Gloucester City: Plans Call For a Irish Themed Village of Shops and Restaurants
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
In an effort to further revitalize the Gloucester City waterfront, Mayor and Council are currently looking for developers and builders who want to play a part in the effort.
The City has most recently issued a Request for Qualifications for developers and builders that are interested in enhancing the housing/business stock along the City's waterfront area.
This is part of a Citywide revitalization effort that began in 2007 calling for the King Street corridor to become a festival retail and entertainment destination by locating stores, restaurants, and housing near the existing waterfront park and marina.
As part of a much larger plan, the conversion of the King Street corridor into a regional destination is just one of the recommendations contained in a Community Insights™ market analysis and retail assessment that was conducted last year by the JGSC Group of Pennsauken, who are currently serving as the City's business recruitment and retention consultants funded and coordinated by the Gloucester City Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ).
Among other things, the plan calls for Gloucester City to capitalize upon the presence of Irish residents to create an Irish-themed village of shops and restaurants along King Street, being that more than 42 percent of all residents of Gloucester City are of Irish ancestry, which is more than double the average for the entire Delaware Valley.
Additionally, the King Street corridor is slated to become the destination for many of the City's activities, festivals, and events. Other ideas being explored include expanding the promenade along the river as well as the parks and marina areas.
For the purpose of enhancing the waterfront area, the City has identified a number of vacant parcels and City-owned properties along the waterfront, which the City is looking to use to host new residential and mixed-use buildings which emphasize retail and restaurants uses at grade with office or residential uses above.
The City decided to issue a "Request for
Qualifications" (RFQ) rather than the traditional "request for
Proposals" (RFP) because it is most interested in finding developers and
builders who will want to partner with the City. Many developers have a typical building model
that they follow in nearly all instances, but that approach is not desired in
this case.
Rather, the City
hopes to find one or more developers with the experience and qualifications to
successfully develop residential townhouses and mixed-use buildings in urban
and historic districts. Firms that meet
the RFQ qualifications will be asked to work together with the City to identify
and assemble specific parcels for redevelopment, develop appropriate
development concepts for the selected sites, and develop the residential
townhouses or mixed-used buildings.
For its part the
City is preparing a plan to assist builders and developers with assembling
properties for desired projects. The City also plans to actively market the
area to attract homebuyers who would like to live in a walkable community that
will offer an Irish-themed waterfront village.
To attract the
stores and restaurants, the City plans to proactively recruit a diverse mix of
high-quality full-service restaurants to create a "restaurant row"
along King Street.
The Community
Insights™ analysis revealed that the demand for full-service restaurants within
the trade area exceeds $23.4 million annually, which is a main reason the City
wishes to enhance the King Street corridor to create a restaurant row and niche
business district.
On surrounding
streets, the City hopes to redevelop vacant and under-utilized properties into
appealing single-family market-rate residential units that reflect the City's
historic architecture.
Ideally, the new
housing will be single-family townhouse units or condominiums, depending upon the
size and location of the properties and while the area is not currently
designated as a redevelopment zone, the City is considering undertaking an
assessment to determine if a redevelopment designation is needed, which should
further help the enhancement of this area.
Due to the economic
growth that should result in the King Street area from such projects, the GCUEZ
is open to offering financial incentives such as low-interest UEZ loans or
property tax abatements that may be available to qualified firms as they are
selected for projects.
Interested
developers, builders, restaurants or retailers are invited to contact Gina
Dunphy, UEZ Coordinator/Director of Community Development at 856-456-6075 or
[email protected] to learn more about the opportunity.
The deadline for
submitting a response to the RFQ is February 13. More details/documentation are on the City's
website at www.cityofgloucester.org/newshome.php