Asheville: December News and Views

[hauntedheadnc]

From the Asheville Citizen-Times (12/28/03)

GROVE PARK INN TO REPORT ON DOWNTOWN PROJECT STATUS

By Clarke Morrison, Staff Writer

ASHEVILLE - The Grove Park Inn will make an announcement in the coming week about the status of its controversial plan to build a 10-story high-rise on city-owned parkland on the edge of Pack Square, the inn's president said Saturday.

Last month Craig Madison cast doubt on the viability of the $25 million project. Preliminary cost estimates for underground parking space at the site were "extraordinary," and other potential locations are being investigated, he said.

Madison wouldn't comment Saturday about the project's future other than to say he would make an announcement after meetings about the matter with Grove Park Inn officials Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, members of the group People Advocating Real Conservancy continued their campaign against the plan by passing out free yard signs Saturday in front of the French Broad Food Co-op.

Joe and Lisa Carney were among those who picked up one of the signs, which read "No High Rise in Our Park" and "Boycott Grove Park Inn." They plan to plant it in the front yard of their home on Liberty Street in a historic neighborhood frequented by tour buses not far from the inn.

"It's our hope that people will see the signs and ask employees at the Grove Park what the signs are about," Lisa Carney said. "It's to put a little pressure on."

Asheville City Council is expected to vote next spring on whether to allow the project to proceed at the corner of College and Market streets. The plan calls for retail and restaurant space on the ground floor and luxury condominiums on the upper floors.

In September, the council approved giving the inn an option on the property that allows either side to withdraw later.

Proponents say the project would bring jobs to the local economy and more people to City-County Plaza and Pack Square. Critics contend the building would result in the loss of precious downtown park space, would be too big and is proceeding despite strong public opposition.

Laura Thomas of the Real Conservancy group said members printed 300 of the yard signs at a cost of about $3 each. Visitors to the co-op viewed a scale model of the square illustrating the proposed building's imposing footprint.

"The Grove Park Inn is not listening to the citizens of Asheville when they ask them to build elsewhere," Thomas said. "So if the Grove Park is not listening, why should we support them?"

Madison said he has no problem with the group making its wishes known.

"I am a big believer in the Constitution and the right for them to express what they feel," he said. "They are doing what the law allows, and we've been doing what the law allows, and that makes for a pretty cool country."

Contact Morrison at 232-5849 or [email protected].

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*hauntedheadnc sez, "Nothing more to do than wait and see... Meanwhile in St. Petersburg, as the saying goes, my letter to the editor also appeared today!"*

[hauntedheadnc]

From the Asheville Citizen-Times (12/29/03)

PUTTING ASHEVILLE ON THE MULTIMEDIA MAP

By Dale Neal, Staff Reporter

ASHEVILLE - Kurt Mann saw this year as a turning point for Asheville.

A year ago, he probably wouldn't have been able to pull off his latest project at Ironwood Productions. But Dec. 20, with a crew of 51 people, mostly pulled from Asheville's growing community of film and video talent, Ironwood filmed 11 hours of Warren Haynes' annual Christmas Jam for an upcoming DVD to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

"When I moved here eight years ago, there was only a handful of people in this business," Mann said in his downtown offices overlooking Pack Square. "Then six years ago, the number doubled, then again three years ago. In the last year, waves of people are coming with just an incredible amount of experience. And they want to do collaborative work with other artists."

In recent years, Asheville has become a destination on the map not just for tourists, but for the Web wizards, film producers, graphic designers and other digital artists who can live anywhere they want and still do their creative work, thanks to the Internet.

Bringing that community of digital artists together to showcase their work, hone their talents and train other workers, the Media Arts Project, or MAP, visualizes a multimedia center in downtown Asheville in connection with the launch of the city's public access television station.

David McConville, one of the MAP's early advocates, sees multimedia as not just an avenue to exciting new forms of art, but as Asheville's best route to more and better-paying jobs in a changing economy.

"We have a lot of talented people in town, who've graduated with skills in multimedia, but they're waiting tables," McConville said.

McConville graduated in 1993 from UNC Asheville, but after semesters of working with the school's media equipment, he had nowhere to go and no cameras or computers he could use in town.

"There was no real infrastructure," he said.

McConville moved to Chapel Hill to continue his graduate studies. McConville returned to Asheville in 1999, when he could bring his digital media consulting business here, thanks to high-speed Internet access.

"Unfortunately, I've met numerous local students and developers who are in the same position I was back in the early '90s. They've gone as far as they can with school and are looking for some kind of real-world experience," McConville said.

That hands-on experience could come with the startup of the city's public access channel in the coming year. McConville, Mann and others saw the potential for a media center when the city was negotiating its cable TV franchise with Charter Communications for a public access television station.

Charter cable subscribers may now be familiar with the city government channel and the education channel. Soon they will be seeing locally produced shows on a third local channel, URTV, perhaps even this summer.

