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. 

The Man Who Laid Down the Anchorage Grid

Anchorage townsite, circa 1915

Just thought I'd post this piece written by Charles Wohlforth in which some more details about Andrew Christensen's private life is revealed. Christensen's name has been thrown around quite a bit this year as Anchorage celebrated its 100 year anniversary. For those not familiar, Christensen was a federal official who oversaw the city's founding and was in charge of laying down the street grid for the Anchorage townsite -- today's downtown Anchorage. He also served as the auctioneer as plots on the new townsite went on the market (a reenactment of the auction was held earlier this summer). Of course you may also know him for there is a street that bears his name running from the railroad depot up to 3rd Avenue. But for me at least, what kind of tarnishes him from being a "heroic founding father" of Anchorage was his negative attitude toward the Anchorage area later in his life. While FDR was moving Depression-era farmers to the Mat-Su two decades later, Christensen (now back in the States) penned a piece for Time Magazine in which he bitterly referred to the Southcentral region as a wasted and futile effort when it came to economic development and self-sufficiency. His days in Anchorage too were not without controversial moments. He bitterly fought with the Forest Service and plowed forward with the establishment of a red light district within the Chugach National Forest boundaries. He also denied Dena'ina people entry to the townsite.

Something I did not knew until reading this new article was that Christensen lived until 1969, reaching the age of 90. It makes me wonder whether he was aware of the development taking place in the Anchorage townsite in the 1960s. Once a quiet home to cottages and backyards, by the late 60s it became home to several commercial buildings including the Hill Building, First National Building, Anchorage Westward, and the Captain Cook Hotel. All of this development taking place on his grid.

More info on Christensen and the city's founding can be found here.

Former Covenant House Location Gets Redo

The corner of 6th and F Street.

It's only now that I happen to be in the area of 6th and F, so I just thought I'd snap this photo of the redevelopment of the former Covenant House location. The project is being undertaken by Pfeffer Development, the same company that is currently building a low-rise in midtown and recently completed a First National Bank branch in the U-Med District. Occupying the former youth homeless shelter will be a Steam Dot Coffee, a new restaurant and bar called The Williwaw, and a revived Blues Central on the second floor. The one major thing Pfeffer's company did to the building was add an elevator shaft to the east of the building. With the elevator, patrons will be able to dine on the roof. For those who are curious, the Covenant House moved out of the building a few years ago and moved to a new larger building in east downtown. The building was originally home to the YMCA as early as the 1950s. The Williwaw will be owned by the same group that owns Humpy's and Flattop. Not surprising considering its location. This section of downtown is really starting to become something of its own. In related news, it may be safe to say Mark Pfeffer is counting on the building to receive many customers as plans are in the works to build a 16-story mixed-use tower on the 7th Avenue end of F Street. That project too is being developed by Pfeffer Development. 

ANMC Patient Housing Underway

the parking garage is on the right 

Remember back in January when I posted about a new parking garage rising behind the Alaska Native Medical Center? It was quite odd because the garage was sort of isolated from everything else. Usually if there's a garage, there is a skybridge or a building connected to it. Well turns out this particular garage is no exception for it is part of a much grander plan for ANMC. Thanks to a tip from a PR person at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, I've learned the garage is to be attached to a six-story patient housing complex. A skybridge will connect to the main hospital. This isn't too surprising to hear as more than half of the patients coming to ANMC are from outside of Anchorage. There was also mumbling over a year ago about some sort of hotel-like place going up on campus, so this appears to be it. For a patient housing complex, the place is situated in a nice location as that immediate area is kind of low key with little traffic and a forest right behind it. I should know these things, but I wanna say there's also a lake in said forest. Architecturally, the housing complex is marvelous. I think modern native design-inspired architecture has come a long way from the days when the main hospital was built in the late 1990s. To have the main hospital and this new patient housing sit across from each other will make for quite a contrast. And let's give a shoutout to that garage. Lately, garages built in Anchorage have included some sort of facade to cover up the structure itself (see the Pacillo garage in downtown, and the 188 WNL garage in midtown). But dare I say, this might be the best executed garage wrapping I've seen so far.

Building by Pfeffer Rises in Midtown

I reported on this early last year when the building didn't yet have a main tenant. Fast forward to today and the six-story building being developed by Pfeffer Development will now be home to Kuukpik Corporation, a native corporation based out of the North Slope region. Groundbreaking started in October, but it is this summer that the steel is actually rising. What's great is that like Pfeffer's other projects, this building too will be placed up alongside the street making for easy sidewalk access. Both of Pfeffer's buildings on either side of the Kuukpik project already share that similar trait, so we now have three buildings on the south side of 36th Avenue reaching to the street with parking in the rear or side. As it stands now, Kuukpik will occupy one floor of the building while the rest will be up for lease.

By the way, check out the model boat made from baleen that was presented to Mark Pfeffer during the groundbreaking ceremony. It's a trip!

More Bike Lanes for Anchorage This Summer

a sharrow engraved into the road

This summer 3.75 miles of bike lanes will be added to the city's current total of 15 miles in order to fulfill the objectives of the 2010 Anchorage Bicycle Plan. Additionally, more lanes will be added next summer. The city actually started adding the lanes early last month on Arctic Boulevard in the area around Valley of the Moon Park. After seeing it, I have to say it's quite impressive as the road not only has lines on the shoulder, but also sharrows in the areas where there is no room for bike lanes and car and bike must share the road. On top of that, the sharrows aren't merely just painted on the road -- they're etched into the road. Last time I was on Arctic, construction crews had a lane closed just so they can dedicate the amount of time it takes to engrave each of the symbols. According to the Alaska Dispatch however, the current crop of lane projects this summer are only the more simpler designs, and more elaborate lanes will show up next year. I thought having sharrows, lines, and traffic signs was good enough for Anchorage, but apparently we'll be in store for more to come by this time next year. I should also note while I'm on the subject that 10th Avenue in downtown is slated to become a "bicycle boulevard" complete with sharrows and back-in-only parking. A timeline on that project has not yet been set.

