Transit Center Tower Project is Revived

A once-proposed 12-story hotel for downtown Anchorage that was later shelved has been revived, this time with the city partnering with a local group of investors to take on the project. Located at the transit center on 6th Avenue, the development initially made headlines in early 2020, when its unique design was first revealed to the public. Rather than demolishing the existing parking structure, the hotel would be attached to the side of the parking structure, with the building itself made up of prefabricated modular units that are built overseas and shipped to Anchorage, whereupon they would be "stacked" piece by piece. 

The project was to originally be built by a Bellevue-based developer, but after several disagreements with the city in 2020, the project was ultimately cancelled. This time, the founder of RIM Architects and several local investors are looking to revive the project. Having been recently granted a 99-year lease to the property by the Anchorage Assembly, the investors — organized under the name 6th Avenue Center LLC — now seek to secure private funding to bring about the new development. 

The downtown transit center in its current form.

While the new renderings of the hotel project feature a different design, the founder of RIM Architects states that the overall plan will remain the same. In fact, RIM Architects was tasked with the previous design for the original plan, before things fell through. Like the previous plan, the building will house a hotel; however, unlike the previous plan, a new hotel brand will be pursued to occupy the building. Previously, Hotel Indigo, an international boutique hotel chain, was slated to operate the hotel space. While the numbers are not exact yet, the building will have around 200 hotel rooms in addition to around 30 apartment units. The now boarded-up transit center, which would become the tower's base, is expected to have restaurant and retail space. 

I was quite surprised to find out that the People Mover's transit center is now boarded up. Apparently, the two-story transit center closed up entirely in 2020. I had not been to the transit center in more than five years, but in my last few visits, the place did indeed noticeably go further down hill. Numerous efforts have been made in the past to revitalize and upgrade security at the transit center, but, in the end, the hoodlums apparently won out. Now, plans call for the transit center to reopen with the new hotel complex, albeit its footprint will presumably be smaller as it shares the base of the building with new retail space. If all goes according to plan, construction is expected to commence in October, with the building complete by September of next year. 

Hotel Indigo - Downtown Anchorage

I've been gone for just a bit, but I wanted to go ahead and add the proposed Hotel Indigo development to the record. The project was developed in close cooperation with the Anchorage Community Development Authority (ACDA) and announced to the media in early 2020, just before the pandemic. The 12-story building was to be a mixed-use property with 32 apartment units and space for a restaurant on the ground level, in addition to the 178-room hotel. But what made this project most unique was the nature in which this building was to be built. Modules for each living-space unit were to be constructed in China and barged to Anchorage with each module stacked atop another resulting in a Lego-like rise of the overall structure. Additionally, the parking garage facing 6th Avenue was not to be demolished but rather was to serve as a backbone to the hotel and apartments. 

Construction was originally slated to start in May of last year but was delayed following contractual disputes between the developer and the ACDA over scheduling for the temporary removal of the city's transit center. The construction date was thereby moved to August of 2020. However, as of summer 2021  the project has been indefinitely postponed. In other words, it could perhaps be said that this will be another project that will go into the dustbin of projects that never came to be. It also marks yet another failed plan for the problematic People Mover Transit Center. Five years ago this blog covered a previous grand plan which called for a great reduction in transit center space and the addition of a large retail tenant. As a side note, ironically the doomed Hotel Indigo development would have been built across the street from where the Augustine Energy Center would have been built had that project not been cancelled many years earlier. 

Michael Carey on the Bus Station

Nothing of actual news here, but I just thought I'd share this commentary made by Michael Carey on his observations regarding the downtown transit center on 6th Avenue and the people who use it. It's nice to hear from Carey who until now I did not know was still writing for the ADN following its ownership transition. Now if only he would return to hosting Alaska Edition, I'll be very satisfied!

Downtown Transit Center Facelift Unveiled

How the new transit center may look

Andrew Halcro, head of the authority that runs the People Mover Transit Center in downtown Anchorage, has recently unveiled renderings by RIM Architects of how a remodeled transit center could look like. If you are familiar with the transit center, then you are probably also aware of the troubles that have swamped the place over the last couple of decades. The security statistics presented by Halcro are absolutely staggering. Over 5,000 transients are removed by security officers over the course of a year. More than 500 calls are made to police and fire. But what got me was the turnover rate for security guards at the facility. The longest lasting security guard has been there for six months. And it turns out things have only gotten worse since the Inlet Hotel across the street was demolished a year ago. Trouble that had infected that place has moved across the street to the transit center.

Anyways, so the plans for the transit center are pretty interesting. The biggest thing to come out of this, at least to me, is the call for a large retail store to occupy most of the first floor. One name that was thrown around was Walgreens, which is being seen as an ideal store for it can provide groceries and pharmacy items in a part of town that severely lacks it. I wonder though whether downtown can sustain a store like that considering there is not much in the way of condos and apartments in the downtown core. I don't think People Mover ridership alone would be able to provide the needed traffic for such a store -- not when ridership is only 2%. A natural result of increasing the footprint of retail is the reduction of the indoor waiting area. In an effort to prevent people from loitering (and they do have their problems with non riders lingering for hours), the indoor space will be greatly reduced with an eye toward getting people onto their next bus. Amusingly, another idea tossed around by the authority was that of having an annoying jingle play in a loop on the intercom. It also appears that the name of the transit center itself may change to "City Center". Halcro and Mayor Berkowitz say no tax dollars will be used, and that they hope to break ground in a year.

I know this shouldn't mean anything, but I do like to pick apart little tidbits that concern Anchorage trivia. The Alaska Dispatch quoted Halcro as saying the change expected to take place at the transit center will be the most dramatic transformation of a downtown city block since the construction of the 5th Avenue Mall in 1985. So is this the case? Well, no, it is not. What immediately came to my mind was the construction of the Marriott hotel in 1999. Since the 1980s boom, it is the only highrise to be built in downtown during these last 30 years. I think it's safe to say that block got fairly transformed. Going slightly further back, you may recall the clearing of a block on 4th Avenue in 1994 to make way for the Nesbett Courthouse. And how could we forget the projects of 2008 -- the Dena'ina Center (literally an entire block), the Linny Pacillo Parking Garage, and the Anchorage Museum extension. We could also say the revival of the McKinley Tower Apartments was a significant change to a city block. Once entirely abandoned, the reopened apartment tower sits next to a social services office on one side, and a smaller newly-built apartment building for senior housing on the other. But I imagine Halcro meant to add some hyperbole to get people behind the project. Whatever the case, it's good to know we have a city administration that cares for this part of town and is working to make it blossom again.