Mankato Post Office Adaptive Reuse

Transcription

1 Mankato Post Office Adaptive Reuse Mankato Post Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force Final Report 6/17/2015 MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 1

2 MANKATO ADAPTIVE REUSE TASK FORCE - FINAL REPORT Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 1 MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE... 1 EVALUATION CRITERIA... 2 IDEAS FOR POST OFFICE REUSE... 3 APPENDIX I... 5 Mankato Post Office Building... 5 APPENDIX II...11 Reuse of Historic Buildings in Other Communities...11 Franklin Arts Center, Brainerd, Minnesota...11 Harvester Artspace, Council Bluffs, Iowa...11 Kaddatz Arts Loft, Fergus Falls, Minnesota...12 Artworks Loveland, Loveland, Colorado...12 Denver Union Depot, Denver, Colorado Duluth Railroad Museum, Duluth, Minnesota Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota Lowell Inn, Stillwater, Minnesota MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Over a nine-month period, a task force of the City Center Partnership has explored and sought community input about potential reuse(s) for the historic Mankato Post Office building and its site. Such information could be used to stimulate the creative thinking of potential buyers of the property, and it could be used to inform decisions by the City Council should they be asked to consider land use or economic development decisions involving the Post Office building. The task force developed four criteria that should be used to assess any proposed reuse for that space: 1. Will the use(s) complement the historic nature of the building? 2. Will the use(s) generate trade/traffic? (Bring the public into the building) 3. Will the use(s) create jobs in the City Center? 4. Does this initiative support the goals and objectives of the City Center Renaissance Plan (City Center planning guide created in 2007 and accepted by the City Council) In addition, the task force also developed a set of 6 categories of potential reuses for the building and its surrounding land: 1. Commercial uses 2. Arts/Cultural space 3. Artist live/work space 4. Cultural/History museum 5. Education space 6. Residential/Hotel uses MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE In the Summer of 2014, the US Postal Service notified the Mankato City Council that it intended to put the historic Mankato Post Office building on the market for sale. That Fall, the City Center Partnership (CCP) in collaboration with City staff agreed to seek input about the community s preferences for potential uses of the building. The historical importance, beauty and regional significance of the Post Office building seemed a compelling reason to provide community input into appropriate uses for the facility and the land in City Center Mankato. Such information could be used to stimulate the creative thinking of potential buyers of the property, and it could be used to inform decisions by the City Council should they be asked to consider land use or economic development decisions involving the Post Office building. The CCP appointed Jerry Crest (retired COO of ISJ-Mayo Hospital) to co-chair a task force, with Paul Vogel (Community Development Director) representing the City. Using a chain-referral technique ( snowball sampling, as it is called in Sociological research), a committee of 30 community members came together. The charge of this group was to develop an initial framework to elicit community responses for the best reuse of the Post Office building and its associated property. Using a tool called Mind-Mixer, the task force created an online survey which was designed to surface as many different ideas as possible. This survey invited participants to post their idea for the Post Office to what was essentially a blog spot, one idea per posting. Anyone else could comment/respond to that idea, as well as post their own idea(s). The survey was widely publicized (including through a story in the Mankato Free Press) in the late Fall, and obtained responses from over 100 community members. The task force MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 1

4 met again early in 2015 to consolidate and summarize the responses from the survey. The resulting information was presented again to the community at a public meeting in May, 2015, and again community input was solicited. This report summarizes the information obtained from that process. EVALUATION CRITERIA Faced with the results from the Mind-Mixer survey, the task force faced two tasks: to consolidate similar ideas into a more manageable number of groupings, and to develop a set of criteria for establishing rankings among those groupings. To avoid pre-judging the rankings, the task force took up the evaluation criteria before parsing the large number of ideas generated by the community. An iterative process was used to develop the evaluation criteria. Initially, the task force brainstormed 7 criteria. Those criteria were then applied to an initial categorization of the reuse ideas generated by the survey. Subsequently, the criteria were refined to four and the task force members were polled to determine their order of importance. At the community meeting in May, the community was asked to rank the importance of the criteria without knowing the ranking assigned by the task force. The community rankings replicated the ranking assigned by the task force. The final criteria (in order of importance) are: 1. Will the use(s) complement the historic nature of the building? 2. Will the use(s) generate trade/traffic? (Bring the public into the building) 3. Will the use(s) create jobs in the City Center? 4. Does this initiative support the goals and objectives of the City Center Renaissance Plan (City Center planning guide created in 2007 and accepted by the City Council) While the community was asked to vote only on the relative importance of each criterion, the task force developed some further examples for each: 1. Complement historic nature of building a. Historic character of the exterior and parts of the interior (lobby, courtroom) will be protected by deed restriction. b. Other architectural details maintained, if possible c. Original high ceilings maintained, if possible d. Integrity of original waiting areas maintained as open spaces, if possible e. Uses complement historical uses of the spaces, if possible 2. Generate trade/traffic a. Retail/commercial activity that generates heavy flow of public traffic b. Gallery space c. Meeting/conference space d. Space for display/special events e. Unique destination activity that attracts visitor/public traffic 3. Create jobs a. Uses that require larger staff to operate b. Longer hours of operation require more employees to maintain c. Uses that generate significant indirect employment from support services from the Greater Mankato region MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 2

