Fayetteville council to discuss arts corridor parking deck location

FAYETTEVILLE -- It's time to figure out where to put another parking deck downtown.

The City Council on Tuesday will discuss how to replace 290 parking spaces lost when the civic plaza of the arts corridor is built.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan is recommending the deck be built at the depot lot at the northwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue.

The lot covers 2.4 acres. Greg House, under his Fayetteville Depot LLC, owns 1.6 acres of it. The Bank of Fayetteville owns 0.8 acres. The city is proposing to buy a portion of the lot.

The deal would have the city pay $350,000 for just more than half an acre. House would get $250,000 and the bank $100,000. Each entity would sell 0.3 acres.

Voters in April approved construction of a cultural arts corridor downtown. A green civic space where the parking lot sits across from the Walton Arts Center to the west will make up part of the corridor.

Turning the Fay Jones woods west of the Fayetteville Public Library into a nature attraction serve as the corridor's southern end. Street, sidewalk and trail improvements also are part of the plan.

Work at the civic space won't begin until the parking deck is completed, Jordan has said.

Garver Engineering provided the city in March a study identifying three optimal locations for a new deck. One is the depot lot. Another is the city's lot on North School Avenue, immediately east of the Spring Street deck. A third is the site of Nadine Baum Studios, southwest of Spring Street and West Avenue.

A preliminary map of the site Jordan recommends shows a 350-space parking deck where grass and a few parking spaces are now. The Ice House building is immediately north, with the Bank of Fayetteville's train branch to the south. The parking structure's west side would go right next to the front door at Arsaga's.

The deck would take up 60 parking spaces at the depot lot, but would leave buildings intact, said Peter Nierengarten, the city's director of sustainability and parking. The train depot, train bank and the Arsaga's building would remain, he said.

"That was the test, was would it fit ? The answer was yes," Nierengarten said. "We're probably going to run though a couple of scenarios that are variations of that map."

The deck would have two drives on West Avenue. One at Watson Street could have a traffic light. Another farther north would have a pathway starting immediately south of the Magnolia Company, south of the intersection with Lafayette Street. The path would wind behind the Ice House building and connect to the deck's northwest corner. House owns an easement for the path.

Two, three-story buildings also would be part of the plan. One building would line West Avenue and abut the parking deck's east side. Another would face the south side of Dickson Street.

The buildings and the strips of land they would sit on would be built and owned by House under his LLC. The buildings would generate property tax revenue, Nierengarten said.

The proposal includes certain requirements for the buildings. For instance, they would have to be certified by the Leadership in Environmental and Environmental Design program of the U.S. Green Building Council. And the building south of Dickson Street would have to be finished before the civic space opened.

Cary Arsaga, co-owner of Arsaga's, expressed apprehension about having construction going on outside the business' front door. He said he has two years left on his lease.

"At least with this particular plan, the Depot gets saved," Arsaga said. "I'm obviously concerned about what's going to happen to my business while they're building in front of me."

The city's proposal includes protection of and access to the Arsaga's building during construction of the deck.

Arsaga said if construction stifles his business, he hopes he'll get reimbursement.

House said discussions with the city about his lot began about a year ago. He said the plan is to have buildings around the deck keep it largely hidden from street view.

"What we see is a catalyst to a much larger development on the south of the lot going to Dickson," House said. "We're in discussions right now with multiple groups about going vertical with a large, mixed-use project."

The depot lot location is ideal because of its closeness to other downtown businesses, House said. Uses at the surrounding buildings -- retail, hospitality, entertainment or offices -- will contribute to the vibrancy of downtown, he said.

House said he has no intention of kicking out Arsaga's or hurting the business. An alternative plan would leave more undeveloped space to the building's east, with a breezeway to tie into the deck. Engineers will have to work out the details, he said.

Estimated cost to build at the depot lot is nearly $9.9 million. The administration would pursue the School Avenue option if the City Council rejects the depot proposal, Nierengarten said. The estimated cost to build at School Avenue is $6,000 more.

The city owns the lot at School Avenue, which makes building there easier, Nierengarten said. However, six houses near the alley on the lot's east side would face the deck with about 15 feet separating them. Additionally, the deck would take up the entire lot, leaving little room for construction, he said.

The Nadine Baum Studios option isn't feasible, administrators say.

The city and University of Arkansas co-own the 1.4-acre property and 20,000-square-foot building west of West Avenue and Spring Street. The Community Creative Center subleases the studio space at the building from the Walton Arts Center, and the university's Theatre Department uses the theater space.

Putting the parking deck at that lot would require tearing down Nadine Baum Studios, according to city administrators. Tearing down the building and replacing it either at that site or somewhere else downtown would cost an estimated $9 million, Nierengarten said.

Total estimated cost to build at the site is more than $17.8 million. Nierengarten averaged figures from planners and construction managers at the city, university and Walton Arts Center to come up with the estimated costs.

The university wants Baum Studios to stay. The Walton Arts Center has a lease there until 2039, and the Theatre Department has a heavy need for the space, said Mike Johnson, facilities manager with the university. Johnson also serves as chairman of the Walton Arts Center board.

The building, constructed in 1980, is in good shape, Johnson said. The two creative entities using it would have to find somewhere else to go, he said.

"Replacing of the arts space with a parking structure does not seem to make a lot of sense," he said.

City Attorney Kit Williams said the city cannot do anything at the site without university approval, per the ownership agreement.

Council Member Kyle Smith introduced a measure the council also will consider Tuesday to keep the Baum Studios option open. Smith's item asks for the council to consider all three options equally.

Smith said at a council meeting he wants to table a decision of the parking deck location until at least Jan. 7.

"As we get closer to making a decision, we should have our conversations out in the open," he said.

NW News on 12/15/2019