'DRAMATIC' DECISION Emotions drove 'head-scratcher' to preserve TCAPS building

Aug. 20—TRAVERSE CITY — When Architect Ken Richmond heard from his former neighbors in the Boardman neighborhood that the Traverse City Area Public Schools' building at 412 Webster St. could be demolished, he felt it was the wrong approach to take.

For much of this summer, the district had been considering a deal with property investors Will Bartlett and Tom O'Hare, of Keel Capital LLC, which would see the facility known as the Tompkins Boardman Administration Building torn down for housing.

At a July meeting, TCAPS trustees had given the administration the go-ahead to begin negotiations on a possible $1.2 million purchase agreement, which would have generated a planned 26 new units in the neighborhood.

Later that month, at Boardman Neighborhood Association, Richmond heard more about the proposal, and he found himself saying publicly that, "TCAPS, you guys, you need a different developer. This is just the wrong one," as he recalled.

"And then I walked out the door and went, 'Oh no, I think I have to do this,'" he recounted. "I believe in saving buildings — not tearing them down — as much as we can."

He and his former neighbor, fellow architect Eric Gerstner, formed Boardman Building LLC shortly thereafter. When they lived in the Boardman neighborhood, their houses had been the closest to the Boardman building, he said.

Michigan licensing records show a July 26 filing date for the organization's articles of incorporation, and the pair began drafting preliminary plans for how to make use of the failing building while keeping its structure intact.

It wasn't until last Monday, the day of the TCAPS board of education's most recent regular board meeting, that the pair were finally able to deliver a proposal to the district.

"We were scrambling, I'll admit it, to try to pull together a good team and get all the pieces to fit from a financial and marketability standpoint," he said.

Board members that night ultimately chose to pursue Gerstner and Richmond's offer, and negotiations are now beginning between them and the district, both Gerstner and TCAPS Superintendent John VanWagoner confirmed late last week.

"It was pretty dramatic," Gerstner said. "I've never been to a public meeting where it seemed like the tide changed or that the emotions of people changed so much."

Keel Capital withdrew their offer that Tuesday morning.

They'd been pushing the district to make a decision at that meeting, Bartlett said.

With multiple potential projects in the works, the corporation needed to protect its time and devote its resources to the ventures that had the best potential of succeeding. Plus, with much of the deliberation about the deal occurring in public meetings, it was in their best interests to have a deal quickly, or risk "getting swooped," he said.

Bartlett said his "jaw just dropped," when trustees said that no one on the board had any intention of allowing the building to be torn down.

If that were the case, he wasn't sure why the board entertained their proposal for so long, he said.

"I get told 'no' all the time," he said. "That's fine. I just wish they would have told us 'no' from the beginning."

He felt that he and his partner were acting in good faith, especially by incorporating many elements into their plan that the board and the community wanted — such as adding deed restrictions against short-term rentals and shrinking some of the interior building sizes to get some of the units closer to what might be called "workforce housing."

Ultimately, no plan for that property would be able to create actual workforce housing, but Bartlett said he and his partner "tried to be good neighbors," and wanted to build something that would be tasteful and in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.

The building that sits there now "is no prize," but is in a good location, he said.

Bartlett called it a "head-scratcher" that the board would opt for a proposal that offered less money to be used for students, and less housing to the community.

"I hope it wasn't all a waste of time, but I think it might have been," he said. "I think it might have been just like 'dead on arrival' from the beginning and we may have been led along."

At the board's regular July meeting, when trustees formally gave the administration approval to begin negotiating with Keel, Gordon VanWieren, a real estate attorney from Thrun Law Firm, advised the board members that they'd be unlikely to see an offer that didn't call for the building to be demolished.

"This is my 38th year of doing this, and ... the common thread is the highest and best use (for a school building) is for educational purpose," he said at that meeting. "And if you don't have that, then to try to do something with an old building is very challenging."

Until the Boardman Building LLC offer came on the table, Bartlett's was the only plan that had ever officially come before the board.

VanWagoner said he was aware that Richmond and Gerstner had an interest in the building, but "to be bluntly honest, we had multiple people" — about four groups total — "come in that were like that."

"I wasn't sure who was going to submit or not, and especially when it got to the day of (the meeting), I really didn't expect it," he said.

VanWagoner said having multiple interested parties is "always great, but, quite honestly, it just takes the right one."

"I'm pretty hopeful," he said of Richmond and Gerstner's offer. "They've got experience, and I think their intent is very purposeful."

Keel's offer was contingent on the city of Traverse City granting zoning approval to facilitate the project by March 31. If that rezoning didn't occur by then, the offer would have dropped to $800,000.

Bartlett said that was a "backup plan," not a "backdoor" attempt at spending less for the site.

"That is something that we didn't want to do," he said. "We would have tried our absolute hardest to get the zoning change."

If anyone expects to do anything useful with that property, the zoning change will be necessary, he added.

That's something both Gerstner and Richmond concede, but they said they're confident the zoning change will be successful.

The key to keeping the walls intact will be using "as much of the building," as they can, Richmond said.

"It's a good building, really well-built, and it's not very old," he said. "There's no reason why clever floor plan can't solve most of the issues that go with it."

VanWagoner said he was appreciative of the work Bartlett and O'Hare did and, even though circumstances didn't pan out this time, he didn't see it as a bridge burned.

Bartlett said Keel is shifting focus to new projects now, including one in Grand Traverse County. He wished TCAPS and Richmond well moving forward, adding that he seems like a talented architect who would do a good job if he's able to execute his plan.

"I'm in the process of moving to Traverse City, and will eventually have my kids at TCAPS," he added. "So I want what's best for the school system ... but I think that the board made the wrong decision."

Report for America corps member and data journalist William T. Perkins' reporting is made possible by a partnership between the Record-Eagle and Report for America, a journalism service project founded by the nonprofit Ground Truth Project.

Generous community support helps fund a local share of the Record-Eagle/RFA partnership. To support RFA reporters in Traverse City, go to www.record-eagle.com/rfa.