Salt Lake City’s oldest “skyscraper,” the seven-story 1892-era Crandall Building, has watched quietly as City Creek Center — it’s flashy, $2 billion neighbor — moves in next door.
Now, the slumping staple on the northwest corner of 100 South and Main is getting a financial leg up from City Hall so it remains relevant under downtown’s retail renaissance.
By unanimous vote Tuesday, the City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board, approved a $337,500 loan to Crandall Properties so the owner can renovate the space for a Starbucks, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit franchise and a JMR clothier.
At the same time, the RDA punted for one week a decision to loan Broadway Park Lofts’ Ken Milo $2.3 million to complete the second condominium building fronting 300 South across the street from Pioneer Park. Council members want more time to vet the terms of the loan, which, if issued, would deplete the RDA’s central business district coffer.
Crandall did not get all the terms requested. A push to defer interest for one year was denied. So was a petition to exempt the owners from adding showers and lockers — a requirement of all RDA projects with 25 or more employees.
But the loan would allow the 120-year-old office building to add fresh retail and restaurant tenants this spring, the same time the LDS Church’s massive mall is set to open.
Councilwoman Jill Remington Love called the new retail tenants “critical.”
“This really is a gem of a building in our downtown,” Love said. “I’m just so glad it’s in the shape it is in.”
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Crandall Building has roughly 10,000 square feet of unoccupied retail space. Crandall has signed leases from the clothing store and barbecue restaurant, city documents show, and expects to receive a signed lease from the coffee shop this month.
For his part, Milo made an emotional appeal, with his voice cracking briefly, for his Broadway Park Lofts loan.
“There’s a lot at stake,” he told the RDA board. “I’m 16 years into a 10-year plan to create an urban, walkable neighborhood around Pioneer Park. It was a war zone 16 years ago,” he added, insisting it is now one of downtown’s best residential environments. “We’re done if this loan isn’t approved.”
In November, Milo’s team held a successful auction for the discounted units in phase one of the lofts at 300 S. 360 West. All 34 units are under contract but not all have closed. The loan’s terms call for the units to close before any money can be released.
The RDA’s loan committee recommended rejecting the request, even though it was restructured Tuesday to reduce the city’s risk to $450,000. But questions remain about the project’s primary lender and whether the city’s money would be immediately reimbursed once the new units sell.
“I’m just not comfortable moving forward with it as squishy as it seems,” said Councilman Charlie Luke. At the same time, Luke says he is not opposed to lending the money so long as the financial review checks out.
“It appears to be a much-improved risk position for the RDA to be in,” explained RDA deputy director Justin Belliveau.
Milo says he’s been working on the funding strategy for six months, agreeing with city officials that the building shell fronting 300 South needs to look finished to attract buyers. He says he owns other properties in the area that he would have to abandon if the city loan is denied.
http://tourism9.com/
2011年12月29日星期四
Cubans agog at chance to travel, 50 years on
After half a century of Orwellian obstacles to travel, Cubans are marveling at the thought President Raul Castro is expected to unveil reforms Friday that could let them see the world, and their loved ones, at long last.
“I hope Raul will remove the road block, and that we will be able to travel without so many problems. It would be a great Christmas gift,” said Luis Pena, a 37-year-old engineer whose mother has lived in the United States for 30 years.
Pena, optimistic and hopeful yet cautious about whether the travel freedoms so many Cubans want so badly will materialize, admitted: “I don’t have any of my old childhood friends around any more. They have all left.”
The Roman Catholic Church and regime-friendly musicians like Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes have joined a chorus of Cubans calling for an end to the rules, including one that penalizes “permanent emigrants” from the only one-party Communist regime in the Americas.
Observers in Havana say Raul Castro is widely expected to make the announcement in an address to the National Assembly.
Local experts believe Castro will end the requirement of exit visas (for Cubans on the island), entrance visas (for Cubans living overseas who return home) and the legal status of “permanent emigrant.”
Those who are deemed to have left illegally (permanent emigrants) in essence are classed as defectors, their homes and assets seized.
Cubans can already leave the country in theory but only when they have received a letter of invitation from overseas. Then, they have to file for permission for an exit visa, just at the start of a maze-like bureaucratic process that costs about 500 dollars.
They also need entry visas from countries to which they would travel.
That might not all sound so insumountable in wealthier countries. But workers in Cuba — doctors and streetcleaners alike — make about 20 dollars a month.
So the system has kept travel painfully limited, year in and year out, from the Cold War through today, given that about one in six Cuban nationals lives abroad. Separation from family and friends makes the issue a highly emotional one in Cuba.
