Phase 1: Ball Brothers Building
The City of Turner is seeking a partner in the redevelopment of The Ball Brothers Building, a beautiful, historic building in a revitalizing downtown.
The site has a rich history. The building on the north side of the site was originally constructed as a one-story building in 1912, with the second story added later in the decade. This building hosted several uses in its early history; notably the second story served as a dance hall and speakeasy during the prohibition era. In the 1940’s, the site was converted to its most recent use, a granary.
Construction of the second building, a one-story building on the south side of the site, followed in 1923. This building served as an auto dealership for most of its life, and included service bays, sales of auto parts, and fueling stations. Other uses such as a soda fountain and hardware store have called this building home through the years. The gas station on-site is currently operational, and occupies the southeastern corner of the building as well as the southern piece of the site’s exterior.
The City of Turner acquired the site in 2018, motivated by the transformative potential that the development of the site would entail for downtown.
In context of recent changes and changes that are in the pipeline for Downtown Turner, this well informs the decision-making process for determining what the next steps are as far as infrastructure upgrades and parking planning. Much of these recent redevelopments have been centered around Chicago Street. Based on our discussions with the City of Turner, more is planned for Chicago Street, with some undeveloped properties to the east othat have untapped potential.
Based on exesting land uses, Lancaster Mobley was able to estimate the parking demand of the existing uses. Based on this analysis, we were able to home in on focus areas that would make significant impacts to the Ball Brothers parking conditions, should another development fronting the focus area streets also redevelop.
Partnering with our friends at AKS Engineering and Forestry, who developed a parking plan that takes advantage of maximizing the existing wide streets through angled parking and paving undeveloped lots, we could well inform the City of Turner where there is a potential for increased parking supply. Coupled with the demand analysis, a determination was made for where the best parking improvements could be made.