In a rare 3-2 vote the City Council approved Wednesday night a
$350,000 move that may turn a blighted, historical feature into a
thriving office/restaurant. The move may also solve a persistent
dayworker situation and rescue a neglected part of downtown. Mayor
Dennis Kennedy and Councilman Greg Sellers were adamantly in favor
of the project; Councilmen Steve Tate and Larry Carr were hesitant.
Councilwoman Hedy Chang was the swing vote.
In a rare 3-2 vote the City Council approved Wednesday night a $350,000 move that may turn a blighted, historical feature into a thriving office/restaurant. The move may also solve a persistent dayworker situation and rescue a neglected part of downtown.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy and Councilman Greg Sellers were adamantly in favor of the project; Councilmen Steve Tate and Larry Carr were hesitant. Councilwoman Hedy Chang was the swing vote.
“I’ll go with my heart,” she said. “The dayworkers project is my heart.”
The Isaacson Grain Co. on the north end of Depot Avenue at East Main Avenue has been closed for years and has become a bit of a derelict. The silos stand empty and unused; the central room is full of bird droppings and feathers. Paint continues to flake off. Casual laborers gather outside, in the heat, the cold and the rain without access to water or restrooms.
The council-approved a $350,000 Redevelopment Agency loan, to be repaid at 3 percent interest within four years, and the vision of two local architects, may bring this all to an end.
The husband and wife team of Lesley Miles and Charles Weston of Weston Miles Architects is buying the Isaacson Grain building from the Isaacson family and plans to turn the central room into offices for the firm.
The pair plans to turn an annex on the north end into a bakery/restaurant and are in discussion with the owners of Le Boulanger, the Sunnyvale-based purveyors of high-end bread products and popular lunch fare.
“This would be Morgan Hill’s first green building,” Weston said.
Further, they plan to install two portable classrooms on the land near East Main. The portables will be remodeled and re-emerge as a “temporary” center for the dayworkers across the street.
The loan would fill the gap unavailable from bank financing because of the building’s disrepair.
“We want an opportunity to help develop downtown into an exciting place,” Miles told the council. She relayed the firm’s past involvement with city and downtown projects: the award-winning Via Ciolino affordable housing development, the Skeels and Cornerstone buildings at Monterey and Third.
“We believe in this,” she said.
Tate and Carr wanted the project to join in competition with other downtown projects.
Kennedy did not.
“There is a window of opportunity here,” he said, listing six pluses.
• RDAs intended to remove blight
• A proven track record
• Kickstart downtown
• A fairly low risk investment
• A green building
• The dayworker center.”
“These opportunities are far too rare,” said Sellers. “If we delay the (Isaacson) building’s use will be diminished or done away with altogether.
Julian Mancias, chairman of the Dayworker Committee said the committee supported Weston Miles’ plans.
“We want very much to use this location,” he said.
Mancias said he had been anxious.
“We’re tired,” Mancias said afterward. “Feb. 22 will be two years we’ve been working on this center. If you have to start over it gets too hard.”
