PEORIA — A Downtown Peoria condominium complex could be fronted $2.5 million by the city of Peoria to make much-needed repairs.
The Twin Towers Place Condominiums are in need of repairs to its parking garage, roof, HVAC, electrical and fire suppression system but does not have the cash reserves on hand to make those repairs, City Manager Patrick Urich said.
“We’re working with them to do this, recognizing the importance of one of the first downtown residential properties inside the city,” Urich said.
Working in conjunction with the city after it had to appear before a code hearing officer, the Twin Towers have now asked the city to front it $2.5 million so it can make the repairs, which it would then pay back by also having the city levy extra property tax charges on its residents via a special service area.
Urich said this is not the simplest agreement, but it is one the city feels can help one of its oldest downtown living structures maintain itself. The Twin Towers opened in 1984.
“We’ve done special service areas before. Obviously, there is a full timeframe that follows the statutory requirements of this and this is the first step,” he said.
If approved by the City Council in September, condo owners at the Twin Towers Place would have to begin paying higher property taxes, which would then be used to pay back the city. The extra property tax fee levied would not be allowed to exceed $2.75 of every $100 of equalized assessed value.
“Each condo would have its prorated share of the $2.5 million repayment,” Urich said.
City Councilman Alex Carmona, who represents Downtown Peoria, said he is favor of letting the SSA process play out because the condo owners themselves will have the ability to approve or strike down a vote themselves via their condominium association. The condo association needs a 50% plus-1 vote either way to approve or kill the proposal.
Carmona said past condo associations have failed the residents of the towers, leading to this point.
“It seems like the only solution, which the condo board is in favor of, is to turn the towers into a SSA,” Carmona said. “… It’ll be up to the residents to make sure their voices are heard on whether they want this to happen or not. I want to make sure the residents are fully aware of what is happening. The condo board basically has to go out and advocate to make this happen, so they are going to have to do a bunch of due diligence and make sure everybody is aware of what it means and whatnot.”
On Tuesday night, the City Council will vote on whether or not to adopt an ordinance proposing this SSA. The SSA would then require a public hearing on July 14 followed by a final vote in September.
“Looking at this, what we were trying to do is provide them a period of time in which this could be repaid … they could do a fee on the assessment, but most assessments on a condominium like this are going to be over five years and that could be cost prohibitive and the concern there is you would just have people walking away from the condo units,” Urich said. “We didn’t want that to occur, so that’s why we’re looking at stretching this out over a longer period.”
The city would issue bonds to fund the upgrades.
Part of this issue goes back to a yearslong dispute over who is responsible for making repairs to certain parts of the towers parking deck. Urich said the city is responsible for the deck floors whereas the towers are responsible for some of the support beams, complicating the agreement.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria may help fund major repairs at Downtown condo building
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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