The Courthouse Square Historic Preservation Commission approved a renewal for a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) for the property located at 1006 Jefferson Avenue— occupied by La Rousse Salon and Spa—during Monday night’s meeting.
The property is intended to serve as a parking lot for a boutique hotel across the street, along with the future city parking garage.
Seeker Properties has delayed construction of the parking lot and hotel, first approved in 2010, due to fluctuating economic conditions, according to previous minutes.
Jeff Williams, Seeker Properties engineer, said it wouldn’t be viable to share parking spaces with the city garage due to the cost of reserving specific metered spaces for the hotel. He asked the commission to renew the COA to allow the hotel not to partner with the city parking garage.
Williams said the parking commission estimated a 75 cents-$1 per hour cost per reserved space, which would cost the hotel $80,000 a year.
“We can build a parking lot cheaper than that,” Williams said to the board.
Commission Member Donna Gottshall said it would be fortunate if Seeker Properties could work out a plan with the city to rent spaces in the city parking garage.
The hotel can start the building process in September once loans are approved, according to Williams.
The house occupying the current property would be moved to allow construction for the parking lot prior to hotel construction. The house has been donated to Habitat for Humanity and will be moved to one of two locations that have not been finalized.
The motion to renew the COA passed with a unanimous vote allowing Seekers Property to begin construction of the parking lot once the house is removed.
By Talbert Toole, lifestyles editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com.
