News-Letter

Media Credit: John Prindergass The now-vacant Olmsted lot is being landscaped, but plans for the space have yet to be made.

Due to a lack in funding, the empty lot on St. Paul Street between 32nd and 33rd streets, the future site of The Olmsted, a mixed-use residential and retail building, will remain undeveloped indefinitely.

On Wednesday a contracted landscaping company cleaned the site and prepared it for seeding to make it more presentable, according to Tim Pula, senior development director for Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBER), the owners and developers of the property.

"There has not been a date set, and there hasn't been for some time," Pula said. "[Construction will begin] As soon as we are able to raise the necessary financing. It's a very difficult time for raising money."

After the block was razed in the summer of 2006 construction was supposed to start by the end of 2006. The start date was pushed off one year to the end of 2007 and once more to the end of 2008. The size of the plan has also changed.

The plan for the 1.12-acre property originally proposed 107 condominiums, 15,000 feet of retail space and over 500 parking spaces. The updated plan intends to bring approximately 200 apartments, 75,000 square feet of office space, 31,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and 335 parking spaces.

"The loss of new parking bothers me most. The fact that the developer was able to tear down a whole city block and not be held accountable also upsets me," Carma Halterman, co-owner Carma's Café, said. "To be a real destination place, people from outside the community [Charles Village] need to be able to come into the community and get out of their cars and shop for a few hours. The current parking situation is a deterrent. What parking we do have has a two-hour limit and you cannot shop and eat in two hours."

Pula and officials from the City government don't blame SBER for the delayed project. Given the state of the economy construction projects across the city and country have been frozen.

"You can't get financing for a project like that. It's just not possible to start. This isn't the only one; there are plenty of projects that have just halted. It's not particular to this developer or this location," Cindy Leahy, council assistant to Mary Pat Clarke and the councilwoman for Charles Village, said.

Continued...

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