David Michael Miller
After sitting vacant for years, the Garver Feed Mill is in rough shape, making reuse a challenge.
Nearly seven months after Madison officials approved a plan to convert the crumbling Garver Feed Mill into an artisan food production facility, lease negotiations between the city and the Chicago-based developer have yet to be settled.
Baum Development has not set a tentative closing date for the property and has yet to obtain the necessary historic and new market tax credits to finance the redevelopment, says David Baum, company president.
“We thought we would have everything done with the city sooner,” says David Baum, president of Baum Development. “But it’s been a little more complicated.”
At least one city official is questioning whether the company can secure the financing it needs to do the project, which includes a food production facility and up to 50 “microlodges,” to be used as hotel lodgings, studios or offices.
Ald. David Ahrens, whose district abuts Garver, says the delay is cause for concern.
“Delays are costly,” Ahrens says. “And Garver is not getting any younger.”
Other challenges — stringent historic preservation requirements that must be met to qualify for tax credits; environmental issues including contaminated soils on the project site; and the Garver building’s dilapidated condition — further muddle the redevelopment effort.
“It’s a complex project with a lot of moving parts,” Baum says. “That said, we’re making progress on all fronts.”
When the Baum Development team won city approval in April, it was reported that the proposed food production facility could open as soon as November 2016. Now, Baum anticipates construction will begin sometime in 2016, with possible completion in 2017.
“We want to do it obviously as soon as possible, but what we want is to come up with the best project possible,” Baum says. “[Garver] really is a special place.”
Ald. Marsha Rummel, whose district includes Garver, says lease negotiations with the developer are nearly complete, but the final agreement is “not ready for introduction to Common Council until more details are resolved.”
The project’s timeline has not caused concern among residents living in the east-side neighborhood, says Jason Tish, a member of the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association’s preservation and development committee. Neighborhood residents strongly pushed for the city to choose the Baum proposal during the selection process.
“It’s been quiet for quite a few months,” he says. “We have all been assuming that the negotiations have been progressing and that no news is good news.”
Ahrens, who was the sole member on the development committee to vote against the Baum proposal in March, worries the delay is a sign that the developer cannot deliver what it promised. “I don’t expect these things to be worked out in [weeks or months],” he says. “But at some point, we’ve got to stop being strung along.”
As negotiations continue, elements of the project are moving forward.
Baum has partnered with Madison College to have students in the construction training program build up to 50 “microlodges” that will sit in clusters of five to eight on the 4.2-acre lot north of the Garver building known as the North Plat.
Those microlodges, which will be a mix of designs and range from 150 to 170 square feet, will serve as visitor lodging or as long-term rentals as studio or office space. Baum has enlisted Chicago-based hotel operator Aparium, which manages the Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee and the new Charmant Hotel in La Crosse, to run the microlodges.
The team includes two architecture firms, including Kubala Washatko of the Milwaukee area, which designed the Milwaukee Public Market and has converted other historic sites into sustainably redeveloped buildings. Other partners include Bachmann Construction of Madison and “a team of attorneys” to help the developer navigate the maze of rezoning regulations and environmental concerns.
On Nov. 4, workers began to “winterize” the Garver building — a process which involves adding structural supports to the masonry walls and capping exposed bricks to keep out moisture and prevent further damage from freezing and thawing.
A number of local food producers have expressed interest in moving operations into the Garver facility. Baum says arrangements with tenants are “becoming more formalized.”
“Before we had letters of interest, and we’re converting them into letters of intent,” he says. “We have more interest than we have space — that’s a great situation.”
As construction ramps up, Baum says his focus is on meeting the needs of the artisan food producers while maintaining the historic character of the Garver facility — the latter being necessary to qualify for tax credits.
Baum says he’s confident the tax credits will come through and that his team has been to “multiple tax credit conferences” talking to buyers and lenders. He believes that the Garver project is a good candidate, due to the historic nature of the building, the environmental impact of the project and the aspect of collaboration with local artisans.
“We have a history of taking these kinds of buildings and getting financing,” he says, “But when you’re marrying multiple kinds of tax credits along with a lender, equity and tenants, there’s an art to that as well.”
Ahrens frets that the tax credits “might not be a slam-dunk” and notes that new market tax credits are more often awarded to projects that make improvements in “distressed areas,” such as a supermarket in a poor neighborhood.
“I’m not saying they can’t get it,” he says. But if the financing doesn’t come together, Ahrens says he wouldn’t be opposed to revisiting the project with another developer. He favored a proposal from Alternative Continuum of Care to build senior housing at the site, which was selected by the development panel as a second choice.
“As I’ve said before, we have at least one other really viable proposal,” Ahrens says.