5 4. Support City Center Renaissance Plan a. Strengthen the interdependence of residential, industrial, service and commercial sectors through revitalization, reconnection, and reinvestment b. Reflects the community s civic, cultural, and economic vitality and identity c. Strengthens the City Center s role as the community s central hub IDEAS FOR POST OFFICE REUSE The Post Office site is larger than the historic structure itself. The back end of the building (the loading dock area) is not part of the historic structure, and roughly half of the property is parking lot (open space, in effect, for other development). While most of the ideas generated by the community relate to the main building, the space fronting on Broad Street will be part of the mix. Whatever use(s) are decided, they should complement the historic character of the main building and respond to the other three evaluation criteria for the site. The initial survey generated 31 ideas. These were initially grouped into 10 categories, and eventually refined to 6 categories by excluding potential uses that did not elicit additional support from the community. The Task Force recognizes that these potential uses are suggestions only, that the eventual owner/developer will have the determining choice, and perhaps that will include use(s) that were not surfaced by this process. The six categories are: 1. Commercial use for activities such as restaurants, cafes, food and beverage and small shops. o Wine and cheese bar o Bakery/Pastry chef o Deli o Fine Dining o Small shops o Artisan food and beverage o Chocolatier o Food Co-op o Year-round farmer s market 2. Use by Arts/Culture groups as a Performing Arts Center. o Proscenium stage o Black box theater o Dinner theater o Live music (such as Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis) 3. Use by Artists as a Live/Work space. o Gallery space o Meeting space for arts related entities o Artist lofts (perhaps on third floor) o Artist studios o Co-share work space MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 3

6 4. Cultural use for History Museum or Library: Consider uses such as: o Lake Superior Railroad Museum (Duluth, MN) o U.S. Grant Museum (Galena, IL) 5. Education Space: o Downtown campus for use by area colleges and universities o Arts high school 6. Residential/Hotel Use: o Historic hotel such as The Lowell Inn (Stillwater, MN) o Apartments Other potential uses that were raised but did not generate strong interest in the community meetings include an innovation center/technology incubator, city hall, youth center, community center, refugee/islamic center, bike center, and senior housing. There are two appendices to this report. The first provides a site plan and selected photos of the Mankato Post Office building. The second is a selection of photos developed by Mike Lagerquist, a member of the task force, illustrating reuse of historic buildings in some other communities. MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 4

7 APPENDIX I Mankato Post Office Building Lobby Area Main Floor Work Areas Courtroom MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 5

8 Property Profile Property Address: 401 South 2 nd St, Mankato MN Primary Owner: United States Post Office Land: Lot Dimensions 198 x 330 Lot Area 1.5 Acres; 65,340 SF Existing Parking (to be redeveloped jointly with building) 30,475 SF Building: Building 1: Addition 1: Addition 2: Addition 3: Addition 4: Addition 5: Addition 6: Office - General, 3 Story, Built , 4008 SF, Bsmt SF, Office - General,, 2 Story, Built , SF, Bsmt SF Office - General,, 1 Story, Built , 54 SF, Bsmt - 54 SF Office - General,, 1 Story, Built , 54 SF, Bsmt - 54 SF Manufacturing (Light),, 1 Story, Built , 960 SF, Bsmt SF Manufacturing (Light),, 1 Story, Built , 2068 SF, Bsmt SF Manufacturing (Light),, 1 Story, Built , 7234 SF, Bsmt - 0 SF MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 6

9 Building Sketch MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 7

10 Mankato Post Office Aerial MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 8

11 Mankato Post Office Site Plan MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 9

12 Points of Interest Downtown Mankato U.S. Highway 169 Riverfront Drive Verizon Wireless Civic Cente r & Civic Center Expansio n City Art Walking Sculpture Tou r Entertainment Distric t Jackson Par k Block 518 Redevelopment POST OFFICE SITE MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 10

13 APPENDIX II Reuse of Historic Buildings in Other Communities Franklin Arts Center, Brainerd, Minnesota Harvester Artspace, Council Bluffs, Iowa MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 11

14 Kaddatz Arts Loft, Fergus Falls, Minnesota Artworks Loveland, Loveland, Colorado MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 12

15 Denver Union Depot, Denver, Colorado MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 13

16 Duluth Railroad Museum, Duluth, Minnesota Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 14

17 Lowell Inn, Stillwater, Minnesota MANKATO POST OFFICE ADAPTIVE REUSE 15