Bradenton is on the move with several improvement projects
The city of Bradenton is making solid strides to revitalize neighborhoods, remove blight and improve economic opportunity. At the same time, one major development on the drawing board for years suffered yet another frustrating setback.
The percolating projects
The most expansive development now in the works holds the promise of boosting the 14th Street West southern gateway into the city as well as Village of the Arts. The old Manatee Inns site on 14th, long vacant after the city purchased the property in 2006 and demolished the deteriorating building, sits on 3.3 acres ripe for just the kind of project now proposed.
The concept for workforce housing features two rows of buildings with some 80 housing units within three mixed-use buildings, separated by green space for the kind of pop-up events and public art projects envisioned by Realize Bradenton. The street-side building would feature ground-floor commercial space with live-work units above. The other two buildings would offer options for residential and live-work units.
Sarasota-based Beneficial Communities, in association with Bradenton's Fawley Bryant architectural firm, presented their conceptual design for the project to the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority, impressing the DDA board. The City Council will take up the proposal in several weeks.
The development would be particularly attractive to millennials, who express the desire for a downtown living and working environment in walkable and bike-able neighborhoods where entertainment venues are nearby and vehicular transportation is not vital. Communities across the country are vying for this up-and-coming younger generation of creative minds as a way to spur future economic prosperity. Both Bradenton and Manatee County are focused on competing in this arena.
Should this project move forward, Beneficial would apply for federal tax credits. If this project is approved to serve individual and family incomes between $25,000 and $37,000, rents would range from $500 to $800. Those dollar amounts would appeal to millennials fresh out of college with low annual salaries, the bonus being living in a new residence at affordable rates.
Manatee County's young professionals have been clamoring for such an opportunity. This project comes at the right time and the right place, and we hope it moves forward and succeeds.
Village of the Arts will benefit from this apartment complex with a new vibrant population nearby. And in late June, the city approved the expansion of the village's overlay district boundaries by one block west of 14th Street West and north to Ninth Avenue West. The Manatee Inns site now sits inside those borders.
With overlay district codes more lenient than other city regulations, Village of the Arts business owners can be more creative with their buildings -- expanding the neighborhood's current crop of colorful businesses and homes and growing visitation and commerce.
Fourteenth Street West presents challenges in overcoming negative public perceptions, but city officials and village residents hold hope that a new apartment complex will bring a more positive attitude. Confidence in the village has been building, and the recent openings of 11 new businesses are proving business owners embrace the neighborhood's potential.
One innovative idea recently surfaced -- the removal of all the parking meters and concrete stops in the City Hall parking lot to open up the land to weekend events. While not on a grand scale, the idea would allow festivals with stages, tents and other components to set up shop on a large expanse, all to make downtown an attraction for big-event promoters and attract more people and business.
The First Street corridor bordering downtown and troubled neighborhoods is also enjoying new developments, a continuation of improvements building over the past five years. Wawa, Zeko's Grill, Starbucks and Advanced Auto Parts followed 7-Eleven and RaceTrac, and more new businesses are in the offing. More customers are changing the atmosphere, and as one astute resident pointed out, the social fabric of the nearby neighborhoods will improve. More jobs have helped, and local residents have benefited.
The stalled project
But one long promised neighborhood development remains maddeningly stuck in limbo. The Minnie L. Rogers Plaza at the corner of First Street and 13th Avenue West, poised for years to include a grocery store, national chain restaurant and local businesses, holds perhaps the greatest potential for revitalizing the area. News spread in 2006 the Save-A-Lot grocery was coming; ground-breaking took place in 2012. Still, nothing.
Now the project appears to need additional financing since construction costs escalated during all the foot-dragging. Will this project ever happen? We can only hope.
Bradenton continues to attack blight by demolishing abandoned and unsafe homes often used for criminal activities. Thanks to federal Community Development Block Grants, the city already tore down six houses; today, nine more are targeted for destruction. Removing slum and blight is vital for neighborhood revitalization.
This story was originally published July 26, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bradenton is on the move with several improvement projects ."