The City of Texarkana, Texas has received the finished report from the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) team focused on redevelopment options for the Hotel Grim property. The report, which will be discussed at the city’s regularly scheduled city council meeting on Monday, July 13, 2015, includes some background and history about the property, as well as six recommendations for redevelopment.
City Manager John Whitson looks forward to putting the recommendations from the team into practice.
“We are excited to continue work on the redevelopment of the Grim Hotel,” Whitson said, “and were pleased with the progress made with stakeholders and interested residents during the CDFA’s site visit in June. We will continue to work with the developer, Jim Sari, and use the CDFA’s recommendation to ensure full financing is available for the project without using any general funds from the city.”
Emily Moser is the Program Manager for the Council of Development Financing Agencies.
“CDFA is pleased to present these financing recommendations to support the Grim Hotel redevelopment project,” Moser said. “The City of Texarkana, TX staff and stakeholders are clearly committed to the project and were excellent hosts for the CDFA Project Response Team. We will continue to support the City as they advance the project, and we look forward to the successful financing and redevelopment of the Grim Hotel.”
City of Texarkana, Texas Planning and Community Development Director David Orr has already been working with staff to implement the report’s recommendations.
“The report confirmed some of our public financing strategies for the project that we’ve previously worked on,” Orr said. “However, the CDFA team also provided new funding ideas that we had not considered.”
Project Response Team site visits are made possible through CDFA’s Brownfields Technical Assistance Program, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Texarkana was chosen as one of four sites nationwide for a CDFA site visit.
“Overall I think it was a very productive visit and we plan to use these recommendations to secure the funding needed to make this project a win-win for our community and the developer,” Orr said.
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