"We hope to see every kind of programming that interests the community, from church groups to community centers to nonprofits like Quality Forward," said Andy Reed, a member of the URTV board of directors. "We could see craft demonstrations, cooking shows, arts exhibits, dance concerts, talk shows, political shows that would give equal time. We would see videotapes of the Montford Park Players."

"MAP is excited about the screening possibilities," said Sharon Willen, director of business and industry services at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, and an early supporter of MAP. "The better the programming, it will enrich the profile of the community. We're waiting for the day when you're watching some TV program on ABC, the credits will say this program was produced by URTV, Asheville, the way you see WGBH in Chicago or PBS in New York."

While URTV will provide the studio space and airtime for such shows, Reed said the Media Arts Project could provide the training to make such shows.

"It would be ideal if public access members who want to put shows on, who want to know how to frame their shots, how to do a video or edit it, can go to the MAP and work with established filmmakers like Kurt Mann," Reed said.

Mann isn't worried that more film, video and multimedia shops are opening up in Asheville.

"I want the smartest, most experienced people around me," he said. "It's not a threat. I'm only as good as the team I can surround myself with. Five years ago, I did everything myself. I wrote, filmed, directed, edited and marketed. Now I have people doing those things."

And without more media specialists in town, Mann said Ironwood Productions likely would not have landed the job to shoot the Warren Haynes concert or an upcoming business video he's making for BB&T employee orientation.

In the meantime, MAP is already drawing more talent to the area.

Gary Crossey and Brian Jones moved from Atlanta to Asheville, even though MAP is little more than a Web site for now. The partners in the graphic and Web design company Fastfwd relocated here in August, looking for a community of like-minded entrepreneurs eager for collaborative experience.

"When we heard about the MAP, we thought we really can't go wrong," Crossey said.

Jones likes the collaborative efforts of McConville, Mann and others on the MAP working group, saying, "I like the fact that everyone is bringing something to the table."

Crossey foresees a networking place online where businesses can quickly see what kind of graphic designers, film and video producers and other multimedia artists are available locally.

Many of those digital artists and multimedia entrepreneurs were in the crowd of 340 people who packed The Orange Peel club downtown for Dec. 18 world premiere screening of "The Rise of the Creative Class," a documentary about the sociologist Richard Florida.

Florida's book, "The Rise of the Creative Class," has been required reading in some circles in Asheville, from economic developers to elected officials. The Carnegie Mellon University researcher contends that the cities that are most attractive to talented young workers will succeed in the changing economy. Asheville ranks high on Florida's scale of Tolerance, Talent and Technology in comparison to other cities, especially in North Carolina.

Willen was impressed with the turnout Dec. 18 at the Orange Peel. "There were business leaders, and bankers and a lot of the creative types," she said.

The convergence of digital artists on Asheville came as no surprise to Willen and others who've read Florida. "The quality of life is here," she said. "People with alternative lifestyles are here. Through U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R- Brevard, the broadband is coming. All of the elements have fallen into place." Art meets science

Multimedia is much more than just movie DVDs, or music CDs, McConville says. In his Black Box Studio in West Asheville, McConville works with a 5-foot-wide miniature digital dome, building graphic designs for planetarium shows. McConville sees art and science coming together as multimedia artists translate the work of scientific researchers into visual images.

That work is already happening at UNCA. The multimedia arts and sciences department will use a National Science Foundation grant to provide internships for students at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman in Transylvania County. Multimedia students will work with radio telescope data to create visual images - for instance, "tracking how a star is born and dies," according to Lorraine Walsh in the Multimedia Department and an active member in the MAP working group.

"I tell my students that the goal of multimedia is to take abstract thoughts and visualize them, make them into something tangible that can be conveyed to everyone," Walsh said.

At UNCA for three semesters, Walsh already sees some of her students doing the same level of creative work as her former students in the prestigious Pratt Design Institute in New York City. MAP will help make sure those students have job opportunities after they graduate.

"MAP will provide more continuing education not only at the college level, but for the high school and middle schools, as well as continuing education for artist in the field," she said.

Investing in multimedia will pay dividends for Western North Carolina workers in the long run, Walsh said. "Technology in any community is the key to economic development. Once you have the creative people and the information technology working together, it's sure to boost the economy here."

The real economic boost will come when MAP and URTV find a downtown space for a studio and meeting place, Willen said, adding that "this will be an anchor place where people can interact, where businesses, tourists and artists can meet and begin to incubate new opportunities."

In the meantime, MAP will host a number of events similar to the screening of the Richard Florida video during the next year. As URTV and MAP organize themselves into nonprofit organizations, funding for the local studio and the media center is still to be settled from the Charter subscriber fees collected by the city and county.

A report by consultant Fred Johnson estimated the operating cost of such a center at $1 million a year, with the bulk of the funding from possible foundation grants and private donations.

