Letter to the Editor: City has spent time and money trying to save the Wayne

The following letter is written to Kay Hegge, in response to her presentation to the Crookston City Council on Aug. 23, which included a submitted letter that was also published on Thursday, Aug. 26 in the Times:
   

Dear Kay,
   

Greetings from the City of Crookston!  Thank you for taking the time to attend the August 23, 2010 meeting of the Crookston City Council.  At the meeting and in your letter you requested a written response to your letter by the end of the month.  Please be advised that this letter is intended to be responsive to that request. 
  

In particular, you requested that the City of Crookston work with Polk County to redirect the funds intended for demolition into stabilization of the Wayne Hotel.  At this point the City Council has not provided formal direction for staff to pursue the stabilization option.  In the absence of definitive direction, City staff will not be actively working to facilitate this concept.  Further, after reviewing the information provided by you and JLG Architect’s we feel that there are several significant and material omissions including:
    • Hazardous Material Abatement- There are no funds included in the $322,880.50 stabilization estimate for the remediation and disposal of existing hazardous materials in the building.  Pigeon waste, asbestos, and chemicals used from photographic processing are known concerns in the building.  While we do not have an estimate to address hazardous material issues in the building one can reasonably assume that they are significant.
    • Implementation of the Stabilization Measures- Your proposed stabilization measures include interior abatement and demolition; roof demolition; and construction of a new roof.  As you recall significant portions of the first, second, and third floors have collapsed into the basement of the building.  This fact precludes the possibility of completing the interior abatement, interior demolition, or any unaccounted for hazardous material abatement.  All of the aforementioned items are necessary to mitigate the negative impact to adjacent properties and the health, safety, and welfare of Crookston residents.  Fees associated with disposing of any interior abatement, interior demolition, or roof demolition also do not appear to be accounted for in the proposed stabilization cost. 
    • Architectural and Engineering Fees- The stabilization estimate does not include any fees for the design, engineering, project management, or construction management for the proposed stabilization measures.  This could easily add an additional 10 to 20% to the expense. 
   

The City of Crookston put considerable time and effort into facilitating an economically viable reuse for the Wayne Hotel.  In fact, the City of Crookston spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 1990’s acquiring adjacent property and working with the previous building owner in an effort to revitalize the property.  Other efforts have followed but unfortunately none have been successful.  Toward that end, we can understand why Polk County wants to ensure that the funds allocated for demolition only need to be spent once. 
   

As indicated at the Council meeting, the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority will be asked to create a task force charged with creating guiding principles for the revitalization of downtown Crookston.  It is our understanding that the CHEDA Board will discuss the framework for this process at their October meeting.  The task force will consider many aspects of the downtown business climate. We need to be flexible so our buildings stay occupied. We need to allow the owners do things that will give them a return on their investment and a positive outcome for businesses. We cannot exclusively count on “historical buildings” to bring in people to the downtown area. The history of the past twenty years has shown that particular economic development strategy has not worked well for Crookston. After all the new side walk pavers, new streets, and new store fronts, downtown has still declined. Some buildings will have to go, while other building uses may need to be modified to keep them occupied.  A solid revitalization strategy depends on finding the next generation of uses for our downtown buildings.  This next generation of uses cannot solely rely on non-income producing uses such as art centers, pavilions, government offices, and visitor centers.  It is our personal hope that the guiding principles that are established as part of the process are visionary, flexible, based in economic reality, and are action oriented. 
   

Finally, your letter to the Council makes several references to the assessment recently completed by Artspace.  In the spirit of having an intellectually honest discussion about the direction established with the Artspace Preliminary Feasibility Report, we think it is important to note that Artspace did not think one of their projects would have enough artist support to create an economically viable project in Crookston.  The excerpt below from page 5 of the Artspace Preliminary Feasibility Report is illustrative:
   

We recommend proceeding with an Artist Market Survey if we are confident that it will indicate the existence of a market sufficient to support a project of at least 25 (and preferably 35) units. In a few cases, we recommend an Artist Market Survey to a city that wishes to have a better or more complete picture of the size and makeup of its arts community, even though we believe that the survey is unlikely to reveal a market large enough for an Artspace project. That’s the case in Crookston.
   

From our perspective, assessing the preliminary viability of Artspace doing a project was the primary purpose of their visit.  Since a project was not determined to be viable there should be careful thought and consideration given to the applicability, practicality, and cost effectiveness of a market assessment. 
   

Your interest in improving the Crookston community is greatly appreciated.  We look forward to identifying goals for our downtown that are mutually beneficial and have the potential to be implemented.  If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 281-1232.  Thank you for your time and consideration.