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November 14, 2003GT COMMONS REDEVELOPMENT: Building 50 work beginsAbout 80 have reserved condo spaceByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - After three years of preparations, all the pieces are finally in place for redevelopment of the former state hospital buildings at the Grand Traverse Commons, developer Ray Minervini said. Work began this week on removing asbestos, lead paint and other hazardous materials from the south section of Building 50. Demolition of a non-historic connector building between the south wing and what used to be nurses quarters will begin soon. Then, work will begin on turning the historic Building 50 into modern residential units with space for retail and service business. The redevelopment will create 22,000 square feet of usable space in the old nurses building, called Hall 20, and 46,000 square feet in the south "pod" of the old main building, to be called Southview. Buyers will be able to move into five residential units in Hall 20 in the spring and eight units in Southview next summer, Minervini said. About 80 people and businesses have put down deposits to reserve condo space at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, which includes all of Building 50, several cottages and some auxiliary buildings that the Minervini Group is redeveloping. The deposits secure all the available residential space at both Phase I portions - Hall 20 and Southview - plus most of the rest of the residential space in the 180,000-square-foot south half of Building 50, Minervini said. Condo prices range between $150 to $200 a square foot, which translates to $75,000 to $100,000 for a 500-square-foot unit and $500,000 for a deluxe 2,500-square-footer. The big enticement is that resident owners will pay no state income or local property taxes for the next 14 years because of a state "renaissance zone" designation for the project, said James Reardon. He's a partner in The Minervini Group along with Minervini's son, Raymond Minervini II. The renaissance zone designation can cut more than a third off the cost of owning a unit, Reardon said. Two things finally got the project moving this week. The state Department of Environmental Quality signed a $1 million brownfield grant, covering much of the cleanup and demolition work, and a group of four local banks put up over $5 million in construction financing. The banks are First Community Bank of Harbor Springs and Petoskey, Traverse City State Bank, Alden State Bank and Honor State Bank. "We had contacts from large national banks, but we wanted to keep it local," Minervini said. "We hope to keep most contracting work local as well." Minervini and his partners in the Minervini Group had expected to go directly from re-roofing the entire Building 50 complex last year into construction. State budget woes, however, stalled the DEQ brownfield grant for 18 months. The next phase, to begin next summer, includes what Minervini calls a "mercado" on the first floor - an indoor marketplace lined with small shops and stores aimed at serving residents and workers from the nearby Munson Medical Center and Pavilions senior housing complex.
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