地铁塔经受住了一场龙卷风，但多年来一直没有得到充分利用. REALTOR® Alison 布莱洛克的 rallied executives and public officials to bring affordable housing downtown. 她五年的房产销售赢得了2020年威廉C. 詹宁斯年度最佳商业交易奖.
In 2015, Alison 布莱洛克的 met with out-of-town developers to discuss a building she listed. 她和开发人员开车在拉伯克转了一圈, 看着建筑，谈论市中心发生的事情.
然后，开发商看到了这座城市最高的建筑——地铁大厦. 它不出售，但开发商非常感兴趣. “我们想要那个，”他们说. WestMark 商业/TNC Worldwide REALTOR®说她会赚
一些电话.
多年来一直屹立不倒
The Great Plains Life Insurance Building was constructed in 1955 on brick-paved Broadway Street. The 20-floor, roughly 111,000-square-foot building was designed by David S. 卡斯尔是一位阿比林建筑师，他的作品已被列入美国文化遗产名录.S. 国家史迹名录.
1970年5月11日，拉伯克市中心被F5级龙卷风袭击. The storm caused close to $200 million in damages and 26 deaths in Lubbock, according to the city.
NTS通信公司在20世纪80年代中期购买了该建筑. By 2015, Metro Tower housed a few floors of NTS corporate offices as well as their main servers and wiring.
由于消防安全问题，8至20层空置. 这座建筑需要大规模改造, 一个新的消防喷淋系统, 还有一个二级楼梯，可以再次充分利用. 如果没有它，这座塔将得不到充分利用，并会慢慢退化.
出售“妈妈的房子”
地铁大厦对巴洛克来说不是普通的财产. “In the late 1980s, when I was very young, I grew up knowing that building as ‘Mom’s building.“实际上，我妈妈管理并租赁了Metro Tower好几年. I have a few short memories of going into the building,” the Lubbock native says.
关于这个项目，巴洛克的第一个电话是打给她母亲的, 商业代理和西马克队友凯伦·希金斯. Higgins shared her background knowledge and had even kept old building plans and reports from her property management days.
后来他们一起参观了Metro Tower. 希金斯带布莱洛克看了她以前的办公室. 希金斯换过的地毯还在大楼里. “I had a very personal connection with this building already,布莱洛克的说.
布莱洛克的与NTS 通信的高管取得了联系. She pitched the developers’ idea: buy the building and renovate it using Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) Housing Tax Credits and Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit funds. She presented multiple offers over the next three years, but the timing wasn’t right, she says.
In late 2018, 布莱洛克的 reached out again after hearing about a change in upper management. 国税厅对出售该大楼非常感兴趣. NTS was in the process of selling the business to fiber-optic telecommunications company Vexus.
“维克斯不想要这座建筑，因为它有很多问题, so it was actually perfect timing: NTS could sell the business to Vexus and the building to us,她说。.
地铁塔楼阁楼的案例
布莱洛克的 and the developers needed to act quickly to apply for the TDHCA 9% Competitive Housing Tax Credits. They negotiated a sales price and contract deals before the end of the year.
“这笔交易实际上是通过税收抵免来资助的, 这个过程竞争非常激烈,布莱洛克的说. “We knew going into it that we were going to need to get quite a bit of support.”
布莱洛克编写了一本小册子，里面有一些关键信息. 她联系了市长丹·波普, 拉伯克市议会, 以及市中心的重建者, 麦克道戈尔公司. She told them this was Lubbock’s chance to revive the tower while also bringing affordable housing and redevelopment to the central business district tax increment reinvestment zone. 巴洛克得到了一致的支持.
布莱洛克的和开发商还会见了德克萨斯州众议员. 约翰Frullo. 她认为他的支持是获得TDHCA全额资助的关键. 税收抵免过程花费了2019年的大部分时间.
关闭的障碍
NTS 通信 planned to keep its servers and equipment on the second and third floors and satellites on the roof. NTS and the developers needed to sign a long-term lease to allow them to stay. 国税厅的服务器在装修和改造过程中不会受到干扰.
所有的翻新都必须符合拉伯克的消防和安全规范标准, while also meeting historic preservation criteria approval to receive full funding.
关闭计划于2020年3月20日进行. 在月初, historic preservation officials nixed the idea for a fire escape connecting floors 1 to 4 because it would disrupt the building’s historic exterior. 布莱洛克的, 项目的架构师, 工程师, and city officials drafted a new plan in a few hours that was approved by all parties.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to disrupt life and business activity in March, 投资者冻结了开发商的部分资金. The developers made some financial changes and the deal closed on April 30, 2020.
“如果没有城市的支持，我不可能做到这一点. I am very thankful for all of the people who helped get this deal done,她说。.
There were so many times that I thought there was no way that this was actually going to close. 障碍太多了, 这么多的小细节，都必须解决, 有很多人参与其中. 我们一直在一步一步地前进.
新阁楼即将推出
Metro Towers loft计划于2021年底完工. The project will bring 89 affordable housing units to the heart of downtown.
“There were so many times that I thought there was no way that this was actually going to close,布莱洛克的说. “障碍太多了, 这么多的小细节，都必须解决, 有很多人参与其中. 直到关门前几周，我都不知道它会不会成功. 我们一直在一步一步地前进.”
得知自己赢得了威廉C. 詹宁斯奖. She says she is honored to have been a part of the once-in-a-lifetime deal and proud of the trust the developers put in her hands.
“由于这笔交易，我们看到拉伯克市中心发生了新的事情. 更多的人在那里投资和开办新企业, and that makes me very excited to see that redevelopment actually happening right before my eyes.”