The next phase of construction at the Cortex tech district will proceed without the apartments and parking garage that officials announced last fall.
Dennis Lower, the tech district鈥檚 chief executive, said Friday that officials decided to rethink the apartments and garage after determining the preliminary design was too costly. He said the projects are delayed, not canceled.
A hotel and a building of offices and laboratories 鈥 the other Cortex projects announced in October 鈥 remain on schedule for completion next year. Lower said lab-building construction should start by the end of February, followed in the spring by hotel construction. Combined project costs are $100 million.
Those projects moved ahead Wednesday when the 最新杏吧原创 Tax Increment Financing Commission voted to support them with $9.5 million in TIF help. The public incentive requires approval by the Board of Aldermen.
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Apartments and the garage were part of the tech district鈥檚 presentation to the TIF Commission at its meeting Nov. 2, when Cortex officials said they wanted to draw nearly $20 million from the Central West End district鈥檚 previously approved TIF of $167.7 million.
Further review revealed higher costs that made the apartment and garage projects 鈥渇inancially infeasible鈥 as initially designed, Lower said Friday.
Under the now-discarded plan, 220 apartments would have been built around and on top of the 1,000-car garage. Lower said developers scrapped the plan, in part, because of the high cost of putting the apartments鈥 elevator and utility shafts through the garage.
As a result, the projects will be redesigned separately, said Lower, adding that they should be ready for TIF Commission consideration this year.
Still on schedule is a 150-room Aloft hotel by Boston-based CV Properties on a site next to Forest Park Parkway. So is the 180,000-square-foot lab building to go up on the parking lot next to the @4240 office and lab building on Duncan Avenue. An 鈥渋nnovation hall鈥 within the building will be available to the entire region.
鈥淲e are turning away right now many, many meetings we cannot currently support in the district,鈥 Lower said.
