BLACKSBURG — The decades-long, on-again, off-again redevelopment of the old town middle school site took another major turn Friday, with town officials reaching a tentative deal with Midtown Redevelopment Partners.
After more than a year of private discussions on the matter including a town council closed session Friday afternoon, senior Blacksburg staff on Friday evening disclosed several key details of an agreement that would, among other things, dictate exactly which parts of the roughly 20-acre property the town will develop, finance and own.
The deal that the council is set to take a final vote on next month covers exact details such as how the town plans to pay for a parking garage that Midtown said is key in whether the desired project happens or not.
To help fund the parking garage, the town plans to create a “special service district” that will levy a higher real estate tax on the land’s private parcels.
Town Manager Marc Verniel said it’s likely that 20 cents — in the special district — could be added to the town’s 26-cent rate that all Blacksburg property owners currently pay.
The added 20 cents would be dropped once the parking deck is paid off.
“Midtown is happy to be moving toward a vote this spring,” Jim Cowan, a partner in the firm, wrote in an email Friday. “We believe we have most of the issues resolved for the development agreement that will help us all expand the downtown and provide more foundation for our growing economy.”
Midtown submitted an ambitious plan — and rezoning — for the site during the fall of 2017, but consideration of the project by council couldn’t move forward until the developers and town worked out a package of conditions on the land.
A previous plan that appeared to be headed for approval earlier this year had to be resubmitted after the town didn’t act on it within the required six months.
Also, an anchor tenant in that plan, 1901 Group, decided late last year to locate elsewhere in Montgomery County.
A required rezoning and the development agreement will be added to upcoming town council agendas for open discussion.
Town attorney Larry Spencer said that a public hearing and vote on both topics is scheduled for May 14.
The sought-after conditions of the development agreement have been generally known to the public since Midtown initially submitted its plan in 2017.
Pending the rezoning, Verniel said, he sees construction of the parking garage starting within the next 18 months to two years.
Verniel and Spencer, however, held off on disclosing the estimated costs of the parking garage, a detail that became a sticking point during the development agreement talks.
“We need to communicate with some people,” Spencer said, referring to Midtown and W.M. Jordan Company, the firm that the town could hire to design and build the parking garage and a new police station.
The police station, which the town has already began putting money aside for, will share a parcel with the parking garage. A small percentage of the parking garage’s spaces will be reserved for police station use, Spencer said.
The parking garage, Spencer said, will provide a minimum of 300 spaces, most of which will be for the office tenants on the site and the general public.
Spencer said he anticipates the parking garage costs will be publicly disclosed by Tuesday.
While the estimated costs continue to remain confidential, the parking garage will be paid with a variety of tax revenue generated from the land’s private development.
In addition to the real estate tax , the town would also use money from the meal and lodging taxes paid from activities generated by the redevelopment once it is built out.
Town officials have asked Montgomery County — which sold the old middle school land to Midtown — for money to help pay for the parking garage. County officials have not commented on the status of the request. How much the town asked for has not been disclosed.
Midtown’s plan is to build a hotel and some commercial space on the land’s front and a mixture of residences such as townhomes and condominiums in the rear. The firm has said before that investment in the project is expected to easily exceed $100 million.
Other features of the project include a plaza at the corner of South Main and Eheart streets and a park with trails and landscaping on the property’s rear side.
Midtown will build the plaza and park and donate them to the town, according to an outline of the development agreement.
The parking garage and police station will also require a land swap, according to the agreement.
While the 20-acre site is generally in private hands, two tiny sections of it — a parking lot on the Eheart Street side and another small parcel on the Clay Street side — still belong to the town.
The agreement calls on the town to swap the parcel that currently holds the parking lot for a Midtown-owned section that Blacksburg plans to build the police station and parking garage on.
Midtown plans to move on their portion of the project shortly after the approval of the rezoning, Verniel said.