"I think our city leaders and local business leaders are starting to realize this is the future," Mann said. "I think Asheville is really light years ahead of what Florida has been talking about. The MAP could be become a clearinghouse for all types of media and art, and could be come one of the premier organizations in the Southeast."

Contact Neal at 232-5970 or [email protected].

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*hauntedheadnc sez, "I'd just like to them try to build a multimedia center downtown. In fact, I'd pay money to see it. You could propose to build a yurt made of organically grown cornstalks and the people downtown would still react as though you'd said you were planning to detonate an H-bomb in Pritchard Park."*

[hauntedheadnc]

*Two for the price of one!*

From the Asheville Citizen-Times (12/31/03)

JUDGE CONTINUES RESTRAINING ORDER ON 'THE BLOCK' DEVELOPMENT FOR TWO WEEKS

By Angie Newsom

ASHEVILLE - Despite the first step toward a court ruling on the case, the question still looms: Will "The Block" be redeveloped?

Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Zoro J. Guice Jr. said not at least for two more weeks.

Following a two-hour hearing, Guice continued a Dec. 16 temporary restraining order that blocked city officials and Eagle/Market Streets Development Corp. from continuing discussion on the $6.6 million proposal. The order will stay until he releases his decision, planned for Jan. 15, he said.

Attorneys for both the city and the redeveloper debated the merits of the case filed by two downtown property owners who want to stop the redevelopment project. The plan targets an area south of Pack Square known as "The Block" which is the city's historic African American commercial district.

The project could add 47 apartments and several ground- floor commercial spaces to the area.

The court case mirrored the community debate that has stymied the redevelopment.

Guice heard arguments about whether plans for a four-story building on what is now a South Market Street parking violates the South Pack Square Redevelopment Plan, the City Council-approved 1993 framework for the area.

Frances Solari, an attorney for South Market Street property owners Eugene Ellison and Howard McGlohon, argued that the building substantially deviates from the framework and would threaten Ellison and McGlohon's $700,000 investment into their property.

But Martin Reidinger, the corporation's attorney, said the plaintiffs have produced no proof that they would be harmed by the redevelopment.

"The irony to the plaintiffs' argument is that the South Pack Square Redevelopment Plan is exactly that - a redevelopment plan," Reidinger said.

City Attorney Bob Oast agreed, saying the project "is not only not a modification of the plan, it is a fulfillment of it."

Charles Dennis, the co-owner of Eagle Street's Anaya Gallery, has attended several community meetings on the issue.

"The plan as far as the South Pack Square Redevelopment Plan as it was last passed by City Council - that's what I want to see happen," Dennis said.

Contact Newsome at [email protected] or 232-5856.

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From the Asheville Citizen-Times (12/31/03)

GROVE PARK INNS PACK SQUARE PLANS TO BE REVEALED TODAY

By Mark Barrett, Staff Writer

ASHEVILLE - The Grove Park Inn is set to announce today whether it will move ahead with hotly debated plans to build luxury condominiums adjoining Pack Square.

The announcement comes on the heels of several recent statements by inn President and CEO Craig Madison that the project is looking less and less economically feasible.

In mid-December, Madison told members of a group opposing the inn's plans that one study cast doubt on the viability of the project, group leader Barry Summers said Tuesday.

On Nov. 21, Madison said at a forum on the project that "at this point it's not looking so good" financially.

The inn said in January it was considering constructing two buildings around Pack Square and City-County Plaza. The first would be 10 stories and cost around $25 million, with condominiums on the upper stories and retail and restaurant space on ground level.

City Council voted in September to grant the inn an option on a third of an acre at the corner of College and Market streets for the first building. The option was to give the inn time to further study the feasibility of the project with a final council vote expected in spring 2004.

Madison said in his meeting with opposition group People Advocating Real Conservancy that restrictions on the building size, difficulties expected with moving utilities in the area and the cost of providing parking underground were hampering the project, said PARC member Summers.

Members of the group viewed the statements as part of an effort to dissuade them from launching their boycott of the inn, Summers said, and "took most of what he said with a grain of salt."

Inn Executive Promotions Manager Jay Winer said Tuesday that "the sole consideration is financial. . That's what we've been saying all along is we needed feasibility studies to see if it would be a wise investment and that's what our decision is based on."

Opponents say the building would be too big for its surroundings and the wrong use of park land. Proponents say it would boost the economy. Contact Barrett at 232-5833 or [email protected].

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*hauntedheadnc sez, "Keep your fingers crossed, folks... I guess that's all that's left to do."*

[Matthew]

I also like that letter and feel the same way. How are we ever going to get another skyscraper in this city? If it's a suburban office park, with a one storey building covering a large piece of land, it gets built with no problems. A mixed use downtown high-rise is fought like it will destroy "DOWNTOWN". What is downtown? High-rises and high density development! I guess if we want more buildings and smarter land use, we will have to start another downtown.

[monsoon]