November 21, 2009
What's Inside:
City approves stimulus grants for downtown
Four development projects OK’d
Four development projects OK’d
Photo by Todd Weddle / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo
Jay Wolf, of Wolf Heating and Cooling from St. Joseph, center, and Bart Armstrong, right, and Larry Hogan, left, look at the renderings of the Eshelman Building at the corner of Sixth and Edmond Streets Monday afternoon. Mr. Wolf was preparing a bid for the construction project. The St. Joseph City Council is awarding a grant for $175,429 to the Mid-City Partnership group who is rehabbing the structure and $75,000 to a group to put a Brazilian steak house in the building.
Stimulus money could bear fruit this week in Downtown St. Joseph.
The St. Joseph City Council approved contracts for four economic development projects Monday that will move forward thanks to more than $475,000 in federal stimulus money. The city voted to accept the funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in June, then chose the five projects that would receive money in July. After Monday’s vote, work can begin.
“They’ll be able to proceed this week, probably by this Friday,” Community Development Manager Gerald McCush said.
Mid-City Partnership received $175,429 to renovate the Eshelman Building at the corner of Sixth and Edmond streets while another group, ECBG LLC, received $75,000 to open a Brazilian Steakhouse within the Eshelman Building. JumboFox Inc. received $150,000 in stimulus funds and another $50,000 in reprogrammed CDBG funds to start a company that would provide digital education curriculums for Intel. The final project, Generationally Relevant Media, received $50,000 in stimulus money and $25,000 in reprogrammed CDBG funds to form a company involved with the creation of relevant media and its distribution to senior citizens.
A fifth project, an expansion of Foster’s Martini Bar, was approved for $25,000 this summer, but did not to have its contract approved Monday. Mr. McCush said he was waiting for the architect to finalize plans for the Foster’s project before putting a contract in place.
“We have until Nov. 29, so hopefully we’ll get that done in the next month,” Mr. McCush said.
The money comes in the form of forgivable loans, which are essentially federal grants with the city choosing who gets the money. If the projects come to fruition, then the money does not have to be repaid. The city can recover funds if a project is not completed, then allocate the money to another project.
All funds must be spent within four years, though Mr. McCush has stated that he hopes the projects the city has approved will use the money within one year.
“As far as the restaurant goes, they’ll be able to buy equipment this week. Things should begin to move forward fairly quickly now,” Mr. McCush said.
Clinton Thomas can be reached
at clintonthomas@npgco.com.
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Does anyone besides me see the irony in this? Shovel ready projects indeed! What good does a stimulus do a year after the "crisis" is abating? My grandchildren will be paying for a martini bar. Folks, unless we grab the leadership of this country by the throat and slap some sense into them, we are doomed as a nation.
?IJG.... you actually think the crisis is abating? i approve of this particular project, which is vital to our downtown. since we cannot stop the insanity, i see nothing wrong in going after our own tax dollars on a case by case basis. why let them go to another community? yes, the so called stimulus is a lot of bunk.....
on a more positive note, the old music building sure looks terrific. i can't wait for another nice eatery downtown.
i do wonder where the "reprogramed" cdbg funds came from?
glad to see the resturant comeing to down town. my question if its sucessfull where do we park. with all the bars on weekends sorta hard to find a place to park. most of the lots close to that area belong to private business. just thinking.
Who are the principals in Generational Media? Is this a local group? At best, I'm ambivalent about the need for this group -- and thinking the $75,000 might be better used elsewhere.
How many jobs are being created? That is what this all boils down to. Otherwise it just amounts to more political payoffs.
I wonder if prevailing wage rates will be paid on this project? According to Wikipedia this project meets the Davis/Bacon requirements. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Bacon_Act ) Personally I think it is a tremendous waste of money and if the pricing model the steakhouse uses are similar to the one on the Plaza in KC I will give it 6 months to a year before it closes then we can have another empty refurbished building just like the East Hills Mall.
All of you people who don't see the need for this are ignorant. This money needs to be spent downtown. I'm sure all of you people who "Don't get it", are satisfied letting downtown crumble. I makes me mad when you can fuss about spending money to stimulate a part of our city that needs desporate help. Personally I see progress, but right now I am embarrased at our downtowns state of disrepair. I'm sure your solution would be to just let it go and expand our city outwards at the edges. Maybe you folks that don't agree need to just stay up at your North Walmart and buy some more Dale Ernhart stickers or some in memory of Whitetrash decals.....
