Kaufman Development is coming back to the Victorian Village Commission tonight with an updated design for its nine-story mixed-use development at 23 W. Second Ave.
The project, which has been before the commission multiple times since it was first proposed in the summer of 2016, still calls for a mix of office, retail and residential. The new plan does not significantly change the mix of those different uses, and the overall square footage of the building will also be about the same, according to CEO Brett Kaufman.
“The main driver of the changes has really been just going from a concept to a real, designed building,” he said. “As we’ve gone further into the design, we’ve made changes so that we have something that really functions, and that we can build – that we can afford to build and get financed – and that works in the market.”
In addition to changes to the design of the north and south facades of the building, more of the height and massing has been shifted towards High Street and away from the single family homes to the west, something that the commission had requested early on in the review process.
The project’s previous design was approved, with conditions, by the commission in March. The proposed changes will require another vote of approval.
As for a new timeline for the development, Kaufman said that “depending on how we’re received (by the commission), the hope is to start construction by summer or early fall of next year.”