#3 Report on status of 101 N Franklin Street (old gas station) and direction to staff
Community Development Department Memorandum
Date: May 29, 2012
TO: Janesville City Council
FROM: Gale Price, Building & Development Services Manager
SUBJECT: Report on status of property located at 101 North Franklin Street (old gas
station) and direction to staff.
_____________________________________________________________________
I. RECOMMENDATION
Following discussion on this matter by the City Council, the Administration requests
the Council provide the staff with direction regarding proceeding with repairs and
maintenance of the service station structure located at 101 North Franklin Street.
II. CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
As the Council may be aware, the historic service station that is situated next to the
Police Station is currently deteriorating. This building was initially purchased with
the intent of demolition for future expansion of the Police Department. A group of
citizens at the time brought forward concerns with demolishing the building with the
hope of finding an alternative viable use for the structure.
Due to the deterioration at this time, I believe that it will either be necessary to make
certain repairs at a cost of between $50,000 and $95,000 or to move forward with
demolition.
If the City chooses to move forward with repairs, two possible viable future uses
would be to tie it into future uses of a Police station expansion or to utilize it for
Leisure Service activities and/or storage.
Either of the above renovations would cost more financially than a demolition, but
the tradeoff would be moving forward with a historical building and establishing a
use in the future of benefit to the city.
III. REQUEST
The City of Janesville owns the former service station located at 101 N. Franklin
Street. In March of this year Staff evaluated the north parapet, a portion of which is
failing from the vacant building. The building was originally purchased with the
intent to demolish the structure for future expansion of the Police Services Building
located at 100 North Jackson Street, which is contiguous to the vacant service
station. The building is in need of significant repairs and the Administration is
requesting direction as to how to proceed with the structure.
IV. ANALYSIS
A. The former service station includes a 7230 square foot parcel with a 2815
square foot building. The site was purchased by the City in November, 2007
with the intent to demolish the building to provide for additional land area for
future expansion of the Police Service Building, which is contiguous to the site.
The Police Department has been utilizing the building for storage.
B. The building was purchased for $92,000 and the Administration anticipated a
cost of $25,000 for demolition of the building. All costs for acquisition and
demolition were to come from TIF 9.
C. In February, 2002 the Janesville Historic Commission reviewed the potential for
adding this building to the National Register of Historic places and at that time
determined that it was not eligible for recognition on the national register.
There are opinions that the building is eligible, but at this time the building is not
listed in any historic district or historic register (State or Federal).
D. When the building was purchased in 2007 the City Council agreed to delay the
demolition of the building for 6 months while a Leadership Development
Academy class explored options to reuse the former station. Potential re-uses
for private sector businesses were identified but no party to redevelop the
building has come forward. In January 2009 the City Council authorized an
application for a grant to develop an adaptive reuse plan. That grant was not
awarded and development of a plan for the reuse of the building has not moved
forward.
E. With the assistance of a private contractor, Staff has identified major areas of
work that would need to be done in the near term to preserve the building.
Estimates were provided by contractors. The repairs include reconstruction of
the parapet wall, tuckpointing, infilling of missing bricks, repair of the chimney
and coping on the top of the wall. The roof membrane would also need to be
replaced on the structure due to the collapsed parapet. The wall and chimney
repairs are estimated to be $47,500 while the roof repair is estimated to be a
minimum of $35,000 for a total of $82,500. If the exterior paint on the building
is lead based, there will be an additional $15,000 expense to mitigate the paint
for a total cost of $97,500.
F. The near term expansion of the Police Services building would include
expansion of the parking garage, but that will be to the north of the structure.
When administrative areas of the building would need to be expanded, the
service station site would be the most logical location given the configuration of
the structure.
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G. The building is an excellent example of an early 20 century service station.
Unfortunately older buildings require maintenance and this structure is currently
in a state that significant maintenance is required in order to preserve the
structure.
VI. SUMMARY
At this time is appears there is not a viable private sector business willing to enter
into an agreement for reuse of the building. Without any adaptive reuse of the
structure it would be appropriate for the City to relocate some business activity
within the building. With any reuse, there will be additional cost to prepare the
building for the reuse. The costs for such a reuse are dependent upon what the
specific use will be. The Administration requests direction on how to proceed
with the building, either to repair the structure to continue its preservation or
proceed with removal of the building.
cc: Eric Levitt
Jay Winzenz
Failure of the roof membrane at parapet
Failure of the north parapet wall, inside on the roof
Failure of the north parapet wall, inside on the roof west of chimney
North wall with holes and showing paint coming off
North wall needing tuckpointing and showing paint and mortar deterioration