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Downtown Greensboro Developments


cityboi

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Some council members have concerns over giving a grant to the Wyndham project. A few have concerns about giving assistance to a private hotel development when there are others that are planning hotel are not asking for assistance. Others question the need for the hotel and who would own the parking deck, the city or the owners. Another concern is the city building a deck for a private business but it would actually be used by the public and not just hotel guests. That should not be an issue because the city has done this before when it built the 8 story Bellemeade parking deck for the Wells Fargo Tower back in 1989. The project would include 100 space but city staff said the city would need at least 400 to 500 spaces in this deck. Councilwoman Hoffman said to meet the city's need, they would just have to add more parking deck levels. The current proposal is an 8 story hotel on top of a 6 story parking deck (14-stories). Additional deck levels would push the height of this hotel to around 18 or 20 stories. (about the height of downtown's tallest skyscrapers)
 
As it stands now the project would still pass despite concerns from some city council persons. Only 4 of the 9 councilpersons have concerns. 5 council persons are on on board with the project. However, the developers continue to craft a financial plan that will get more support from city council and more details will be ironed out in regards to the parking. This is the same process GPAC went through to get more support from city council, another public/private partnership development.
 
Edited by cityboi
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Here in Greenville, funds were recently approved without hesitation by the city for parking garages that will anchor an Embassy Suites and Aloft hotel. This type of public-private partnership is what has made downtown Greenville turn into what it is today. If Greensboro wants to be like that in the future then the city needs to step up and approve the funds instead of twiddling their thumbs and questioning whether it's worth it or not. 

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Honestly I don't think it's as simple as twiddling thumbs. As the saying goes, money doesn't grow on trees and I'm sure that this city council is concerned about where the money is coming from and how it would likely impact other things that are higher priority and need to be funded. From what I've read, Guilford County is close to 1 billion dollars in debt, and I'm sure that the city of Greensboro is no better off.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

city of Greensboro will offer $2million in incentives for the planned high-rise Wyndham luxury conference hotel in downtown Greensboro.  The hotel investors wanted the city to build the parking deck that would sit beneath the hotel but city council said it would be too expensive because of structural costs associated with constructing a multistory building on top of a parking deck. However the city will offer the incentives and the hotel investors said they will build the parking deck themselves. The deck will be 6 stories and the hotel on top of the deck will be 8 to 10 stories (14 to 16 story building). The Wyndham Greensboro will extend a full city block from South Elm St to Davie St. It will serve as the official host hotel for Greensboro's PGA event The Wyndham Championship. The hotel will also serve as downtown's convention center using the Elm Street Center meeting space for conferences and conventions. The Elm Street Center will also get a face lift to go along with the hotel. City Council will have to vote on the incentives and it will likely pass by a narrow margin. Five council persons are leaning towards supporting it while the other four are either not supporting it or are undecided. The vote will be the make or break point for the entire project. If the vote passes, we will see the construction of the first "new" high-rise in downtown Greensboro in 25 years....I know thats sad lol. I've always said if Greensboro got a new high-rise downtown in the near future it would either be an apartment tower or a hotel. The hotel will certainly help fill in that large gap between the Lincoln Financial Building and the Guilford Building.

 

I've always hated that gap.. The new hotel will be about the height of the Guilford Building on the far left.

greensboro-skyline.png

 

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article/314223/57/Greensboro-Offers-2M-In-Breaks-For-Luxury-Hotel-

Edited by cityboi
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progress is being made on the 9 story Southeastern Building. After the building was completely gutted, they have installed new windows and the electricity is finally on. I noticed most of the lights were on last night. The historic building is being converted to apartments, offices and a restaurant. some exterior work on the bottom levels still has to be completed.

Edited by cityboi
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looks like Roy Carroll's hotel project planned across the street from NewBridge Bank Ballpark will be a mixed-use development with the hotel being the anchor. Clearly this will be a much larger project than originally planned. If this project will include apartments, we could potentially see something taller than the original 8-story proposal. The project could take up 4 acres and the hotel brand will be announced next month. Wouldn't it be nice if it were an Aloft Hotel? Randall Kaplan's $40 million Wyndham hotel project on Elm and Davie Streets will be at least 14 stories. Roy Carroll's project will be north of $50 million. This is the 4th major largescale downtown project thats been announced. The performing arts center and the mixed-use university campus which also includes a small hotel are the others.

