Open heart surgery

MOSCOW - The only remaining grain silos in downtown Moscow are edging closer to becoming the centerpiece of Legacy Crossing, a development connecting the commercial district with the University of Idaho.

The owner of the property, the Anderson Group, recently received permission to begin an environmental cleanup of the site. The group expects to start in a few weeks if it can orchestrate getting city sewer and water connected to the land adjacent to Otto's Produce Market at Sixth and Jackson streets.

The success of the Anderson Group is critical to converting a cluster of aging and empty buildings to uses that better serve Moscow's residents and UI's students, says Travis Cary, part-time director of the Moscow Urban Renewal Agency.

"This is the heart of Legacy Crossing because it's so underutilized," Cary says. "These blocks were really the impetus for creating the district." (See accompanying question and answer box and map.)

The heart that Cary describes is between Sixth and Jackson streets, the University of Idaho and Highway 95. In addition to the empty grain elevators, it includes Crites Seed, Inc., railroad tracks that are being abandoned, vacant land that's for sale and a propane distribution center. Crites Seed processes and stores dry peas, most of which are used as seed for frozen and canned peas.

The only certainty so far is that whatever transformation happens will take time. More than two years have passed since the elevators were purchased and narrowly saved from demolition, says John Anderson, a member of the Anderson Group. "There's been a lot of obstacles we've had to work around."

The delays happened even though one of the investors in the Anderson Group is Anderson's father, a civil engineer in Boise who understands more of the technical aspects of the cleanup than someone without his training.

And that has pushed Anderson's plans for the end-use further into the future. He envisions that a combination of apartments, stores, restaurants and offices will fill the elevators. "It's a very important icon for this region," says Anderson, assistant professor of virtual technology and design at the UI school of art and architecture. "You cannot re-create history like this. This is the only structure that has ever existed on this site."

Had the Anderson Group not been as focused on creating residences in the elevators, the work would be moving faster. The site meets criteria for any other kind of development, says Steve W. Gill, a brownfields specialist of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in Coeur d'Alene.

But since people will be living in the silos, agricultural residue from the days when grain, peas and lentils were stored in the silos has to be removed. Steps will be taken to make sure groundwater can't seep into the basement. All the walls will be cleaned with a baking soda-based cleanser. Any loose lead paint on the exteriors of the silos will be removed and a fresh coat of white will be brushed onto the walls. Residue from railroad ties, traces of petrochemicals and chips of lead paint that fell from the silos will be extracted from the ground, Gill says.

The Idaho Community Reinvestment Pilot Initiative will reimburse the Anderson Group for 70 percent of the work with a maximum contribution of $150,000 on the cleanup which is anticipated to cost between $200,000 and $300,000.

The next steps will be to finalize architectural plans and find investors, Anderson says. Revenue from the URA can't pay for the renovation because it can't cover items that don't have a direct public benefit. Though UI architectural students have done theses on what the Anderson Group's buildings might look like, the group has yet to iron out details, such as exactly how many feet will be in each floor and where windows will go. The silos could yield anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 square feet of space.

Moving forward may present more challenges, says Duane Brelsford, a Pullman developer, who helped revive the downtown in his community and who owns the corner where Otto's is, adjacent to the silos.

"They're taking on a very big endeavor to redevelop that," Brelsford says. "I'm in support of that, but cautiously optimistic."

Normally it's less expensive for him to start with an empty lot and construct a building that blends in with what's already there, Brelsford says. That's what he did at Town Centre, which houses the Washington State University Foundation. It replaced a drug store building that burned.

Brelsford also renovated three buildings in downtown Pullman into a complex that now houses Taco Del Mar, a beauty salon and residences overlooking the Palouse River.

That project was unique because of its close proximity to the river, Brelsford says. Had he started from scratch, more stringent shoreline rules would have come into play.

Anderson has a different view. The concept won an Idaho Smart Growth award for its sustainability. The round edges won't put any additional demands on architects or engineers, Anderson says, but some potential tenants will likely have to overcome their perceptions that everything should be square or rectangular.

Grain silos all over the world have been converted into the kinds of uses he envisions. The planet is not a place of unlimited resources and it's not smart just to demolish something when it no longer fits a need, Anderson says. "It's stronger than any conventional structure."

What happens with the Anderson's Group development won't be the only factor that shapes Legacy Crossing. The seed plant occupies about six acres in what Cary identified as its heart, which is still zoned industrial.

"Crites has no immediate plans to do anything differently than we're doing right now and the city understands that," says Joe Hulett, chief executive officer of Crites Seed.

The business employs 16 in Moscow and has operated there for 76 years, Hulett says. "It's worked just fine historically, but we understand the company probably won't continue to operate from this site forever."

Another variable is the land where the railroad tracks are. The tracks are being abandoned in a process that's expected to take months and won't go forward without the approval of the federal Surface Transportation Board.

An idea of the URA is installing a street and utilities to provide more access to the property where the tracks are. But the Legacy Crossing Urban Renewal District won't receive its first revenue until the fiscal year that starts in November and it's budgeted to cover debt that was incurred creating the district, Cary says.

And there's also another 4.22 acres that as recently as nine months ago still had grain silos on them. They're listed for sale at $3 million by Team Idaho Real Estate in Moscow.

Interest in the property has been "very limited" so far, but that has little to do with Legacy Crossing, says Shelley Bennett, commercial specialist with Team Idaho. Lenders and consumer demand aren't supporting development, Bennett says.

The inclusion in the district will help potential buyers who are interested in development that follows the goals of the district to create shops, eateries and other amenities for UI students, Bennett says.

They might get assistance from the URA for public art, creek restoration or a parking lot larger than what their business needs, Bennett says. At the same time, the only control the URA has now to prevent projects it doesn't want is to not help finance infrastructure for them, even if they meet the URA's other criteria.

On the flip side, acquisition by two adjacent landowners, UI and Gritman Medical Center, wouldn't benefit the URA since the non-profits wouldn't boost the tax base, Bennett says.

Even factors outside Moscow, such as the national economy, will influence how fast the changes at Legacy Crossing unfold, Bennett says. Retailers at a recent national conference predicted that some of them would be gone by 2014 when employment is finally expected to return to pre-recession levels and stores will start to expand again, Bennett says.

Banks are trying to do the impossible and take the risk out of loaning money, Bennett says. One bank recently wanted one of Bennett's clients to pre-sell half a residential development before it would provide financing, Bennett says.

"Most (buyers) can't do that. They have to do a walk-through. They have to see when it's done."

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Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.