Sunbreak Cafe owner Bruce Alverson said the publicly-owned parking lot east of his restaurant and its lovely trees were what prompted him to buy his property and build his restaurant at First and A streets Southwest in the first place.
Now both the parking lot he relies on and the trees, especially a 100-year-old oak, could be lost to an apartment building a private development company may one day build on that lot.
Preliminary or not, this prospect has the restaurateur good and steamed.
Last week Alverson presented the City Council a petition bearing 206 signatures, urging the city to save the parking lot and the trees.
Behind Alverson’s pique is a proposal that would have the city swapping that parking lot, and a second lot to Sunbreak’s immediate north, for the Stratford Company-owned Crites and Huff buildings on the north half of the block south of his restaurant.
That trade would allow Stratford – it owns the Outlet and Charlie Wong buildings south of City Hall and has an option to buy the Marvel Grocery building – to consolidate its holdings on one block and move ahead with its plans.
Downtown merchants formed a local improvement district (LID) in 1969 and bought the parking lots. The title of the lots is in the city’s name, Alverson said, and it should not be in the business of swapping these publicly-purchased lands for such a purpose.
“When the merchants bought this, the LID was for the parking. The merchants didn’t purchase it for the city to sell it for a cheap apartment building,” Alverson said.
Councilwoman Sue Singer said if there is such a trade – and that is a big if at this early stage – Alverson would have plenty of parking across the street.
“If we do swap the parking lot, his parking would be provided on a lot south of his restaurant. He wouldn’t lose any parking,” Singer said.
Dave Baron, the city’s economic development director, said Alverson does not need to worry about losing business. “Bruce has a destination restaurant, and that means that people will come from a considerable distance to eat there,” Baron said. “They will park as close as possible, but they are willing to walk a block to get there.”
Singer objected to Alverson’s use of the term “cheap.”
“We would not allow cheap apartments to be built there,” Singer said. “They would be built to the city’s design standards.”
The players
Stratford was one of two developers who submitted proposals to the city this winter to redevelop the downtown area near City Hall. The city decided to enter into negotiations with Alpert International, but it could still choose Stratford if the negotiations with Alpert do not pan out.
As the owner of key downtown properties, Stratford has a seat at the development table. But that doesn’t mean, Alverson said, that the oak, the 16 25-foot-high maple trees and the parking lots have to be part of a deal.
Alverson said he would be pleased to see Stratford redevelop the north half of the Sunbreak Cafe block into upscale condominiums. Just leave the parking lot and the trees alone. He maintains the parking lot. He planted all the hedges and most of the trees. Recently he voiced these concerns to members of the city’s Urban Tree Board and the Auburn Parks Board.
“My sense on the trees is we are concerned about keeping enough greenery downtown,” Singer said. “We are trying to make this work for Bruce.”
Alverson and Stratford have not yet come to terms on the possible sale of his property.
“Stratford asked me if I wanted to sell, and I replied, ‘Cool, if you want to buy me out, I’ll sell.’ “ Alverson said. “(To which they said,) ‘We only want to buy your land. Your building and your business are worthless to us.’ That means I just eat the building. And if I move over to where the Mecca Tavern now is now or onto Main Street, I also eat the $750,000 it costs me to rebuild what I now have. Well, I can’t do that.
“… I understand they need me out of here. But if I sell, I sell the land, I sell the building, and I sell the business. My estate is not going to be decimated because the city wants to put up a cheap apartment building. That is what is happening. They just want to brush me aside.”
Mark Isner, Director of Asset Management for the Stratford Company, said these comments are very premature.
“We’re very, very early in the process,” Isner said. “We haven’t reached any terms yet. This trade is being contemplated, but it’s a long, long way from being done. If it were to go through, there would be lot of design issues open to public comment. There’s a public process in place that makes sense, and we would follow that to the letter. Bruce would get an opportunity to express his concerns there.
“I don’t know if there has been any discussion on trees, so I don’t know why Bruce is focusing on that concern. But as part of our design team, we have a principal architect who has worked on public projects in master planned communities in the past. He’s a very thorough gentleman who is very concerned about design and how it impacts the users. We have very clearly demonstrated that we are not interested in building on the cheap. That doesn’t suit anyone’s purpose,” Isner said.
