Alaska News

Turnagain Crossing project mixes apartments, bistro

How would you like a bistro right on your block?

In the old (for Anchorage) and established neighborhood of Turnagain, a developer plans a project that is unusual for the city -- and, in fact, wasn't even allowed until recently.

J. Jay Brooks intends to build a mixed-use development -- the combination of a restaurant and apartments on the same piece of property -- that will give Turnagain residents a destination to walk to, and a place to meet up with neighbors. There's nothing like it in the neighborhood now.

The development is called Turnagain Crossing, and will be built on the southwest corner of Turnagain Street and Northern Lights Boulevard.

Brooks envisions a place where people might stop for coffee in the morning, and in the afternoon, there'd be local beers, wine and pizza or other food. Kaladi Brothers, the Alaska-based coffee company, will operate the bistro. Turnagain Crossing will be Kaladi's first venture into the restaurant business, said Dale Tran, Kaladi's chief operating officer.

An eight-unit, townhouse style apartment building will be constructed next door.

Mixed-use developments are popular around the country as a way of creating commercial or recreational areas people can walk to or ride bikes to from their houses. It's a type of development that city planners hope to encourage as the city rewrites Title 21, the zoning code.

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There are already mixed-use developments in more commercial-oriented parts of town, such as on Mountain View Drive and Spenard Road.

But in the existing code, Anchorage didn't have a zoning category that allows such varied development on one property in a neighborhood.

So the city Planning Division, West Anchorage Assemblymembers Harriet Drummond and Ernie Hall, the community council and Brooks worked together on a law that would allow the Turnagain Crossing project to go ahead as a test of some of proposed new mixed-use standards.

The Assembly passed a law last fall permitting the pilot program, and earlier this year, passed a second ordinance specifically to allow Turnagain Crossing.

The Turnagain Community Council backs the bistro-apartments idea, said Cathy Gleason, council president. "We don't have anything like this within our neighborhood."

Projects like Turnagain Crossing have the potential to create commercial areas in neighborhoods that are compatible, and don't overwhelm their surroundings, Gleason said.

The site, next to a main road with bus routes and a bike path for walkers and cyclists, is ideal for a neighborhood-scale mixed-use development, city planner Karen Iverson said in an e-mail. The new apartments Brooks wants to build, plus other nearby apartments and single family houses, will have enough people living in them to support a business, Iverson said.

To make the project work, the city planners eased parking requirements for the apartments and let the restaurant be placed closer to the street than is allowed under current zoning. In exchange, the developer agreed to lots of ground-floor windows to let people see in and out of the bistro.

Still, the whole permitting and financing process was "super-hard," Brooks said.

For example, entities such as HUD and Fannie Mae finance housing. Other types of financial institutions lend money for restaurants. "But if you want to put lots of ingredients into one project, nobody does that," Brooks said.

Brooks is an investment banker who lives with his wife part-time in Boulder, Colo., and part-time in Anchorage. He grew up in Anchorage, and has a house in Turnagain.

He was one of the original owners of the Alaska Rock Gym.

"You create things you're interested in doing," Brooks said.

He is developing Turnagain Crossing with his father, Wiley S. Brooks of Anchorage, who has spent more than 30 years in real estate management and investments.

There's a debate within the city over how mixed-use rules should be applied. A version of Title 21 that passed the Anchorage Assembly on a provisional basis calls for creating a range of mixed-use centers from small to medium to large.

The city Planning and Zoning Commission subsequently recommended deleting the proposed new mixed-use districts.

"Taking mixed-use to a large scale, there's got to be a better understanding of how it works," Brooks said. "It's costing me a ton of money in architectural and engineering fees and building permits."

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Brooks hopes to get started building the Turnagain Crossing project this year. It's held up at the moment because an underground utility vault was discovered on the site.

Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.

By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA

Anchorage Daily News

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