Cookeville has officially closed on the 5.3 acres downtown that housed the Wilson Plant.
City Manager James Mills said the city has been interested in the property, located on southwest corner of Cedar Avenue and Depot Street, for several years. Mills said the city council is currently working to develop their vision of parking, green space, and private development.
“In terms of the long term use of the property, we are currently in the process of soliciting proposals from architectural and land planning firms to come up with a master plan for the use of the five acres,” Mills said.
Mills said he hopes the firm is selected by the end of August. Mills said a master plan could be complete by the end of this year.
“Once the plan is approved and adopted, we could envision us sometime next year completing the portion that would be public parking,” Mills said. “It would be an area that we would surface and stripe and add ammenities to for public parking.”
Mills said development for the green space could come next year too. As for upgrades to the parking lot, Mills said there will be cameras and street lights added for extra safety. Mills said money for the parking lot and green space have been budgeted for this fiscal year.
Mills said he is unsure of specifics for the commercial phase of the project. He said it could be a public-private partnership, or the city could put that piece of the property up for sale.
Mills said the city’s public works crew has gone in and fixed some potholes on the lot. He said some of this was because people were still using the lot as public parking before the city bought it.
“Over the years, we’ve had numerous complaints about people damaging their vehicles parking in those parking lots, but it was private property,” Mills said. “Well, that was at their own risk to park there. It’s still not officially public parking, but we are realist enough to know that people are going to try to park there, so we’ve tried to make it a better situation by filling the potholes where we could.”
Mills said purchasing this lot reiterates the city’s emphasis on Downtown Cookeville. Once the projects are complete, Mills said the city will have invested some $15 million into downtown over the last 10 years.
“We have spent an enormous amount of funds to make our downtown vibrant, and it’s worked,” Mills said. “And that’s not all on the City of Cookeville, that’s on the business owners and the property owners that have taken this to heart. We’re partners with them in supporting and trying to make our downtown vibrant. And anyone that goes in our downtown, we have nothing but positive comments. We’re very, very proud of our downtown area.”
Mills said the property could include a minimum of 150 parking spaces. The Cookeville City Council approved the $3.2 million purchase in May.