City Council OKs Grand Central Loan

The City Council this week approved a request to lend the Grand Central Square project $800,000 to complete architectural plans for new apartments in the area.

Due to a low demand for office space, the Yellin Co. developers earlier this year dropped plans to build offices and instead decided to construct 121 housing units in the Homer Laughlin Building at 315 S. Broadway and the Million Dollar Building at 306 W. 3rd St. Plans now call for the construction of mixed-income rental units--ranging from very-to market-rate, upscale apartments--above the existing ground-floor shops in the two buildings.

The loan is the project’s second from the city. In 1989, the city lent the developers $900,000 for architectural and engineering plans to renovate the Grand Central Market and the Lyon Building above it, and to build an 11-level, 500-space parking structure at 3rd and Hill streets.

The developers expect the parking structure to be completed by spring, 1994, after which construction on the Homer Laughlin and Million Dollar buildings would begin. The entire Grand Central Square project will cost about $40 million.