Nice building in Providence RI. What's it have to do with Market & Vincennes?

WDRB's Jessica Bard investigates the hitherto unknown "micro-loft" movement, coming soon to a concept being planned for the big hole in the ground at the corner of Market and Vincennes.

Paul Barber, Progressive Land Development partner, said his company plans to build a 50-unit micro-loft apartment complex called the Lancaster Lofts.

“Think about it as the tiny house movement brought to apartment living,” he said.

The early plans show the units are only about 300 square feet. The bed sits in a loft on top of the kitchen in some renderings. Barber said the goal is to get young people living close to downtown for an affordable price, between $500 and $900 per month.

If you're the suspicious type like me, you're wondering why Progressive Land Development chose a building at 131 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island to illustrate Lancaster Lofts.

I'm guessing it has something to do with these excerpts from the AS220 web site.

Founded by prolific artist, civic leader, and cultural agitator, Umberto Crenca in 1985, AS220 has developed, owns, and operates three buildings (a total of 100,000 sq ft) in Downtown Providence.

One of the buildings owned by AS220 is the Mercantile Block.

In addition to a wide breadth of public programming and our accomplishments in the realm of urban revitalization, AS220 also provides 60 live and work studios, of which 80% are designated affordable housing. This makes AS220 the leading provider of affordable housing in downtown Providence.

AS220 offers residential and work studios in three buildings: the 115 Empire St Complex, the Dreyfus, on the corner of Mathewson and Washington Street and the Mercantile Block, neighboring the Dreyfus at 131 Washington St. AS220 provides space to artists who seek a diverse, stable and affordable studio environment. The residents of the third floor of Empire Street and the Dreyfus and the Mercantile Block studios are a community of ideas rather than simply a community of tenants.

In short, while it may not be exactly what affordable housing proponents are saying, we all can visualize the approaching photo op: "You wanted affordable housing? Right here it is, at Lancaster Lofts! Come and get some."

And, everyone has to begin including affordable housing in their developments, or so City Hall insists is stipulated in the comprehensive plan.

Micro lofts = affordable housing? This could get interesting.

While you're at it, some vintage Gahan campaign finance, with more surely queued at direct deposit.

Wanna bet the eventual design looks nothing like that building in Providence? But is sure looks good on the evening news.

Progressive Land Development proposes to reinvent the wheel at Lancaster Lofts as Deaf Gahan says wait, is that check in the mail yet?

We touched on this a couple of weeks ago.

Lancaster-themed "Micro Lofts" soon will inhabit Duggins' anchor wasteland at the corner of Market and Vincennes.

If there isn't a solid chicken-fried steak with requisite non-lumpy milk gravy coming out of one of the eateries in this planned "Lancaster nostalgia" development -- think of it as Break Wind Too -- then all the retro branding will have been in vain.

Progressive Land Development didn't appear on Mayor Jeff Gahan's massive list of 2017 campaign contributors, although HWC Engineering's president Ed Jolliffe deposited a cool $5k into the coffers. I'm betting PLD makes its debut some time in 2018.

But credit PLD with considerable newspeak savvy: there'll be no restaurants in the commercial space, but food trucks.

Businesses, 'micro' apartments planned for former Lancaster, Market Boy properties, by Danielle Grady (News of Tom May)

NEW ALBANY — “Micro loft” apartments and commercial space will be hallmarks of a project planned for New Albany’s former Tommy Lancaster Restaurant and Market Boy Grocery properties.

The New Albany Redevelopment Commission began seeking developers for the city-owned properties last summer after purchasing and tearing down the iconic, but languishing New Albany businesses. This April, they finally approved a development agreement from the New Albany-based Progressive Land Development company for a three-story, multi-use apartment complex.

Progressive Land Development Owner, Paul Barber, said that New Albany legal counsel is looking over the agreement, which could be finalized within the next couple of weeks, according to Director of City Operations Mike Hall.

The city only received one proposal for the property, but Redevelopment Director Josh Staten is satisfied with Barber’s plans. The city originally asked for a multi-use project, and they got one.

“I think it’s a unique design, it’s something that’s relatively new to the area, and it’s in an area of town that we’re excited about,” Staten said.