Fire Island Bakery Plans Second Location

Fire Island Rustic Bakery

Fire Island Bakery has announced that it is going to open a second location in the Airport Heights neighborhood in east Anchorage. The bakery has a loyal following, so it has a bit of the Moose's Tooth vibe going for it, except it may not be as well known. One reason for this may be that Fire Island Bakery is not located on a commercially zoned thoroughfare with on-site parking. In fact, you have to go  out of your way to get to the bakery as it is located in the heart of the leafy South Addition neighborhood, just south of downtown. And for that reason, I love this place. There are obviously not many neighborhoods that have a commercial business tucked inside it, but more emphasis on mixed-use zoning in the new city building codes is changing that as can be seen with the Rustic Goat restaurant that opened in west Anchorage a couple years ago. Anyways, Fire Island's Airport Heights location is expected to possibly be open as soon as this summer, and like its original downtown location, will cater primarily to neighborhood residents.

Developers Take Sides in the Mayors Race

Some interesting tidbits of information have been hashed out in this Alaska Dispatch article regarding donations made by developers in the mayors race between Berkowitz and Demboski. Both the Anchorage Home Builders Association and developer Mark Pfeffer donated to the Berkowitz campaign. What I find bizarre however is that a significant amount of funding from the conservative Christian group Alaska Family Action (which backed Demboski, of course) came from developers. I understand that many developers may be interested in backing a conservative candidate such as Demboski due to her hands-off philosophy concerning building regulations (some developers may have even hoped to get more Title 21 rollbacks under her administration), but why donate to a social conservative organization? Seems like a weird route to take to support your candidate. Among the developers who donated to Demboski through Alaska Family Action was Chuck Spinelli of Spinell Homes, which isn't surprising. 

This latest piece of news brings to mind what happened to Anchorage Assembly member Elvi Gray Jackson during a re-election campaign that she ran a few years ago. Hoping to decimate the bench of liberals, a group of developers poured money into advertising against her by using homophobic scare tactics in their ads. Among the donors I recall were Spinell Homes and Davis Constructors & Engineers. In the end, Jackson won and the developers lost. This was the first time I noticed the odd social conservative angle that developers were taking. I understand that they had interest in affecting the makeup of the Assembly which was still working on Title 21 at the time, but why work in cahoots with social conservative groups? I suppose the most realistic answer is simple scare tactics. Homophobic political attacks worked well in the early 2000s, but now we're in a time when the current crop of GOP candidates (Bush, Rubio, Cruz etc) are dodging the issue due to changing national opinion. And as we can see last night, even in red state Alaska, at a local level, Republicans are finding that homophobic scare tactics are no longer a sure thing. Demboski dragged social issues into the center spotlight of this race hoping to capitalize on people's concerns -- and it backfired. We've come a long ways from the days when then mayor George Wuerch ordered the Loussac Library to take down a gay pride display while not suffering any political damage.

What we can take away from this is that there are two sets of developers. Those who champion quality projects (such as Pfeffer), and those who seek to round corners and do what they want at the expense of the city's quality of life. The latter folk are the ones more likely to use crude scare tactics in their campaigning.

 

4th Avenue Theater Part of new Mixed-use Tower Project

Yup, read all about it here. If you've already read the story, the Fang's (the husband and wife duo behind the proposal) and their company Peach Investments should sound familiar. About 15 years ago they proposed building a 20+ story tower on 5th Avenue in the empty lot next to Key Bank, right behind the 4th Avenue Theater. As goes with many proposals, the project fell through and nothing came of it. The proposal just reported by the Dispatch News a few hours ago today appears to share many of the same elements of the previous proposed high-rise. Like the circa 2000 proposal, this new tower will be over 20 stories (28 to be exact). Additionally this proposal like its previous incarnation will also be mixed-use with office space, hotel, and residence (oh, and retail). But what's the major difference between today's proposal and the one from 15 years ago? Well in 2009 the Fang's bought the neighboring 4th Avenue Theater at a foreclosure auction for $1.6 million. In the time since then, they have kept mum about what their plans for the theater were. When the issue of the outdoor breezeway on theater property became an issue with regards to public misuse last year, a Peach Investments representative declined to comment when asked what he meant when saying they might "remove the issue" altogether. He went on to say he was advised by Peach not to discuss anything related to the 4th Avenue Theater. Needless to say, those kinds of words coming from the property owners was quite discomforting for us fans of the beloved theater.

And so with the purchase of the theater, this new proposal seeks to extend its footprint from 5th to 4th Avenue which means incorporating the 4th Avenue Theater and a neighboring property into the development. Though no specifics were cited in the article, it appears that elements of the theater's façade will be retained. I go by this conclusion simply because it is totally not unheard of for developers to cleverly retain a historical façade while replacing the rest of the building with a completely new development. The Hearst Tower in midtown Manhattan is one of the more high profile projects that come to my mind (the tower was built in 2004, while the base was built in 1928). Anyways Peach Investments is hoping to score tax breaks for their current proposal which means going before the Anchorage assembly to do some convincing. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, but we may have an answer soon. As for my thoughts -- well I'd like to see the project penciled out some more before I can come to a judgement. If done correctly, this could be a great project.