Girtz on the parking deck

Athens-Clarke County District Nine Commissioner Kelly Girtz offered some thoughts on the parking deck discussion we've been having.

On the increase in construction costs ...

The total cost of the project rose because the nature of the project changed. The "parking" piece of the project is actually cheaper than originally anticipated b/c of the depressed market for construction work. The "extra" 5M is all private money, as the original plan was for 8000 square feet of retail space, while the plan now includes 12000 square feet of retail and 23000 square feet of office space.

On the granting of the commercial rights to the developer ...

This is a standard operating procedure in private-public projects and nothing to be concerned about (I'd be raising a red flag if it was). They know what they're getting into, we know what we are getting into. All is above-board there.