.
“I’m confident that one acre of basic roadway is not equal to the value of one acre of riverfront,” said Jonathan Labonte of 40 Reginald St.
Finnigan disagreed. The land the city is getting has higher visibility and is more desirable for certain developers.
“But in our estimation, all land downtown is valuable,” Finnigan said.
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