Sixth and Jackson building hits hurdle

The proposed mixed-use building for Moscow’s Sixth and Jackson street property has run into a roadblock that the developers are uncertain can be overcome.

Carly Lilly met with the Moscow Urban Renewal Agency on Thursday to discuss the future of the building that is supposed to house retail, office and apartment spaces on land owned by the agency.

Lilly and George Skandalos, both Moscow business owners, were selected by the agency last summer to bring their idea of a mixed-use building to life. However, Lilly said that the cost to prepare that land for construction is “rendering it a non-viable project.”

The most challenging issue is the soil underneath that Sixth and Jackson street corner. It is not stable enough to support the weight of a four-to-five-story building that she and Skandalos envisioned.

The companies they have partnered with to build the structure, Baker Construction and architecture firm Bernardo Wills, have warned them about this problem.

“Baker Construction has said this is the worst soil condition they’ve ever seen,” Lilly said.

Bernardo Wills also said that this site is “unbuildable” in its current state, Lilly said.

“But they’re willing to do these studies because we’re paying for them to be done,” she said.

That land, which underwent years of environmental remediation, has a layer of peat soil several feet below the surface, Lilly said. Additionally, the land has been backfilled with other materials that are also not structurally sound, including pieces of concrete.

Lilly said they have few options. Excavating the soil and preparing the land to hold a tall building will cost a significant amount. Conversely, Lilly said a smaller building will not provide the revenue the owners need to make the building cost-effective.

“It’s not buildable beyond a, maybe, two-story building, which doesn’t make money because the footprint’s small,” she said. “It’s not a viable development.”

Lilly said they are also constricted by the need to build a parking lot and Hello Walk, the proposed pathway extending from the UI campus to downtown Moscow. This has forced them to design a multistory building on a small footprint of land. However, even if the parking lot was removed and Hello Walk was rerouted, they would still face the expensive problem of preparing the ground for construction.

Lilly said they were not made aware of the soil issue when they were previously selected by the urban renewal agency to develop Sixth and Jackson street in 2015. During this second attempt, it was not until they partnered with their construction and design teams that they were informed about these problems.

“This has been investigated and remediated and managed and inspected so many times that we thought, ‘Well, certainly it’s buildable.’ ” she said.

Lilly said there is a chance that a three-story structure may be profitable enough to pursue building. Lilly and Skandalos will meet with their design team again to explore this option. The urban renewal agency will discuss this at its upcoming meeting in February.

Agency officials appeared open to the idea of rerouting Hello Walk to make development easier. They are also considering seeking funding to cover the expenses of preparing the site for construction.

“I think there’s an extremely legitimate case to be made for the MURA (Moscow Urban Renewal Agency) to contribute to getting any building out of that ground,” said agency member Tom Lamar.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.