Wednesday, Capitol Hill Housing and Mithun will present their latest plans for the Liberty Bank Building to the design review board for potential recommendation.
Located at 2320 E. Union Street in Central District, the building will be named for the African-American-owned bank that operated on the site from 1968 to 1988. The complex’s plans call for 115 apartments, 3,400 square feet of street-level retail, and parking for 18 vehicles.
The residential units will be affordable housing in a mixture of studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms. Rents are expected to range from $470 to $1,210, but are dependent on income levels.
The cool part of the structure is that the building will incorporate elements of the old bank. Salvaged brick will be used in the facades and courtyard. Bank vault and safe deposit boxes would be used in artwork along the courtyard and common areas. There will also be a plaque outside to commemorate the importance of the bank, which was once said to be one of the very few banks west of the Mississippi River that served multiracial customers.
The plan is to break ground on the project in 2017 but developers still need to be granted a rezone to allow for 65-foot heights. Right now they can only build to 40-feet.