Quote:
Originally Posted by bystander1
Bronner indicated on the news that the new building will be 8 stories.
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RSA plans to upgrade historic site
By Cosby Woodruff
Montgomery lacks first-class office space, said the head of Retirement Systems of Alabama. And if he's got to rough up a historic building to create it, he's ready to take the heat.
David Bronner, president of the RSA, told the Montgomery Lions Club about plans for an office building at the site of the old Alabama Supreme Court Building on Friday.
Bronner said the plan is likely to tick off historic preservation groups, but he doesn't care.
He said Montgomery lacks available Class A office space, and it needs more to continue luring white collar jobs downtown.
"You have got to have a place to bring jobs," he said. "To make advances, you have got to have jobs."
Bronner said he didn't know how many people might eventually work in the new building at 405 Dexter Ave. It will be
a 12-story structure called the RSA Judicial Building. He expects the construction, which will take up to a couple of years, to employ almost 1,000 workers. It is expected to cost $200 million.
Bronner said the completed office building will have about 500,000 total square feet, with 450,000 available for rent. The project also includes a 96-vehicle parking lot.
He said he was unsure how long it would take to fill the building once it is complete.
"It could be one year, and it could be four years," he said.
Those, he said, are the extremes the RSA has faced in filling other office buildings in the state.
He brushed off the expected criticism.
"Everything I have done in this town, I have been criticized for," he said.
The building dates to 1926, and the RSA acquired it in a swap for 150 parking spaces earlier this year. The renovations will envelop the old building.
Bronner said renovations will move the building's entrance to the street level, turning the basement into the first floor.
"Everything else stays the same, except it will have a building above it and behind it," he said.
Bronner dismissed suggestions that he was ruining the feel of Dexter Avenue. He said the building in question has been a shell for more than a decade.
"It has been vacant for 15 years," he said. "The preservationists have had 15 years to work on it, and they haven't done a thing."
Historical groups said Friday that they were unaware of the RSA's plans and the groups were reluctant to criticize the development.
"We have not had a formal presentation yet," said Tara Lanier, spokeswoman for the Alabama Historical Commission.
Bronner went so far as to suggest that the RSA deserves praise for saving the structure, even if it will be part of a much larger structure once enlargements are complete.
He said the cost to renovate the building, estimated at about $30 million, would not make a profit for the RSA.
"We had to spread that cost over a much larger project," he said.
So far the RSA has worked mostly on asbestos removal, Bronner said. That is just the beginning of the work that has to be done.
He said the building's library and justice chambers are usable: everything else is shot. "Everything is worthless," he said of items from door brass to toilets. "I decided to build a new building."
The RSA made concessions by not knocking the building down altogether. He told club members the decision to save the original building was prompted by its history.
"It was used by the court's first female justice, and its first black justice," he said.
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