Polaris Building owner says remodeling could start spring 2014

FAIRBANKS Best case scenario, Anchorage developer Marc Marlow said he could start remodeling Fairbanks largest vacant building by spring 2014, with the first tenants arriving by fall 2015.

The Polaris Building has been vacant for 11 years and owned by Marlow for eight. Last fall, the city declared it a dangerous building unfit for human occupancy, starting the process of condemning it.

But, speaking at a Fairbanks City Council work session Monday evening, Marlow said the time is right for his $20 million project to develop the former hotel into a 117-unit apartment building. Recent progress includes

hiring national accounting firm CohenReznick to help pursue subsidies, he said.

This becomes personal because I know this can work, Marlow said. The alternative is the building has to be taken down at some point, and at great cost, for nothing. Its like spending money for nothing. And if it does succeed, the impact in the culture of downtown and just the activity of downtown is so much better.

Marlow has failed to meet construction deadlines set by the city last September. But while the city council has started the process of condemning the building, the city budget is not likely to absorb the cost of tearing down the building without money from the Alaska legislature.

At Mondays city council meeting, Fairbanks city mayor Jerry Cleworth said the city should continue moving toward the buildings eventual demolition but shouldnt bother giving Marlow any new artificial deadlines.

The deadlines hes been given are simply not going to be met, he said. The city can constantly rattle the sword, but the reality is we dont have the money to take it down, and he (Marlow) knows that.

In their comments, city council members generally supported the sentiment of continuing to move toward condemnation, although a few said the deadlines are useful for pressuring Marlow to keep the city informed.

As hes described in past meetings, Marlow said Monday he thinks he can harness a collection of subsidies to make the Polaris a financially viable project. The building is functionally obsolete, meaning the buildings remodeling costs exceed the expected market value of the remodeled building, he said. The grants Marlow is targeting include a loan guarantee from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a historic property tax credit from the National Park Service and the Treasury Departments New Market Tax Credit.

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Polaris Building owner says remodeling could start spring 2014