City Council Minutes 1998 09 01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Louisville was always on the cutting-edge of technology. It had electricity and phones not long after they were invented. How far do you think Louisville would have grown as a community if we had stopped some of our early entrepreneurs at the turn of the Century, from doing the unknown, from taking a risk, from creating change, especially if it only meant having to park their horses and walk a few blocks. So where does this leave us today? Well, since I do not take getting knocked down easily, I began after our meeting on August 8, to look for solutions to the dilemma I now found myself involved in the middle of resolving. Building, with no major tenant, in addition to all the parking issues. So I turned to Terry Kmeger, who I've been working with in the DBA's economic development committee, for a possible solution to the tenant issue. We looked at the idea of selling the building and he brought it up at his weekly meeting at his office at the Colorado Group. From that came a group of investors, some of them long-term Louisville residents, who were trying to relocate their businesses from Boulder to Louisville. Last week, Ed and I received a letter of intent to purchase our building, contingent on this PUD passing tonight. These people are here to introduce themselves to you and to talk about their plans for the building. In addition, much work has gone into working on the parking resolution including a plan, that we've talked about, that the Mayor has been working on for a permit system that I think would be extremely fair and equitable. Also, we have contacted several property owners downtown who have expressed an interest in leasing space to us for parking, if that becomes necessary. You also have my word that I will be extremely involved in making sure a future parking solution is found for downtown and in putting in the time required to make that happen. These solutions will take time and I do not believe that it is fair that you make us pay this high price and become totally responsible for parking at this late date. If this equitably passes tonight, the contract for the building will be signed in the next couple of days and from my understanding construction plans will begin immediately. The timing right now would be very good because the tenants who are currently left in our building, including myself, will have a new home in the State Mercantile building without being displaced from downtown Louisville during construction. If the PUD does not pass tonight, we are left with a half-empty building that, without an owner-occupant, does not make much financial sense. In addition to that, I have spent nearly ten-thousand dollars in getting to this point tonight. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine things would come to this point. I strongly urge each of you to look at what we have put into this project and allow it to become a reality." Ruskus introduced Dale Johnson, one of the investors interested in working with the project. Dale Johnson stated that he has lived in Louisville since 1981. He was asked to put a face on this project as someone who was actually going to invest in this building. He explained that there are three owner-occupants interested in purchasing this building: Mortgage Max, a mortgage brokerage firm; Romaeo, Ridgeway, and Vincent, a law firm specializing in the rights of elderly and disabled people; and Johnson & Johnson, his law firm. He explained his involvement in the Louisville community, and the desire of the prospective purchasers to move their offices to Louisville. He stated that they could not do that with the current parking restrictions and he did not feel their businesses were the type to generate a large parking demand. He introduced his partner, along with Martha Ridgeway and Rick Romaeo and asked Council approve this project. 10