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Local News

Hastings officials will negotiate with Smith Equities on sale of Moose building


The Hastings City Council Monday opted to negotiate with Smith Equities, Inc. for the sale of the former Moose building at the corner of Apple Street and Michigan Avenue.

With the decision made, city staff will work with Smith Equities to finalize a development plan.

 

The council has been considering the sale of the building for several weeks, including presentations from developers Smith Equities, represented by John VanFossen,  and Developer Marv Helder, as well as a special workshop to gather facts.

 

Smith Equities, Inc. would raze the building and build a new, three story mixed-use building with three retail units on Michigan Avenue and about 20 apartments on upper floors.

Helder planned to save the building, enhance its historical characteristics, install a banquet hall and office spaces on the first floor and a half dozen living units on the second floor. His plan would take an estimated five years to complete, and he asked for five years of tax abatement for five years or until the completion of the project.

 

Smith Equities listed construction completion time as 200 to 250 days, after a development agreement and site plan approval.

Both agreed to the removal of an addition on the back of the building, which the city will use to expand an existing parking lot. //

 

Public Services Director Lee Hays gave a report on the building to the council.

“Overall the structure is in poor condition,” he said. The roof is leaking, the entire outside needs replacement or upgrades, a leak in the foundation is letting water into the basement, the stairs to the second floor have settled to one side, with questionable condition of the second floor itself, heaving slightly when one walks on it.

 

Hays said if the building was going to be rehabilitated, it must be now or in the near future, because it would not be salvageable later.

 

The total cost to the city to acquire the building up for tax sale, was $83,979.75, according to a memo to the council from City Manager Jeff Mansfield. The cost for removing the back add-on of the building would be, without abatement or hazardous materials treatment, about $20,000 to $22,000, he said.

Parking would be a primary consideration, Mansfield said, with Smith Equities needing 59 parking spaces and Helder about 64 parking spaces.

However, Mansfield pointed out that since the development is within 300 feet of a  municipal parking lot, no additional parking is required to be provided under the city code. 

 

Photo: Thornapple Flats development for the former Moose building proposed by Smith Equities.

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