There has recently been coverage in this paper and considerable public discussion about the fate of the large lot that had previously been slated for the city of Savannah’s new cultural arts center.
As we’ve discussed in this column, the new cultural arts center will be built on the lot bounded by Montgomery Street, Oglethorpe Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. So the city is selling the vacant block bounded by Hall Street, MLK, Hall Lane and Montgomery.
The available parcel is just five short blocks west of Forsyth Park, sits on high ground and occupies a key stretch of the MLK/Montgomery corridor.
At the moment, that block seems to be just outside the area of active investment, but it’s a great site with almost limitless potential in the coming decades.
If the lot were privately owned, we’d probably just be looking for the buyer willing to shell out the most dough. On the other hand, a savvy private property owner with some money in the bank might just want to sit on the property until developers see its potential.
But when governments divest themselves of property, there are other concerns beyond maximizing profit. Those concerns include future tax revenue, public safety and neighborhood development.
When the state of Georgia sold the former Division of Family and Children Services property (also known as the old Sears building) bounded by Henry, Bull, Duffy and Drayton streets, the state simply took the highest bid.
As it turned out, the new owner did not have viable plans for development, so the property is still sitting there.
Over the years, many have suggested various civic uses for the old Sears building, but those folks are working under the mistaken assumption that the property is not suited for private development. It’s actually a tremendous site for private development, but no investors have wanted to pay the original purchaser enough to acquire the parcel.
And keep in mind there were a number of viable bidders for the old Sears building when the state decided to sell it. If one of those slightly lower bids had been accepted, we would have some sort of significant economic activity there.
So the city is right to consider specific uses of the Hall Street property, and I generally agree with the ideas of city leaders detailed in a recent article in this newspaper, including housing on Montgomery Street and commercial development on MLK.
Alderman Van Johnson also appropriately noted that, since the closing of the nearby Food Lion, the west side of downtown is still in need of a grocery store.
My fear is that all of these ideas are insufficiently bold. Given the site’s large size and incredible potential, we should have a lofty vision for its future use.
Let’s consider that failed Food Lion for a moment.
Given the turmoil within the company, the store might have been doomed from the beginning, but there were other problems too.
The key issue was not that it was overly ambitious for a grocery store to move to that portion of MLK, but that the Food Lion was so mediocre in every aspect that it could not possibly compete with the downtown Kroger, which is patronized by all of downtown’s demographic groups — rich and poor, old and young, black and white.
I live more or less equi-distant from Kroger and from the failed Food Lion, but it never even occurred to me to shop at the Food Lion after my initial trip.
If we had seen a dramatically nicer grocery store on the west side of downtown, it probably would have had a good chance of prospering.
So it’s fine, when looking at the Hall Street site, to imagine affordable housing as part of the mix and to envision commercial development along MLK.
But, according to the height map for the historic district, four stories are allowed facing Montgomery and five stories along MLK. We can find examples of good buildings of similar size just a few blocks north.
So commercial development along MLK could have residential units above. And residential development along Montgomery could be dense enough to include a mix of affordable and market-rate housing.
The site is, after all, entirely within the confines of the historic district. We shouldn’t shy away from a grand vision for it.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.
By Bill Dawers