The Waterfront is coming! The Waterfront is coming! This should be read with your inner monologue’s best Paul Revere voice. Seriously though, the bids are in and we have a vendor selected, with the hope that we break ground in June or July. Why so long? Well, read on.
First, some background. The current iteration of developing the waterfront began about eight years ago when the previously committed developer relinquished their rights to the parcel. At that time, the City reviewed the strategy to facilitate development on the site. As part of that strategy, a change in direction was contemplated. This change focused on creating a partnership similar to other developments such as Pointe Place, Stonewall Kitchen, and Silver Square. Here, the City would convey the parcel at a below-market rate in exchange for tax revenue commitments for developing the site. These commitments would support the debt service needed for the City to make certain improvements to the site, namely creating public roads, utilities, and a park. In addition, the City is obligated to clean up previously outlined environmental issues due to prior uses of the parcel.
In time the City released a request for proposals and had four prequalified firms interested in the parcel. Two of the firms ultimately provided responses to the request for proposal, and in 2018, negotiations began between the City and CPI Inc., a business entity of Cathartes, for terms of the development agreement. These terms were negotiated and agreed to in 2019 and include, in part:
- Purchase price: $3,372,500.
- Mixed-use development to include space for multi-family residential, retail and office, restaurant, and hotel.
- Total size of the proposed buildings: 500,000 square feet.
- 475 multi-family residential units or hotel rooms.
- 25,000 square feet of street-level commercial/restaurant space and 60,000 square feet of development space for a hotel.
- City to use tax increment financing (TIF) funding to complete public improvements: bluff excavation, site grading, shoreline stabilization, waterfront park, streets and public utilities with the developer paying the debt service through a guaranteed assessed tax valuation.
Originally, we slated 2019/2020 to begin work on the project. Of course, other factors changed that. The parties stuck with it and we revised terms, dates, etc., as the world returned to something close to normal (a relative thought, I suppose). In 2020 and 2021, CPI worked with the
Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Committee (CWDAC) to lay out a site plan consistent with the vision. In the end, phases are a bit different, and the unit count was reduced to 420, with 20,000 square feet of commercial space, (a previously considered commercial pod will become public open space).
Still guessing? Well, we prequalified four bidders, and in the end, zero vendors bid on the project. There were concerns about timing, as the Army Corps of Engineers only allows the City to do work in the Cochecho River (shoreland stabilization) in certain conditions, and those were winter conditions, and the availability of subcontractors was an issue. We regrouped, worked with the Army Corps of Engineers and other state and federal regulators to review options, and rebid the package to the same four pre-selected vendors.
Those bids were due in mid-March. March 16, to be exact. We hoped bids would come back close to $15 million in value. We figured they’d come back closer to $18 million. They actually came back between $20-21 million. We then identified some deductions – things we’d like to see, such as benches for the park, hardscape, and walkway materials, etc., but can live without or delay. In the end, we are able to do the work for a price just above $19.5 million. This Wednesday, staff and Cochecho Waterfront Development board members presented this result to the City Council. We are asking the City Council to authorize fully funding those improvements. The City Council referred a resolution to authorize increased bonding for the project to a public hearing on Wednesday, April 12, with a vote to occur at its Wednesday, April 26 meeting.
At the April 26 meeting, the Council will also be asked to award the construction bid for the project to Northeast Earth Mechanics. Northeast, for its part, says it will focus its resources on this project and can start work in late June or early July, depending on the supply chain for the materials needed, with work expected to last up to three years. By locking them in now, the City will be assured that they have the staff on hand and sub-contractors in place for the work.
Where does this leave us? Well, for one thing, we are moving forward to ensure that CPI will be ready to build once the improvements are in place. They reviewed the bids and agreed that inflation and demand pricing had impacted the costs, but feel that the value of the project is still there. Both parties want to stand by their commitments under the agreement. So, we move forward.
I’ve said before that this project, or an iteration of it, was something I reviewed in 1996 as part of a senior capstone project while in college. For me, this project is 30 years in the making. For Dana Lynch and other members of CWDAC, it's even longer, when you consider the conversations he has been involved with as a member of the community. From time to time I’m asked when we’ll see the end of the project. “Will it happen?” Absolutely, I say, and in 2025, when there are buildings on the site and we as residents start enjoying the park, this will be behind us. In the short term, I hold my breath and seek to provide information and resources to the City Council as it makes this most important of decisions.
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