It also has drawn criticism from some rights groups about Cubans’ basic freedom of movement.
Since 2006 Raul Castro’s government has ended several unpopular restrictions. Among other things Cubans are now allowed to rent rooms in hotels geared to international tourism, sign cell phone contracts, and buy electric appliances.
In September, the government authorized Cubans to buy and sell cars, and this month private homes.
On August 1, Castro announced that there would be forthcoming easing of travel restrictions, which started fueling hopes.
“Everybody is waiting for that law (change) … really, nobody knows what is going to be approved,” said a more downbeat Adonis Gonzalez, 38, a driver who was waiting in line to get a Spanish (EU) passport as the grandson of a Spaniard, in order to be able to travel without fuss and high cost.
“Whatever gets approved on Friday, I don’t think anybody will be traveling anywhere Saturday,” he added skeptically.
But engineer Pena was trying to stay optimistic. He has only seen his mom once in 30 years, though she lives only a 30-minute flight away in Miami.
“If like they are saying, all of that is eliminated, my mom could come more often” to visit, Pena said, hopeful that she will have a chance to see his new baby boy, her new grandson.
If Havana makes the changes, they could be a stunning wake-up call to the United States, as they have potential to fuel a bilateral migration crisis.
As part of held-over Cold War policy, the United States still grants any Cuban who reaches US soil legal US residency on request. The United States does not have this policy for nationals of any other country.
With the US economy weak and the US presidential race in gear, the United States has not been planning a welcome for many thousands of new Cuban immigrants who soon may be calling, legally, by sea and by air.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
“I hope Raul will remove the road block, and that we will be able to travel without so many problems. It would be a great Christmas gift,” said Luis Pena, a 37-year-old engineer whose mother has lived in the United States for 30 years.
Pena, optimistic and hopeful yet cautious about whether the travel freedoms so many Cubans want so badly will materialize, admitted: “I don’t have any of my old childhood friends around any more. They have all left.”
The Roman Catholic Church and regime-friendly musicians like Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes have joined a chorus of Cubans calling for an end to the rules, including one that penalizes “permanent emigrants” from the only one-party Communist regime in the Americas.
Observers in Havana say Raul Castro is widely expected to make the announcement in an address to the National Assembly.
Local experts believe Castro will end the requirement of exit visas (for Cubans on the island), entrance visas (for Cubans living overseas who return home) and the legal status of “permanent emigrant.”
Those who are deemed to have left illegally (permanent emigrants) in essence are classed as defectors, their homes and assets seized.
Cubans can already leave the country in theory but only when they have received a letter of invitation from overseas. Then, they have to file for permission for an exit visa, just at the start of a maze-like bureaucratic process that costs about 500 dollars.
They also need entry visas from countries to which they would travel.
That might not all sound so insumountable in wealthier countries. But workers in Cuba — doctors and streetcleaners alike — make about 20 dollars a month.
So the system has kept travel painfully limited, year in and year out, from the Cold War through today, given that about one in six Cuban nationals lives abroad. Separation from family and friends makes the issue a highly emotional one in Cuba.
It also has drawn criticism from some rights groups about Cubans’ basic freedom of movement.
Since 2006 Raul Castro’s government has ended several unpopular restrictions. Among other things Cubans are now allowed to rent rooms in hotels geared to international tourism, sign cell phone contracts, and buy electric appliances.
In September, the government authorized Cubans to buy and sell cars, and this month private homes.
On August 1, Castro announced that there would be forthcoming easing of travel restrictions, which started fueling hopes.
“Everybody is waiting for that law (change) … really, nobody knows what is going to be approved,” said a more downbeat Adonis Gonzalez, 38, a driver who was waiting in line to get a Spanish (EU) passport as the grandson of a Spaniard, in order to be able to travel without fuss and high cost.
“Whatever gets approved on Friday, I don’t think anybody will be traveling anywhere Saturday,” he added skeptically.
But engineer Pena was trying to stay optimistic. He has only seen his mom once in 30 years, though she lives only a 30-minute flight away in Miami.
“If like they are saying, all of that is eliminated, my mom could come more often” to visit, Pena said, hopeful that she will have a chance to see his new baby boy, her new grandson.
If Havana makes the changes, they could be a stunning wake-up call to the United States, as they have potential to fuel a bilateral migration crisis.
As part of held-over Cold War policy, the United States still grants any Cuban who reaches US soil legal US residency on request. The United States does not have this policy for nationals of any other country.
With the US economy weak and the US presidential race in gear, the United States has not been planning a welcome for many thousands of new Cuban immigrants who soon may be calling, legally, by sea and by air.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
订阅：
博文 (Atom)