Citizen, perhaps the "stimulus" money would have been better spent actually fixing the crumbling downtown? Or maybe you just don't get it.
Look downtown has been falling apart since I was a kid but some money should go downtown but some of this money should have went to other areas of town as well to create jobs.It should have been spread around a little more.
mm, the availability of this funding was widely publicized. (remember this was a hotly debated topic) there were very few applicants from outside the downtown area. as i recall those who did apply were either not qualified or their applications were bungled.
?ijg, maybe you misread the article. the eschelman? building is being helped with this money. it was difficult to make a valid application and have it actually go to infrastructure because of the stricture on permanent job creation.
i insist on being positive and seeing this as a good thing..... signed polyanna.
The thing that bothers me about having tax dollars going downtown, is that our private investors don't seem to want to invest downtown.They will do it if our tax dollars are providing the engine to do something. Therefore, we end up going for the hand-out. I feel if it is not fit for private investment, it may not be fit for taxpayer dollars.
Heritage, I was speaking DIRECTLY to Citizen that called anyone that didn't fall lockstep with him/her as "ignorant". Citizen's statement was intellectually vacuous.
Heritage, I will address you, if I ever feel the need, directly.
i wonder what happened to the idea of putting a dock for boating in the downtown area? i know a lot of boaters that would spend money in the downtown area like Warsaw,mo. area does. take a new approach to renovating the downtown area, oh course those that don't boat would not see my views as relevant. i think a whole new approach to money spent downtown ought to have boaters included and show the beauty the river in the downtown area has. after all, we already have a parking area and room for this type of enjoyment here. look at atchison,Kansas. they are very proud of what they have and have a lot on tourist to see their town because of it.
I'm not calling anyone who doesn't agree ignorant. Just those who fail to see/care about downtowns state of disrepair. WHOISjohngalt....You can't fix downtown unless you inspire business owners to invest. This I feel will start a domino effect. Look at Downtown KC. Hopefully in ten years downtown will be the place to go.....
wow, ?IJG, don't get your trousers all bundled.
diligent, one of the reasons private investors are reluctant to invest in downtown is the issues of owners there who hoard their properties and will not sell them. their "sitting" on properties creates gaps in the progress. these same owners refuse to perform basic upkeep on the "valuable" property.
as downtown progresses, and it is already, property values will increase. taxes will go up. this will create more incentive to sell to avoid rising property taxes. at this point , with no real expense other than the (ridiculously) low property tax there is no drive to divest.
i am very happy to see that the city has moved forward to enforce the repair from the fire at the hood property. reasoned enforcement of property repair will drive the owners forward and get them to either "fix" or get off the pot.
?iJG . . . my, my, don't you just have a high opinion of yourself. It's a little arrogant of you to tell a grown adult to speak when they're spoken to.
I totally agree with the comment about what Atchison, Ks. has done with their riverfront. I like to go there, on occasion, to walk, because of it's beauty. Two places I would like to see improved are the old Plymouth Building and our riverfront, downtown. The boarded up Plymouth is on a busy corner and doesn't say too much, in a positive way, about our downtown. Concerning the river... I realize aesthetics would be hard to come by when you have a double-decker bridge and railroad tracks, so close to the front, but since we, at one time, put money in there, we ought to keep it up. I do enjoy looking at the success of the old Eshelman building. But, until some of the owners get off their profit margins, I don't see how the downtown can progress that far. In speaking of the riverfront, again...just because there isn't a riverboat any more, that doesn't mean the area shouldn't be kept up. This is a river town. People want to see the river when they come here. This seems to be one community that doesn't embrace that concept.
why i wonder, is that( we as a community don't embrace the fact that we are a river town)? San Antonio TX. has a river walk. Memphis tn. has a river walk. even hannibal mo. has an emphasis on the river. what is it in our town that they have we don't? true we have double Decker highway above the landing and it does take away from the historic side of the view. i would like to see a dock with concessions and more history in the downtown area like the mo. river landing. st. Louis has one. we need something new to stir interest of the people they can be proud of that will get them to come down to the landing and have picnic's and enjoy the area we started and didn't finish.people travel the river from time to time, i know it isn't often but it would give them a place to stop and visit and see the historic town of st. Joseph,mo. isn't that a town to be proud of too?