By DAVID CLOUSTON

Salina Journal

Building an underground parking garage to serve residents of a proposed new condominium project at the former Marymount College administration building on East Iron Avenue won't require as much digging as some might expect, architect Donnie Marrs said Tuesday.

Because of the 27 feet of vertical slope crossing the courtyard where the garage is to be located, from the floor to the top of the parking garage, "about 13 to 14 feet (of excavation) is all we need," Marrs said.

The garage will have fairly high ceilings to help reduce the amount and weight of soil that has to be put back to rebuild the courtyard above, Marrs said.

Marrs spoke Tuesday to members of the Salina Planning Commission, who afterward voted unanimously to approve a conditional-use permit to allow the addition of the condominiums and underground parking to the existing building at 2035 E. Iron.

The 19 units to be built initially call for the construction of two new masonry porches on the south exterior of the building's south wing. The porches will give condo dwellers either patio, porch or roof-deck access to the outside.

The 50-space parking area under the existing courtyard will be serviced by an elevator.

Marrs was asked by commission member Aaron Householter what age group Marrs and his son Dahx, who is helping administer the project, were targeting. Marrs' reply was there is no particular age but there are some groups with interest.

"What we're working toward is we're putting no limitation on age, but we really feel the 50-plus crowd is the group we'll be dealing with," Marrs said.

"We have a lot of people who have a great love of Marymount," he said. "There will be definitely some of those people with interest in this project. And with our physical location next to the country club, people there have some interest in this project, but we're not tying down to any group."

As far as prices on the units go, there is still work to be done on figuring out the cost of infrastructure improvements necessary to make the building ready for condo development. That includes bringing in additional electrical and upgrading water service to the building, and putting in a new sewer system.

"We have to get (those improvements) in place before we can tell you what the space is going to sell for," Marrs said.

The design of the building drew praise from commissioner Ken Kennedy.

"It's fascinating and exciting to see you take a beautiful building and keep the authenticity of it like it is and still develop it for more modern uses," he said.

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