When the Winter Park City Commission sought proposals in May of last year for the redevelopment of the former library building, they made it clear they didn’t want to see the downtown location repurposed into a residential community.
But at a work session Thursday — while continuing to consider a developer’s plan to transform most of the existing structure into co-working office space— commissioners conveyed a very different message.
The majority said they’d be open to workforce housing going on the property.
“After talking and listening about the office space (concept)…it looks to me like residential makes the most sense,” said Commissioner Todd Weaver.
Commissioner Marty Sullivan said workforce housing is needed in the city, especially within its downtown footprint, adding that many of the city’s own employees live elsewhere.
“It’s too expensive here,” Sullivan said. “If we have to do some type of subsidy so that we have workforce housing, we are providing a benefit to citizens. I believe residential should be considered.”
The work session which concluded without a vote Thursday came as the city and Harbert Realty Services remain deadlocked in a dispute over the best use for the library, and how much Harbert should pay the city through a lease arrangement if they’re tabbed to bring new life to the vacant building.
Harbert, which is based out of Birmingham, Alabama but has an office in Winter Park led by Damien Madsen, submitted the lone redevelopment bid for the property in June.
They proposed turning the top two floors of the 33,000-square-foot building into co-working office space with a cafeteria and health services on the ground floor.
Saying the building is out of code and doesn’t meet today’s ADA compliance standards, company leaders say the job is expected to cost $14.5 million.
Staring down such an expensive overhaul, the company offered to pay the city $3.7 million over 20 years, at $150,000 in the first year, as part of a ground lease agreement.
City staff, however, opposed that arrangement. They offered up a deal that, at minimum would see Harbert Realty handing over $7.3 million in rent to the city over the lifespan of a 20-year lease term, with the payment starting as low as $300,000 in the first year.
Madsen, who refers to the library effort as a “passion project,” issued a counter-offer at the tail end of Thursday’s workshop: a yearly lease payment starting at $175,000.
The city’s elected leaders said they’ll use the upcoming Feb. 8 meeting to determine whether to move forward with Harbert’s new offer or pursue a different path for the former library. Options include demolishing it, selling it, or starting the request for bids process all over again with multifamily housing now as an allowed use.
With the possibility lingering that Harbert could lose the project after working on it for nine months, Madsen expressed frustration at times.
He noted that the city laid out strict guidelines for developers to follow when they inked the original RFP (request for proposals). The city, at that time, didn’t want a plan that included demolishing the building or adding residential units.
“We want to move ahead in some way,” Madsen said. “After spending the last nine months on this, I’m not prepared to walk away. We played by your rules, and we’d like to get something in return.”
Michael Williams, the president and CEO of Harbert Realty who attended the meeting from Burmingham, said the team could revise the plan to include multifamily units, but that would be even more costly than the original concept.
That would likely only be possible by building a whole new building on the property, he noted.
At the Jan 11 commission meeting, Harbert introduced renderings showing what a new building on the site could look like without residential components.
“That (existing) building would be extremely difficult to convert to residential,” Williams said. “You’d spend more money converting to residential than what we are proposing with the offices. I think residential is a valid use there, just not with the existing building.”
Madsen added that going from an office concept to a multifamily concept within the confines of the current building “is like comparing building a shoebox to building a watch.”
The extensive scope of work proposed by Harbert involves the installation of a new elevator, a new stairway, and extra windows to let in more natural light. Every inch of flooring would be stripped and replaced. New interior walls will go up. The bathrooms would be completely redone in order to meet ADA compliance. An outdoor gathering spot would be created near the entrance of the cafeteria with tables, chairs, and benches beneath the shade of large trees.
Madsen said he already has letters of intent from two companies ready to lease out the co-working space.
While city commissioners have spoken favorably of the office concept, they have expressed concerns about the cafeteria feature and the amount of traffic it would produce in a residential area.
At the Jan. 11 meeting, Mayor Phil Anderson said tearing down the building makes the most sense.
“I think we have proven in the marketplace that the building has no economic value There is no value to this building. It costs more to fix it than to” rebuild,” Anderson said then. “It’s better and more valuable as vacant land.”
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