A 10- or 12- story office tower that includes a 4-story retail and office complex with a 5-story parking deck that could potentially accommodate a grocery store or office space could be an appropriate future use of the RSI Bank property.

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Editor’s note: This is the 12th part in an ongoing series about the 94-page downtown strategic vision plan that was unanimously adopted by the Planning Board during a special meeting on Feb. 8 and presented to City Council on Feb. 14. This post focuses on recommendations for the RSI Bank property on Irving Street, one of 14 “opportunities sites” identified downtown.

The downtown strategic plan presents two variations of a concept for almost 300,000 square feet and 750 parking spaces fronting Irving and Broad streets:

• Concept A — 4-story retail/office building wrapping a 5-story parking garage with a 12-story tower on top of the garage.
• Concept B — 5-story retail/office building wrapping a 5-story parking garage with a 10-story tower on top of the garage, and a 4-story office building on the adjacent corner of West Cherry and Campbell streets.

Columbia Bank recently completed its acquisition of RSI but that doesn’t mean development is coming to the site anytime soon — if at all. The strategic plan is a list of goals and objectives. Any development would still have to go through the arduous process of redevelopment studies, land acquisition, and of course, public hearings and approvals by City Council and/or Planning and Zoning boards There has been talk of a parking structure and/or office complex on the RSI site going back at least 15 years and has come up over the years during discussions about potential sites for a second downtown parking deck. Block 154 is bound by Broad Street, Irving Street, Elm Avenue, and Campbell Street just northwest of the train station.

The properties include large surface parking lots on Lots 2.01 and 6.01 and several existing uses. The proximity of the train station, however, makes the site “potentially viable for a larger mixed-use development with shared or structured parking,” according to the strategic plan. “The site could accommodate an anchor non-residential development, such as a grocery store, office, healthcare, institutional use, or a combination thereof with a structured parking component.”

The redevelopment of the site would “contribute to establishing a gateway” at the Irving Street train station exit between Cherry and Broad streets.

The strategic plan accommodates uses and nonresidential development, like office/healthcare and grocery or a combination thereof, Planner Leigh Fleming said during her presentation at the February meeting when the Planning Board accepted the strategic plan. It aims to create some balance to downtown as far as where things are located, she added.

Several residents offered feedback on aspects of the plan during the public comment session at the February meeting.

Andrew Garcia Phillips of Campbell Street said the recommendations in the plan don’t offer significant addition of park space downtown but there are spaces large enough for a 12-story tower. “How come there was no consideration for green space? Was there anyone at the table speaking for less development? Clearly, there were people who were speaking for more development,” he said.

Maybe the RSI site could be a park, Fleming replied, but the strategic plan doesn’t dictate what will build, it only recommends where something can go. The strategic plan is not the city building these projects, she added, but it’s an enabling document.

“Because of the proximity to the train station, I don’t know that I would make that piece of property for a park. Building to replace buildings is different than replacing with a park,” Fleming said. “I don’t see proposals to take down a one-story building and put up a park. Generally, developers don’t buy buildings to become parks,” she said, but if the city sees properties come up for sale, it can purchase them.

“The plan doesn’t say, ‘Parks only go here,”” Fleming said. “Most of these recommendations are including statements like, ‘The city may consider…’ because all these are options.” The plan aims to be flexible because different properties come up at different times. There are some projects that you think will happen and funding falls through. “This is why it’s all fluid.”

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