Comment on this story

by Joe Sullivan

Mayor Bill Haslam is facing a quandary over how to proceed with construction of a long-in-the-works downtown transit center for which plans are now nearing completion.

The quandary arises because the cost of the facility, under the latest set of plans, is expected to run a lot higher than the $17 million that the city has been looking to cover with previously authorized federal funding. Just how much higher no one is prepared to say at this point. And it is also anything but clear when, or even whether, the city could expect to get additional federal funding to cover the overage.

That leaves the mayor in the unenviable position of having to decide whether to start work on a project when it’s unclear whether there will be enough money to complete it-and Haslam is averse to proceeding on this basis. The city could, of course, commit perhaps as much as $10 million to complete the project on its own. But this runs counter to the taut budgetary constraints within which Haslam is trying to operate.

Further complicating matters, the Federal Transportation Administration, which must approve the transit-center plans, is understood to be insistent that work start promptly following its anticipated approval. While the FTA is believed to be supportive of everything that’s incorporated into present plans, it has grown impatient with a planning process that has extended for several years and involved two changes in the center’s location before settling on the present State Street site. Timelines laid out by the center’s project manager, Jeff Galyon of the Public Building Authority, now call for final submissions to the FTA next spring with construction starting in the fall looking toward a 2007 completion date.

Haslam is taking a two-pronged approach of trying to escape the bind that faces him. For one, he’s talking with Rep. Jimmy Duncan about the possibilities for supplementing the $17 million authorization that Duncan was instrumental in getting through Congress in 1998. At the same time, he’s asking PBA to look for ways to phase construction so that outlays don’t exceed available federal funds. But both of these approaches have obstacles.

Of the $17 million originally authorized, only $7 million has actually been appropriated. The $10 million balance was included in a massive highway bill that both the House and Senate approved this year but got held up when President George W. Bush vowed to veto it. Haslam voices confidence that the $10 million will come through, but getting anything beyond that anytime soon becomes problematic. “With so many requests I have in for other projects in my district I don’t think I can do it on my own,” Duncan reports. “It’s going to take help from our senators.”

As for phasing construction, Galyon says, “The FTA won’t ordinarily approve a partial project.”

There are many reasons why the cost of the facility that’s now planned have pushed higher than the original $17 million estimate. Inflation, rising steel prices and having to go back to the boards on planning when its site got changed have all contributed. So has an evolution of the size and scope of the transit center over time.

What’s now contemplated is a 300,000 to 325,000 square-foot facility on three levels that Galyon characterizes as “more like an airport than a bus station.” Twenty-two bus bays-up from 16 originally-are now planned on the lower level, and State Street will have to be widened to provide bus lanes. The middle level calls for about 350 parking spaces, and the waiting area on the upper level is due to have an atrium and an arcade intended to make the use of public transit more inviting.

To make the State Street site more accessible to the heart of downtown, a pedestrian bridge will connect it to a Gay Street entrance, and this also entails acquisition of the Gay Street frontage that’s now a recessed surface parking lot. Beyond that, the structure’s underpinnings are being engineered to support extensive development on top of it.

The city acquired the site from Knox County earlier this year in exchange for air rights over this development pad, as it’s referred to. And the county is pushing ahead with plans to enlist private developers to build three 13-story towers on the pad, primarily for residential use, with UT student housing uppermost in mind. Each tower would contain some 200 apartments and/or condominiums. While the totality of this new construction would dwarf the residential growth that’s already occurring through renovation of downtown’s older buildings-and might well occur in phases-county officials report they are getting a lot of developer interest in responding to an RFP that the PBA issued last week. In addition to the tower, some 30,000 square feet on the pad is being reserved for a new Discovery Center that remains a goal of County Mayor Mike Ragsdale. The site’s footprint also includes space for subsequent construction of a 540-car garage whose financing will have to come from sources other than federal transit dollars.

Galyon says it’s premature to make any estimate of the transit center’s cost at this point. “Getting a handle on construction costs is a huge deal,” Galyon reports. “We have two estimators working on it, but they need more information. However, we know it’s more than $17 million.”

The county’s eagerness to get started with development on the site puts yet another source of pressure on Haslam to come up with the funding ASAP. Given the benefits of that development and of the long-delayed transit center itself, I believe the city should be prepared to make an investment in the project unless and until more federal funds can be obtained.

October 28, 2004 • Vol 14, No. 44 © 2004 Metro Pulse