urbanMSP

The city is working with Chafoulias on the project to build an attached public parking ramp behind the Broadway at Center tower. The city is eager for the needed parking project to begin.

In their announcement, Titan Development said the stakeholders in the project — including Chafoulias, the city of Rochester, Kraus-Anderson Construction Co., local unions and lenders including Dougherty Funding LLC, West Bank, local union pension funds through their adviser, Whitestar Advisors LLC and Premier Bank — met their obligations to close a $105 million loan for the project.

The word is that an announcement about the financing for Rochester's long-delayed $145 million Broadway at Center project could be coming soon.

Rochester developer Gus Chafoulias has plans to build a 23-story building featuring a hotel, apartments and commercial space on the southeast corner of Broadway Avenue and Center Street.

Broadway at Center first was announced in March 2014 and lately has been awaiting a $105 million loan from Minneapolis-based Dougherty Funding LLC to help finance the project. That loan stalled in June, when a Saudi Arabian investment group failed "to fulfill its obligations."

Now, the word is Broadway at Center may end 2016 on a high note with good news about the financing and the future of the project.

Insiders say an announcement is expected "sometime in mid-December."

True. I think the first announcement in the paper was summer of 2013, but it traces back all the way to the Time Square project from the late 1990s.

Titan Development and Investments announced Friday that it has reached an agreement to develop the project with Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors. Crews are expected to begin clearing the site by the end of the year.

No cost estimates for the project were releaset. The most recent incarnation of the project was estimated to cost about $145 million. Friday's announcement said that First National Bank of Omaha is leading the financing, with help from Bremer Bank.

The significant changes in the project may mean it needs to return to the Rochester City Council and the Destination Medical Center Corp. Board of Directors, though city officials couldn't be reached late Friday for comment.

The project formerly known as Broadway at Center was originally going to be a 23-story mixed-use project and was estimated to cost $145 million. It's now a 19-story Hilton hotel with retail and a restaurant, and the price has gone down to about $124 million according to city officials