The Columbus Redevelopment Authority needs more money to get its ambitious Burns Bottom project over the hump.
Robert Rhett, a CRA board member, told the Columbus City Council during its Thursday work session that the CRA is looking for a total of about $6.4 million in additional funding to finish infrastructure work. Rhett asked for about $1 million of that from the city, potentially from its as-yet-unobligated American Recovery Plan Act money. That figure includes $125,000 for water, $440,000 for sewer, $100,000 for broadband and $405,000 for drainage.
The CRA plans to ask the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors for about $2.4 million for demolition, grading and drainage and road and sidewalk work, and Columbus Light and Water for about $2.4 million in in-kind services for electric infrastructure, road and sidewalk work and curb and gutter work.
Finally, CRA is putting up about $500,000 from its own coffers toward the project.
The CRA was founded in 2015, and was set up with $3.2 million in bond money to buy and redevelop about 15 acres in and around Burns Bottom — specifically a five-block area between Third and Fourth Street North and Second and Seventh avenues.
Rhett told the council that 68 of the 70 lots in the project area have been acquired, but the additional money is necessary to make the project viable for a developer.
“This is truly a generational project that will have a sustainable, substantial and qualitative effect on the community,” he said. “Fully built out with initial land purchases, infrastructure complete, retail and residential development, the total redevelopment should be approximately a $45 million project.”
Rhett estimated that, once complete, the project would bring in an additional $130,000 a year in tax revenue to both the city and county, as well as a projected $276,000 in utility income to CLW yearly.
“If we don’t get this over the hump basically you’ve got $3.2 million in bonds that are in green spaces,” he said. “That’s that much more property that you’ve got to keep up and be responsible for mowing the grass and things like that.”
Adding the $1 million to what the city has already issued in bonds and using Rhett’s revenue estimates, it would take 32 years for the Burns Bottom project to repay the just the city’s part of the investment through ad valorem taxes alone. It would take almost nine years for CLW to recoup its investment through utility bills.
CRA Attorney Jeff Turnage, when contacted by The Dispatch, explained the CRA’s original request of $3.2 million, made in 2017 was a best guess at the time.
“(When the CRA was set up) we made a guess on what it would take,” Turnage said. “We did not have an appraisal done for the whole thing because we didn’t want to spend the money appraising something when we didn’t know if the council would do it or not.”
He also said costs had been higher than anticipated, including the need to take properties by eminent domain, to conduct searches for heirs and to relocate people into “decent, safe and sanitary housing,” as the law requires.
“The CRA has about $600,000 or $700,000 left and that’s not enough to finish the project,” he said.
CRA President Marthalie Porter added that the infrastructure that exists is old and often not in good shape.
“We hoped the infrastructure we needed was covered by that $3.2 million,” she said. “It’s in worse shape, and the scale of the work is greater, than we thought. There’s also no broadband out there at all.”
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said that the CRA had not formally approached the county for support.
“They haven’t approached us as a group, and I don’t know what the appetite of the board is,” Hairston said. “We haven’t had a formal proposal, and when we get one we’ll consider it.
“We’ve got a lot of developments going on all over the county, and we’re not tearing up roads for them,” he added. “It’s a hard sell for us to be on the hook for street work when we don’t do that in other places.”
The county did give the CRA several lots that it owned adjacent to the soccerplex, which are currently being used for gravel parking lots, Hairston said.
Columbus Light and Water General Manager Angela Verdell did not respond to a request for comment by press time, but Turnage said the utility had not been formally approached, either.
The CRA is looking for funds everywhere it can to finish out the project, Porter said.
“We’ve talked to the state, and we’re looking at all different possibilities to fund this,” she said.
Ayad Taofik, project manager with Waggoner Engineering, was at the work session and told the council he didn’t think the project was eligible for ARPA funding. The council asked him to research the matter and report back.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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