RDA gives bank, ramp preliminary OK The downtown ramp would also serve a proposed Washington-Walnut building By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle A proposed four-story building to house Nicolet Bank downtown - and a parking ramp across the street that would eventually also serve development at Washington and Walnut streets - was endorsed by the Green Bay Redevelopment Authority on Thursday. The RDA held a special meeting to deal with the proposal, which was finalized late Wednesday by city planning staff. Nicolet had been interested in the northern half of the Washington-Walnut site but wanted to ensure parking. With that goal, city staff looked at going ahead with a proposed ramp across the street on the site of the current Cherry Street lot. The ramp was in proposals for a major development on the south half of the Washington-Walnut property, where Mayor Jim Schmitt wants to see the city's tallest building built. Jeff Weyers of Commercial Horizons - developer for the Nicolet building - says having a ramp there may spark more interest in the other half of the site. "It's 'build it and they will come,'" he said. The Green Bay City Council will get the proposal Tuesday. Nicolet and Commercial Horizons already had a planning option on the north half of the land. Nicolet would use the lower two floors of the $12 million building, and Weyers said three tenants are ready for the upper floors. In fact, one reason why the approval was sought with some speed was that one of the tenants also was looking at space in De Pere. The key question for Nicolet was parking. The bank would have the southern half of the property for now, and the building will include 70 underground spaces for tenants and some angle street parking along Washington Street. But it wanted to ensure enough parking, and with that in mind, the city started looking at doing the ramp now. The city estimates a seven-level, 795-stall ramp would cost $10.2 million. It would be paid for by $665,000 from retail tenants on the first floor, $4.9 million by rental of spaces by the Nicolet building tenants, $4.25 million from tax increment funding, and $595,000 from city borrowing. Tax increment funding uses the difference between current land value and improved land value to pay for other improvements over a set number of years. TIF funding is also being used for the bank building. Of the $12 million in that project, $2.5 million would come from TIF money, designated for what city planner Rob Strong said were "the differences between doing business here and in the suburbs," including soil testing, a plaza around the building, and driving pilings for the riverside location. The remaining property would contain a temporary drive-through bank until the ramp is built, with Nicolet agreeing to pay for drive-through space in a corner of the ramp, similar to the arrangement of US Bank's downtown drive-through. The original term sheet had Nicolet paying $1 for the land, but Ald. Dan Haefs suggested the council might prefer having the bank pay the market value, $200,000, while raising the city's TIF contribution to $2.7 million. Weyers said that he didn't see that as a major obstacle but wanted to review the numbers. "$200,000 as part of a $12 million project may not seem like much, but $200,000 as part of the TIF repayment is a lot," he said. Eyebrows were also raised at requests for parking leases - 20 years with six five-year options.