The Moscow Urban Renewal Agency Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to accept a proposal for a new development on the corner of Sixth and Jackson Street, part of the agency’s Legacy Crossing district.
The approved proposal, from Rusty Olps and Austin Storm, contained plans for a five-story mixed use facility. The building would feature a consignment store similar to Moscow’s Storm Cellar on the ground floor, which Storm owns, with three levels of studio apartments in the middle and a level of office space at the top. There are also rooftop plans to “crown the building with an interactive green space,” Olps said during his presentation to the board Feb. 7.
The other proposal, from Blaine McMahan of Big Sky CM/GC, contained plans for a mixed-use facility that would feature various retail centers on the ground floor with three stories of mainly single-bedroom apartments above.
Both proposals took into consideration the Agency’s plan to connect University of Idaho and downtown Moscow with the continuation of UI’s Hello Walk.
During the meeting Thursday, urban renewal agency board members discussed their opinions on the two proposals that had been presented two weeks prior. After the presentations Feb. 7, board members were provided evaluation scoring sheets to individually evaluate the proposals. Their evaluations were compiled for Thursday’s meeting.
The proposals were scored based on four general criteria, said Bill Belknap, executive director.
First, proposals were scored on how the proposed development meets the urban renewal agency’s goals and objectives for the Legacy Crossing District, a 169-acre urban renewal district aimed at revitalizing the area. Second, they were scored on the proposed development’s compliance with various coding and design guidelines. Third, the proposals were scored on the probability of the proposed development’s success. Lastly, they were scored on the developer’s expectation of MURA assisting them with the success of their project.
Based on initial scoring, Belknap said five reviewers had ranked Olps’ and Storm’s proposal first, and two reviewers had ranked McMahan’s proposal first.
Belknap said both proposals received similar overall scores and met the agency’s requirements.
“Pretty clearly, these both meet what we were looking for as far as a mixed used and are really nice proposals, and it seems that the difference between the rankings is not that significant,” said Brandy Sullivan, vice chair of the Moscow Urban Renewal Agency board of commissioners. “Across the board, they were very close.”
During deliberation, multiple board members said they liked that Olps and Storm had presented the possibility for additional parking, which McMahan’s proposal did not provide. Olps and Storm also had a secure anchor tenant for the first floor — Storm himself. In terms of night life, the board said McMahan’s proposal may have proved better.
In the end, every member voted to approve Olps’ proposal, and Steve McGeehan, chair of the Agency said throughout the development process, the board will be able to communicate with Olps and Storm additional ideas or flexibilities.
During the next step in the process, the Exclusive Negotiation Agreement (ENA), Olps and Storm will engage with an architect, define any changes to their original idea, identify the process and timeline for the project and develop plans for financing. Belknap said the ENA process will likely last four to six months.