“Former Mayor Bob Miller used to say incredulously all the time (that) he had heard nothing but good feedback from the community on this project,” she said.

During the city approval process, there was concern over an insufficient number of parking stalls, but the developer solved this by agreeing to create a temporary parking lot during construction and later utilize a shared parking agreement.

The property is currently the site of the Chase Bank building (the former home of the Latino Chamber of Commerce), Bridge Lounge, Inland Boat Works and Global Presence Ministries, all of which will be demolished for the project.

The city started looking into redeveloping the site three years ago when “it just so happened that a lot of those properties were for sale at the time,” Reichertz said.

The owners of Inland Boat Works were looking to retire, she said, and the site of Global Presence Ministries was vacant. The bar owner at Brink Lounge was also looking towards retirement. There were a few people, like the tenants of the Chase Bank Building, that had to “shuffle things around in their schedule,” she said.