Approximately 28 additional parking spaces will be added to downtown Oxford’s northwest quadrant in the coming months.
The Oxford Downtown Development Authority last week authorized awarding a contract to the Oxford-based James Mouch, Jr. & Sons Excavating, Inc. to demolish the garage behind 19 W. Burdick Street, clear the land and turn the 8,000-square-foot rear portion of the property into a temporary gravel parking lot.
Mouch will be paid $15,485 for the job plus $60 each for every additional parking bumper block needed over 22.
Formerly an adult foster care home for the mentally challenged, 19 W. Burdick Street was purchased by the DDA last year for $390,000.
According to Amanda Cassidy, executive director of the DDA, the DDA is negotiating with the Oxford-based Mitchell Corporation to relocate the three-story home built in 1880.
Having the Mitchell Corporation move the historic home is subject to the company securing a location to place it, according to Cassidy.
Cassidy said future plans for the front portion of the property are still ‘up in the air.? The DDA is exploring a possible retail/office use. Or she said it could end up becoming more parking.
‘We’re open to ideas,? Cassidy said.
In light of these parking expansion plans, the DDA terminated its April 2005 lease with developer Charles Schneider for the 16 parking spaces he owns in the northwest quadrant between the Healthy Smile Center and Sisters? Hair Care.
‘There’s no sense in the DDA paying the taxes on that parking lot if we’re going to have our own,? Cassidy said. As part of the lease, DDA was paying the insurance and property taxes on the lot, maintaining it and paying Schneider $1. The lease termination will officially take effect in early June.
Schneider plans to construct a three-story, 21,000-square-foot building on the site of the parking area.
Earlier this month, Schneider complained to the DDA’s Economic Restructuring Committee that the northwest quadrant is the most parking deficient with only 77 spaces. He noted that his new building alone will require almost 100 spaces.
He also told the committee that he had a tenant interested in leasing 9,000 square feet, but due to the lack of parking, they were no longer interested.