Lancaster Lofts: How many square feet in a micro loft? 260? 400? We're about to find out.

Last weekend we surveyed the most recent Redevelopment Commission meeting minutes in search of information about the festering municipal eyesore at the corner of Vincennes and Market.

Lancaster-themed "Micro Lofts" soon will inhabit Duggins' anchor wasteland at the corner of Market and Vincennes.

"Mr. Toole stated that this project will include Micro Lofts, which is a new concept seen in bigger cities, geared towards Millennials and Empty Nesters that want to be able to travel and go and come as they please. Mr. Toole stated that he believes that this concept is fresh to the market country wide but is a hit in the larger Metropolitan Statistical Areas."

The April 10 minutes didn't specify square footage for the micro lofts at Duggins Does Lancaster Lofts, but these units in Detroit are a useful comparison.

A Look Inside Of The Future 260 Square Foot Micro Lofts At The New 28Grand, by Shianne Nocerini (Daily Detroit)

The development may be large, but the units inside are not. We’re talking micro lofts.

You might be wondering what a micro loft is, and it sounds exactly like what it is. It’s a tiny apartment with a touch of a loft sensibility. Each unit will be roughly 260 square feet.

28Grand will be a 101,000 square foot building that will have 218 micro lofts and 13 floors. The units will feature nine foot ceilings and large picture windows that are 6 feet high and 10 feet long.

Or, we can begin the discussion at a whopping 400 square feet. Speaking personally, I think micro lofts are a good idea. Not everyone wants to own a McMansion or rent a conventional apartment.

As for the price of one of these micro lofts, there where Tommy Lancaster Restaurant and Market Boy once stood -- that's going to tell the tale, isn't it?

Would you live in a 400 square foot apartment?, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

Our friend Joe Minicozzi at the geoanalytics firm Urban3 gives presentations around the country sharing deeply valuable data on which development patterns benefit cities and which do not. In some of these presentations, he likes to share an example of a real estate developer who, back in 1994, chose to fix up an old hotel in downtown Asheville, North Carolina and convert it into small apartments with a store on the bottom floor.

Joe explains that there are three real ways to provide affordable housing: 1) Get an incredible real estate deal, 2) Get it subsidized by a government or nonprofit entity, or 3) Build smaller, no frills homes.

This downtown Asheville development went the latter route. The apartment units were 400 square feet each so they could be offered at a cheap monthly rent.

When Joe presents this project for audiences of elected officials, business people and city leaders around the country, there's typically a reaction along the lines of: Who would live in a 400 square foot apartment? How could they possibly rent these units?

It's at that point that he asks the audience: Okay, do any of you live in a 400 square foot apartment? Sometimes a few people raise their hands, but usually not more than one or two.

Next he asks: Alright, but who in this room has lived in a 400 square foot apartment? All of sudden, the conversation shifts. Lots of people are raising their hands. They're thinking of their college years, their post-graduate days, the period after their divorce, the time they lost their job and had to downsize quickly...

When you're talking to a room full of suits with six-figure household incomes, the idea of a 400 square foot apartment seems ludicrous. They can't imagine anyone living in it and therefore, they don't create the circumstances for it to be built. The local building codes won't readily allow such a small unit, but the city staff and elected leaders don't think twice about it because they can't conceive of a 400 square foot lifestyle. Meanwhile, the bankers don't make financing available for a project like that because, of course, none of them live in 400 square foot apartments, and for the developers, it's the same story. That's why in Asheville, a city of 90,000 people, there were hardly any small apartments available downtown at the time that this building was redeveloped (and there still aren't many today).

But when a room full of powerful people starts reflecting back on their lives, they recognize the specific prism through which they're viewing things. "Sometimes we go into decision making thinking about where we are in our lives," Joe explains. "We take our biases, and assume that needs to be the standard or the rule." This is a serious mistake, though ...

 ... those of us that are happily enjoying affordable small apartments need to make our voices heard and share with those in power that these units work, and that they provide very necessary housing at a reasonable price.

