City considers AT&T building for artists

Student artists, their professors and artistic guests could be the newest tenants of the former AT&T building in downtown Santa Rosa.

Members of the agency charged with finding a new purpose for the 82-foot-tall, fortress-like property said Monday they like the idea of providing access to it for artistic and cultural endeavors.

“I am envisioning an art institute with the top floors dormitories and living space for visiting artists,” said Pamela Nobel, Redevelopment Agency board member. “It would bring people from all over to this area.”

Santa Rosa purchased the Third Street building, which business leaders Monday called a “white elephant,” for $3 million 15 months ago.

The structure — windowless and nuclear-bomb proof to protect AT&T’s international communications equipment — was slated to be razed or redeveloped. Now the costs of demolition, estimated at $2 million to $3 million, have leaders leaning toward redevelopment.

While Nobel said she favored artistic uses for the building, agency chairman Phil Olsen called for a multi-use building.

“It would be fabulous if we could have private office space and an arts museum in the same building,” Olsen said.

Interested groups ranging from private businesses to arts organizations have approached the city’s Redevelopment Agency and expressed interest in moving in, said Frank Kasimov, redevelopment program specialist.

The board Monday passed a motion to allow those groups and others to tour the building with Redevelopment Agency staff for a closer look.

The board also agreed to staff’s recommendation that creating downtown apartments or condominiums be part of the discussion, as well as putting employment, hospitality and retail possibilities in the plans.

Uses will be discussed further at a joint study session with the City Council.

Redevelopment board member Bill Arnone suggested moving forward quickly with plans or allowing for temporary use of the building’s bottom floor.

“I don’t like the idea of more studies right now, and I don’t like the idea of mothballing the building,” he said. “Maybe we can get some interim business in the first floor at least.”

The vacant building costs the city “a couple thousand dollars a month,” Kasimov said, mostly from utility expenses due to a faulty generator too expensive to replace.