 

http://www.news-record.com/news/local_news/article_248b0678-8ac6-11e3-8638-0017a43b2370.html

 

Roy Carroll planning major downtown Greensboro mixed-use development

 

my guess is that it will included a mix of apartments, restaurants and entertainment options, sort of like a mini Greensboro Triumph Center. Building this project across the street from the ballpark is very strategic.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/01/roy-carroll-planning-downtown.html

Edited by cityboi
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Greensboro city council voted to give nearly $2 million in incentives to the Wyndham Hotel project. Its now a done deal and downtown will see the first new construction high-rise in 25 years. Downtown will have a hotel brand on par with Westin and Hyatt Regency and it will be the only Wyndham hotel in North Carolina.

 

 

 
The hotel will actually be close to 13 stories tall. The parking deck levels have been reduced from 6 stories to 4.5 stories according to the news and record. The hotel is projected to open in August 2015 which means construction will likely begin soon.
 
“I am excited to be able to say we are going to have a crane downtown for the first time in a long time,” Mayor Nancy Vaughan said. “I hope it will be the first of many cranes.”
 
technically we've had two tower cranes recently (Center Pointe and the new jail) but I know what she means.
 

 

The city is also expected to give incentives to the Union Square downtown university campus project tonight as well.

Edited by cityboi
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WFMY has the pdf file used for the presentation to the city council - http://archive.digtriad.com/assetpool/documents/140205125739_Downtown%20Wyndham%20Hotel%20presentation%20for%2002-04%20Council%20Meeting.pdf

 

It looks like the new plan will be entirely on Davie St. and not on top of the Elm Street Center as the much older renderings showed. It will also have retail on the Davie St. side, which makes me happy.

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WFMY has the pdf file used for the presentation to the city council - http://archive.digtriad.com/assetpool/documents/140205125739_Downtown%20Wyndham%20Hotel%20presentation%20for%2002-04%20Council%20Meeting.pdf

 

It looks like the new plan will be entirely on Davie St. and not on top of the Elm Street Center as the much older renderings showed. It will also have retail on the Davie St. side, which makes me happy.

 

 

Are those drawings outdated? I noticed the side view of the floors shows a 17 story building. (6 parking deck floors and 11 hotel floors) Thats the height of the old Jefferson Standard Building.

Edited by cityboi
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They're dated to August 2013 so they might be a bit out of date. Notable, however, is that the overall amount of rooms listed in the rendering hasn't changed, so it's possible they might've made the building wider.

 

edit - Paying closer attention to it now, the elevations are completely whacked out of proportion. It shows the parking deck at being seven stories (as tall as the Jefferson Building's parking deck) yet being shorter than the ESC, which is only three stories tall. I'm guessing these were just quickly drawn up to give a rough idea of what they were planning, and nothing more.

Edited by DCB
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I think the vote was interesting. Only 3 voted no on city council. Zack Matheny was one of the no votes. Normally he votes for projects like this especially since downtown is in his district. My guess is that since he is running for a republican seat in the U.S. congress, he doesn't want to go on record for giving "taxpayer" dollars to hotel developers.

 

The hotel will help spruce up Davie St. Now I only wish the News & Record across the street would move. Their property is bound by Davie, Washington, Church and East Market Streets. Thats a huge amount of real estate where a large dynamic development could go. The News & Record killed street activity on South Davie and South Church St.

Edited by cityboi
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Action Greensboro will move their offices from South Elm St to the Kindermusic building on South Church St. The organization jump started Greensboro's revitalization effort back in 2001. The group says there should be more focus on revitalizing downtown on  other downtown corridors besides Elm St.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I honestly wish Greensboro would spend less money and energy (and money) on trying to be Charlotte or Durham, or Raleigh, or WS for that matter.   I get so angry with Greensboro in these forums not because of what the city is but because of what the city throws away in attempt to be a thrid rate knock off of another.

 

I really fear for the future of Greensboro. 

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I honestly wish Greensboro would spend less money and energy (and money) on trying to be Charlotte or Durham, or Raleigh, or WS for that matter.   I get so angry with Greensboro in these forums not because of what the city is but because of what the city throws away in attempt to be a thrid rate knock off of another.

 

I really fear for the future of Greensboro. 

