Tenant Relocation Plans Aired at Work Session

The Boiler Room, which would be displaced by demolishing part of the Old City Hall Block, would relocate to the building recently vacated by the Duluth Art Gallery and Wallace Reid Portraiture, according to plans discussed by the Duluth City Council in work session Monday (March 26).

The city council and Duluth Downtown Development Authority reached a consensus at a to raze the building presently occupied by Boudreaux’s Cajun Seafood Market and the Boiler Room, a warehouse used by New Dawn Theater Company to store props, and the rear covered alleyway connecting the theater to the warehouse.

The joint meeting was held to consider disposition of aging city-owned property in need of repairs on the historic downtown block. It was also ageed that the buildings occupied by New Dawn Theater, Accessorize Again, and fyi Duluth design studio on Main Street would be rehabilitated. The Old City Hall Block is bounded by Main Street, West Lawrenceville Street, Hill Street, and Abbotts Bridge Road (Ga. Hwy. 120).

New Dawn Theater would move its stored props into the large building formerly used by the art gallery and photography studio on West Lawrenceville Street.

City Manager Tim Shearer presented the plans for accommodating the displaced tenants to the council at the work session.

There would plenty of space in the 1,600-square-foot building for both the Boiler Room and New Dawn to have workshops, Shearer said. This building would be temporarily fixed up by patching and stabilizing the roof and replacing the rear façade. Repairs would be minimal because the city council was undecided about tearing down or rehabilitating the building, he said. The former tenants had installed a new $18,000 hearing and air conditioning system, Shearer said.

The Boiler Room, which opened last May, contains a retail shop selling Steampunk merchandise and houses Penny Dreadful Productions, which designs props and costumes. Matt Silva said he and his partner Erin Bushko appreciated the city providing them with the opportunity to incubate their business at an affordable rental rate in their present location. He also said they were in the process of ascertaining how much space they would need in the relocation space. “We have zero intentions of leaving (the city),” he said.

“We’re fine with it,” said Sherry Ingbritsen, president and artistic director of New Dawn Theatre Company, about the city’s plans.

Rental rates for the relocation space have not yet been determined but would be below market rate, Shearer said.

The Boudreaux’s/Boiler Room building was scheduled to be torn down to accommodate the future realignment of Ga. Hwy. 120, so the estimated $30,000 for its demolition would come from funds designated for the highway project, according to city planner Melissa Muscato.

Duluth Economic Development Manager Chris McGahee said he is working with Boudreaux’s to find another place for the seafood market in the city. The café that had been operating in the building was moved to Duluth Station shopping center and renamed Café Acadiana.

The city proposes to use $60,000 in funds from the Service Delivery Strategy settlement with Gwinnett County for the alleyway demolition and parking improvements that removal of the Boudreaux’s/Boiler Room building would allow, Muscato said. The estimated $8,500 cost of the rear façade replacement on the building that had housed the art gallery/photography studio would also come out of the SDS funds, she said.

Shearer said the demolition of the three structures would occur within 60 to 90 days. Most businesses in the block including Boudreaux’s and the Boiler Room have leases that the city can terminate with 30 days notice.

A problematic sewer line that runs behind the three buildings to be rehabilitated would be replaced at a cost of $15,000. Funds for the new line would be drawn from unallocated sanitary sewer funds, Muscato said.

Installation of a courtyard in a pocket parking lot on West Lawrenceville Street by the Community Volunteer League has been interrupted. The courtyard would have been disrupted by impending demolition of the alleyway. Also, the sewer line slated to be replaced runs under the parking lot.

Materials donated by vendors for the courtyard will be used instead for a walkway that will connect the improved parking area that removal of the Boudreaux’s/Boiler Room building would allow and West Lawrenceville Street. Shearer said the league has agreed to the change.