Instead of apartments or condominiums, the group now wants tobuild an office complex. The announcement frustrates residents ofthe 1900s era neighborhood, who had finally agreed to a compromisewith the developers that would have dropped the number of proposedhousing units from 52 to 32.

Jim Miller, a consultant who represents Grand AvenueInvestments, says his clients' change of heart stems from the factthat the reduced number of housing units was financiallyunfeasible, especially considering that the plan calls for aparking garage that would cost more than $300,000 to construct. Bybuilding office space instead of residential space, Miller says hisclients can charge twice the $4 to $6 per sf in rent they couldcharge for residential units.

The proposed rezone and 32-unit project was slated for a publichearing before the city council last week but was pulled from theagenda because of the latest changes. The project is now slated foran Oct. 18 public hearing, at which time the city council willdecide whether to send a rezone and project proposal back to thecity's planning commission for consideration in early 2001. If thecouncil doesn't send it back, the property owner will have to waitanother year until the annual update of the city's comprehensiveplan.