TRAVERSE CITY — Nearly $6 million in planned renovations to the Boardman/Ottaway River downtown are in limbo as they won’t be completed under the Downtown Development Authority’s current TIF-97 tax increment financing plan.
That was the consensus of the DDA Board and staff during a recent update on the riverwalk project, which is among three major initiatives the DDA wanted to complete under the TIF-97 plan that expires next year. The DDA had previously hoped to finish the first phase of riverwalk project — along with a new Farmers Market pavilion downtown and construction of the Rotary Square park along Union Street — under the current TIF plan.
The new $3 million pavilion at the Sara Hardy Farmers Market will begin later this summer, and the DDA has budgeted $500,000 next year for the Rotary Square work that’s slated to begin next spring.
But officials said the cost of riverwalk project, currently estimated at around $5.8 million, would endanger other operations of the DDA in the year final of the TIF-97 plan. DDA and city officials are working to put an extension on the TIF plan — the new version called “Moving Downtown Forward” — before city voters in November to comply with a city charter amendment adopted two years ago requiring voter approval of TIF plans.
The DDA’s proposed TIF-97 budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year that begins July 1 is around $7.8 million, and includes $400,000 for the riverwalk to develop construction documents and other preparatory work to ready the project for bidding.
But DDA officials said covering all of the estimated construction costs in the final year of the TIF-97 plan would significantly impact other DDA line items, including funds for downtown operations and maintenance, its service contract with the city including the downtown police officer and more.
“There would probably be cuts to other things if we didn’t (delay the riverwalk construction),” DDA Deputy Director Lauren Bohac said. “We don’t really believe using the money we have toward this project is good fiscal responsibility … that last year of TIF-97 operations would be very different.”
The DDA Board back in January approved a schematic design and development plan for the riverwalk project that included reconstruction of the J. Smith Walkway in the 100 block of East Front Street that connects the street to the alley and the river. Also planned are several pedestrian amenities including benches through the alley and parking area, along with construction of a new pedestrian bridge connecting with the improvements on the river’s north side, including the planned Farmers Market pavilion.
Detroit-based architects INFORM Studio completed the design based on public input the DDA began collecting almost 10 years ago.
Despite the uncertainty over the project’s construction, the DDA Board wants to proceed with final design plans so it can move ahead if the TIF plan is extended, or if the city finds a different path to pay for the work.
“We’ve taken this ball so far — I really want to get this to a deliverable,” DDA Board member Peter Kirkwood said. “I want to have something to show for the work we’ve done.”
Mayor Amy Shamroe said the planning work on the riverwalk, and larger river restoration initiatives being pursued by federal agencies and partners including the Grand Traverse Band of Ottaway and Chippewa Indians, highlight a renewed commitment by the city to improving the river.
“We are at least continuing to move the ball forward in a way that no (city) commission has done in decades, and no DDA has done in decades,” Shamroe said.