The Carmel Redevelopment Commission recently discussed whether the new $150 million transformation of the Midtown area would necessitate the construction of an energy center.
Rather, the CRC is considering whether to consider it, as they tabled a motion to fund a $24,000 study to look into the matter.
The CRC already owns an energy center that supplies heating and air conditioning services to The Palladium, city hall, the police headquarters and several other buildings. Such centralized centers are proven to be more energy efficient because hot or cool air is cycled between several buildings and excess energy isn’t spent warming up or cooling down the system.
The idea was brought to the CRC because there was an initial concern about Duke Energy’s ability to serve all five of the buildings constructed by Justin Moffett’s Old Town Design Group. Not only could Moffett and his tenants save money on energy bills, but the CRC could see added revenue by charging for energy center services. Although, any CRC revenue would have to be balanced with the cost of constructing the building.
Moffett said it’s “not insurmountable” but that any energy center construction can’t slow down his existing timeline.
“We can’t afford to pause or we will lose corporate partners,” he said.
Moffett said he is on a tight timeline because he needs to get construction started by the end of the year, but he hopes for sooner. Two of his buildings will likely have major corporate headquarters tenants which haven’t been announced yet. Restaurants will also occupy some ground floor space.
A parking garage will need to be built to accommodate all of the office workers, but the parking garage can’t be built until a new space is constructed for Miller Auto Care to move into, since they are located where the garage would be built. Moffett also hopes to utilize tax increment financing – a funding mechanism using property tax increases – to help pay for the parking garage. But that all needs to be approved before any shovels hit the ground or else you can’t create a TIF district.
Due to the timeline, CRC members decided at their March meeting to table the matter because they decided they didn’t want to spend $24,000 to fund a study if ultimately it wasn’t going to work. The matter is still being considered but the engineer agreed to provide more preliminary information before a more thorough study would be conducted.
IN OTHER CRC NEWS:
The Carmel Redevelopment Commission discussed the delays associated with the construction of The Mezz building, a residential structure located behind The Palladium with some retail on the first floor.
Duke Energy apparently took longer than expected to relocate utility lines and that delay caused extra expenses for the developer, Anderson Birkla, and has pushed back the move in date for some tenants.
As a result, the CRC discussed whether there could be some reimbursement for these added expenses, especially considering the CRC is set to pay more than $200,000 for utility relocation.
Lawyers advised that it might be hard to ask for reimbursement since no agreement was made with that issue. The CRC voted to pay its bill to Duke Energy. But frustrations were noted.
“Do we get to take a year to pay them like they took a year to get it moved?” commissioner Jeff Worrell said, joking because of his frustration regarding the delays.
“It has been more than frustrating,” commissioner Dave Bowers agreed.
