Evansville attorney Scott Danks and his investment group secured almost $400,000 from the city Tuesday to install equipment to help alleviate Downtown’s water and sewage overflow as the group renovates the former Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. administration building.
The building, located beside the Civic Center, is being converted to office space, a restaurant and a new Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union branch.
Danks and his investment group, Professionals Plaza LLC, are reportedly investing $3 million into renovation of the property. Danks is also the City Council’s attorney.
The grant will fund the installation of a water retention system underneath the property’s parking lot. Michael Labitzke, deputy director of utilities and engineering for the city, said Professionals Plaza’s water storage system will collect nearly 2 million gallons of rainwater annually.
The grant program is an incentive for private developers to add the rainwater storage tanks to lessen the amount of combined sewer overflow the city experiences when it rains. Some 300 million gallons of rainwater and sewage overflow from the city’s infrastructure near Downtown every year.
“Every little bit helps,” Labitzke said.
Not helping the city is a lack of government-owned real estate — Downtown Evansville is 35 percent public land, and 65 percent private land, he said.
Two years ago, the city added a similar water retention system, which handles 6 million gallons of rainwater, when the Civic Center’s “back 40” parking lot was renovated.
With limited public land, the utility board in September approved plans to offer financial incentives to Downtown developers. Through a one-time grant, the city will award 20 cents for every gallon of rainwater to be collected annually.
Danks’ group, whose proposal received unanimous approval from Evansville Water and Sewer Utility Board on Tuesday, is the first private developer to receive funding under the program.
Danks said work on the parking lot had been tied up for the last eight to 10 months as the group’s engineer drew up plans for the rainwater system. Now, work can proceed.
“It’s not a moneymaking project for the developer. We’ll essentially break even on it,” Danks said.
Despite its stalling the renovation process, Danks said his group is happy to install the equipment.
“We did it because it helps the city tremendously,” he said.
He said his law office and the credit union should be able to move into the former EVSC administrative building within two months.
Everything at the office space should be open for business by early 2015. He said he’s filled 100 percent of the open rental space in the building.
He still hasn’t selected a restaurant to go in the building, though, he has several options under consideration. It will likely be a sandwich shop and coffeehouse, he said.
The building, which first opened in 1969, has sat empty since 2011, when the school corporation moved to new offices on nearby Walnut Street.