And if you're a banker, a developer, or a local government leader, stop viewing your city only through middle class and middle-aged eyes. Just because a particular form of housing looks utterly unappealing to you at this point in your life, it doesn't mean there aren't plenty of residents who wouldn't gladly live there if it meant an affordable monthly rent. We miss out on so many opportunities to provide housing for people because of this prevailing elitist mindset which says "No one would want to live there!" In fact, there are plenty of people who, when faced with a choice between spending most of their income on housing, or moving in with relatives, or even becoming homeless, would much prefer a small apartment over any of these options.

Lancaster-themed "Micro Lofts" soon will inhabit Duggins' anchor wasteland at the corner of Market and Vincennes.

If there isn't a solid chicken-fried steak with requisite non-lumpy milk gravy coming out of one of the eateries in this planned "Lancaster nostalgia" development -- think of it as Break Wind Too -- then all the retro branding will have been in vain.

As an aside, the Green Mouse was told that former redevelopment kingpin and chief Breakwater public subsidy coordinator David Duggins, currently in charge of ensuring that public housing resembles the post-tsunami templates above, actually moved into an apartment at Breakwater at some point last year, his HWC benefits plan having expired.

Perhaps soon he'll be given a summer home at Lancaster Flats (oops -- "lofts").

It also means that Duggins will be eligible to run for office in New Albany when next year's primary rolls around -- and that's far more terrifying than the Amazing Colossal Man, primarily because we don't need a $125K councilman.

Now there's a guy who can demolish public housing lickety-split. Indeed: when will it (the corruption) stop?

Read all about the micro-lofting proposal by a company that's so progressive, they even include it in the name.

---

MINUTES
NEW ALBANY REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

The regular meeting of the New Albany Redevelopment Commission was held on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 2:30 p.m., in the Assembly Room, City-County Building, New Albany, Indiana.

(snip)

The second item of Old Business was the Update for the Former Market Boy/Tommy Lancaster’s Site. Matt Toole, of Progressive Land Development, presented a concept for the site. Their goal with this project is to tie in a concept back to the heritage, to include Tommy Lancaster’s and a design similar to the Mercantile Building. They are looking to build loft apartments with mixed use retail on the first level of this three story three-sided brick with HardiePlank siding on the back of the building. Handouts detailing the design of this project were passed out to the Commission Members. Mr. Toole stated that the total square footage would be about 36,000 square feet, 12,000 square feet on each floor. He explained that they had a market study conducted on the entire southern Indiana market. Mr. Toole stated that this project will include Micro Lofts, which is a new concept seen in bigger cities, geared towards Millennials and Empty Nesters that want to be able to travel and go and come as they please. Mr. Toole stated that he believes that this concept is fresh to the market country wide but is a hit in the larger Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Mr. Toole stated that they have invested three years in to this possible development. The development will include Micro Lofts as well as a larger one bedroom unit and retail space below to include small restaurants and boutique style businesses. He explained that a goal with this development is to revitalize that corridor as well as encourage residents to utilize the Ohio River Greenway to help drive growth to the City of New Albany. Mr. Barksdale stated that the Vincennes Street, uptown corridor needs help and focus. He believes that this could be the anchor to start revitalizing that area. Mr. Barksdale asked if the retail is going to face Vincennes Street only. Mr. Toole stated that they have to work around the IDEM concerns and as a result of those, the retail will mostly face Vincennes, with some of the amenities coming off of Market Street. Mr. Toole stated that there will be green space on the property as well. He stated that they meet the parking quota. The President noted that the rendering was 4 stories. Mr. Toole stated that they pulled a design that was close to what they were looking to build. The Director asked for the total project cost. Mr. Toole responded a total of $3.5 million including site improvement. The President asked if there are any potential commercial tenants. Mr. Toole stated that nothing has been finalized, but they have had interest. Mr. Middleton asked for a target completion date, to which Mr. Toole stated this would be determined by the starting point, but that this project, weather conducive, should take no more than 8-10 months. Mr. Stewart asked if these would be rentals, to which Mr. Toole responded that they would be rentals. Mr. Dickey requested that the final renderings be sent in when they become available. Mr. Barksdale motioned to approve the Development Agreement for Lancaster Lofts contingent upon legal review. Mr. Dickey seconded and the motion carried 5-0.