by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The Bisbee, Florida Life and Marble Bank Buildings, three of downtown’s oldest and most dilapidated icons, moved one step closer towards being redeveloped this week.
Also known as the Laura Trio, the buildings became the property of The Police and Fire Pension Fund last year. Fund administrator John Keane said Wednesday that, with the City as partners, they could be back online by late 2006.
“We’ve taken a good amount of time to explore the buildings and, as we expected, there has been some serious deterioration due to water infiltration, asbestos and lead paint. There was also a problematic amount of mold,” Keane said. “But all of those things can be remedied and we are prepared to do just that. We’re ready to move forward into phase II.”
Keane issued a report to the City Council recently, making that point clear.
According to the report, the second phase of work can be described as the “Preliminary Project Development and Financial Modeling Phase.” During that time, Keane said designs are drafted and funding options identified. Environmental remediation and selective interior demolition will also take place.
“It shouldn’t be a surprise that this project is going to come at a great expense, but those buildings are, in my opinion, the jewels of downtown,” Keane said. “If done properly, they can serve as a wonderful a compliment to other historical redevelopments in the area including (residential properties) the Carling and 11E.”
The Laura Trio project, he said, has moved into its “preadolescent stage of life.”
“If when we took ownership of them they were ‘infants’, that sounds right,” he said. “We’re at a turning point when we can grow them into their proper adulthood and our board is very excited about the possibilities.”
Possibly helping cover the potential costly redevelopment efforts are a series of grants that the Fund applied for earlier this year. Upwards of $1 million could be awarded.
But before December 2004, the Trio appeared to have little to no future. A blight on the downtown landscape, they had been vacant for several years and left open to the elements.
In 2003, Signet Development earned a bid from the City to redevelop them as a mixed-use office condominium site. Work never got off the ground and, ultimately, the City rescinded the bid, saying it would rather see the Trio developed with a heavier residential component.
However, before any Request For Proposal could be issued, the City agreed to surplus the buildings, now valued at more than $3 million, to the Fund. That transaction was to relieve the City of a portion of the debt it owes to the Fund in actuarial accrued liability.