Council members Jewel Cannada-Wynn, Ron Townsend and John Jerralds expressed their concerns about the proposed apartments for the Maritime Park. They asked for assurances that the rentals will be affordable to the average person.
Developer Scott Davison told the city council that the new design plan calls for 160-200 apartments to be built at the upper levels of the buildings on Main Street across from City Hall. Those buildings will have four distinct layers – parking underneath, retail at street level (30,000 sq. ft.), office spaces (40,000-50,000 sq. ft.) and then the apartments. He said the apartments are in step with the downtown housing study and its recommendations and the renters will give a 24/7 vibrancy to the park.
Davison couldn’t commit on the rental rates of the apartments, but said that they won’t be “Elitist apartments.”
Construction representatives said their work is on schedule and that citizens will see vertical construction on the site around the first of the year.
Ed Spears told the council that the project is about 1.7 percent over budget, but well within the 8 percent contingencies established by the CMPA board.
One area of concern that the council didn’t question was minority participation. As of October, Maritime Park Development Partners have contracted for $12 million of which about 14.5 percent has been with minority-owned businesses, 88 percent has been locally-owned businesses. According to the Covenant with the Community, the contractors must reflect the demographics of the community.
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Ed Spears sent me this update on the budget with this note: “Saw your post on your blog and wanted to provide you with the side showing the budget numbers. As you will see, $36 million awarded and under contract with $10 million to go and 1.7% over our control estimates.” See Budget Update 11-15-10.