Midtown

There are no travel impacts currently, but when construction resumes in 2024, 12th St will be impacted and potentially close again.

In March 2021, the City of Manhattan issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of the City parking lot at the northwest corner of 12th St and Laramie St. Back 9 Development was selected, and the company entered into a development and land transfer agreement with the City in April 2022 to construct Midtown, a new five-story office, retail, and community building development centrally located in Aggieville.

The land transfer and development agreement between the City of Manhattan and Back 9 Development stipulates, with time constraints and milestones, that a minimum $40 million investment must occur, or the developer will owe the City $2.3 million for the land if the development does not occur within the agreement’s specified timeframe.

The previous parking lot on Laramie St had 95 parking spaces. The Midtown building will include approximately 35 private parking spaces for tenants of the building on the first floor, with others utilizing the Aggieville Parking Garage.

When complete, this development plans for an infusion of commercial space into the district for businesses to locate in Aggieville, increasing the daily capacity of individuals in the district to frequent surrounding establishments. Additionally, it will assist with the incremental revenues generated in the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. Prior to this sale, the parking lot generated zero dollars in property taxes. A $40 million investment would generate an estimated $1 million annually in TIF revenue to help fund future Aggieville district improvements.

Construction will be funded privately.

The City of Manhattan is leading an initiative to implement a community-wide vision for the future development of Aggieville as a vibrant, historic, pedestrian-oriented urban district that offers diverse shopping, dining, entertainment, and residential opportunities to students, visitors, and the broader community. A year-long process beginning in spring of 2016 resulted in a comprehensive and cohesive planning document with a clear direction for future development and civic improvements in the district, addressing and balancing the needs and desires of the district and the Manhattan community.

The Aggieville Community Vision plan document describes the future vision for Aggieville and projects to follow. The document is responding to the issues identified and the opportunities explored through research and community input we received through focus group meetings, outreach events, an open house, and our community survey yielding more than 4,200 responses. The plan was adopted by the City Commission via Ordinance no. 7280 on April 18, 2017.

In 2017, the the City partnered with Olsson Associates and Walker Consultants to determine future parking demand based on the redevelopment envisioned in the Aggieville Community Vision Plan and how that demand might be met through multi-level parking garages. Capacity and potential constraints on infrastructure, including water, sewer, and storm-water due to redevelopment were also assessed. The final Parking and Infrastructure Report provided cost estimates for various scenarios so policies for infrastructure, public–private partnerships, and parking management strategies could be implemented.

In December 2018, the Aggieville Community Vision to Reality Plan was adopted, putting the puzzle pieces of Aggieville future together. It’s a complete design concept that edges Aggieville closer to its envisioned future – a future that enhances Aggieville to achieve its fullest potential.

The Aggieville Community Vision requires a funding source to finance public improvements like multi-story parking garages, landscaping, and street amenities. One of those sources is a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district.

A tool created by state statute, when a TIF district is created, the City establishes a base assessment valuation of property in the district and freezes it. The district continues to provide property tax revenue to the City, County, USD 383, and State at that same level for the next 20 years. The City then captures the increase above the base in tax revenue resulting from rising property value in the future years from redevelopments and the natural increase in property value over time. The City invests that money directly back into the district in the form of public improvements. Those public improvements attract more private development and reinvestment, which in turn, increases the value of property in the district that the City can again capture and invest back in the district- and the process repeats itself. This is the same mechanism the City used to finance improvements for the Downtown redevelopment that began in 2006. It is not a new tax or fee, but is simply a redirection of tax revenue that will be collected through 2038.

The Manhattan City Commission established the Aggieville TIF boundary in March 2019, and the TIF Redevelopment Plan was finalized in the summer of 2019. The boundaries include: Bluemont Ave to the north, Fremont St to the south, 14th St to the west, and 10th St to the east. Due to the nature of TIFs, the more valuable and earlier in the 20-year window redevelopment occurs, the greater value the TIF will provide for Aggieville.