 

I think Greensboro has maintained a great deal of its character. And trust me Greensboro isnt trying to be like Charlotte. We dont have enough "big city minded" people in the community for that to even begin to happen. LOL

 

Every city uses another city as a model. Thats how cities know what works and what doesn't work. But just because Greensboro builds a downtown ballpark and decides to build a downtown performing arts center, that does't mean its trying to be like Durham. Just think of how many cities there are in the country that have downtown ballparks and performing arts centers. One could say Greensboro and Winston-Salem are trying to be like Raleigh/Durham because they built research parks but the Triad just doesn't have the same dynamics which led to RTP.  That level of success will never be duplicated in the Triad. Charlotte is on a whole other level in terms of growth and development but it too uses other cities as a model as to how it wants to grow.  Atlanta comes to mind. It becomes even more obvious with talks of Charlotte wanting to host the olympics.  I think Greensboro has taken another direction than Charlotte has. The city is doing a great deal to preserve its urban architectural past. Charlotte on the other hand has gutted much of its downtown history in the sake of becoming a city similar to Atlanta. Even still should we be worried about Charlotte's future?

Edited by cityboi
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I honestly wish Greensboro would spend less money and energy (and money) on trying to be Charlotte or Durham, or Raleigh, or WS for that matter.   I get so angry with Greensboro in these forums not because of what the city is but because of what the city throws away in attempt to be a thrid rate knock off of another.

 

I really fear for the future of Greensboro. 

 

I actually think cityboi makes great points here. I see nothing wrong with using what's worked in other cities, taking pages from their playbooks, and tailoring them as appropriate. You see examples of this all across the country and it's smart; you just don't lose your distinct identity and local flavor in the process. The truth of the matter is that Greensboro is making strides in trying to bring more people downtown which is what it should be doing. A lot of people that visit the city only do so for events at Koury or the coliseum and never even get a chance to see downtown and that needs to change.

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Here is some news that indicates that developer Roy Carroll is moving forward on his 4 acre mixed-use downtown hotel project. Tenants on one of the properties he owns at the corner of Bellemeade and Eugene St across from NewBridge Bank Park were given notice that they have to move out in 30 days because of his plans. There has been some skepticism about the fact that downtown is getting two hotels but it appear that this project and the Wyndham Greensboro project are moving forward. I can't wait to see the details in Roy Carroll's project because you can do a lot with 4 acres. Based on where all these properties are located, it looks like his project will take up at least two city blocks. I'm guessing he'll include luxury apartments but im sure there will be more interesting elements included in this project (retail, entertainment, restaurants). Several years ago he did mention that he wanted to build a tall high-rise residential structure on one of those properties. In addition to the 8-story hotel, it would be nice if we could get a high-rise apartment tower in this project. As long as it doesn't block views of the rest of Greensboro's skyline from the ballpark seats. He did say in January that he hoped to start construction this summer and he may be on track to doing that now he is evicting tenants in these properties.

Edited by cityboi
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I actually think cityboi makes great points here. I see nothing wrong with using what's worked in other cities, taking pages from their playbooks, and tailoring them as appropriate. You see examples of this all across the country and it's smart; you just don't lose your distinct identity and local flavor in the process. The truth of the matter is that Greensboro is making strides in trying to bring more people downtown which is what it should be doing. A lot of people that visit the city only do so for events at Koury or the coliseum and never even get a chance to see downtown and that needs to change.

 

I see what others are trying to point out here and it's not simply a matter of using what has worked in other cities, but rather a bold attempt to keep up with the Joneses.

 

Each city has to realize its own potential, limitations, and capabilities. This is why there have been a number of failed efforts recently and in the past in that area.

Edited by RALNATIVE
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All cities have failed efforts. There are actually more projects in Charlotte and Raleigh that are now dead. I don't think it's a matter of keeping up with Joneses ralnative. It's about

Finally making Greensboro an attractive place to live work and play. People always pointed out how dull and small minded Greensboro was. Now this city is finally doing something about it

Edited by cityboi
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Does anyone know the status of the apartments that were to be built by the ballpark? (The areas where the old car dealership was located fronting Smith St.) So far, just a vacant lot. Maybe the recent wet weather has been a factor?? I would have though the apartments would have been finished by now.

Edited by luvdowntowngso
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