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Haywood Park redevelopment


rooster8

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They can redevelop the parking lot and parking deck all they want. The Kostas building isn't particularly nice so it could go too, but since it's an active building with decent urban form and housing numerous retail tenants, I'm not all fired up to tear it down. Has anyone moved into the retail spaces of 21 Battery Park yet? If not, maybe Kostas could move there (it's just next door.)

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I'm personally hoping for a highrise on the site of the parking lot.

Orulz, I noticed that you had commented on the Mountain X-Press site about this article. Did you notice in their illustration, that the planned traffic circle in front of the Civic Center can be seen in the upper left?

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Yeah, Kostas Menswear is the main tenant facing the grove Arcade in that building. I do believe there's a subway in that building too; several years back there used to be a port city java house there instead of the subway. The building is just an unadorned brick box, but then again it contributes a lot to retail quality and street activity in the area so I'm not in a hurry to tear it down. It is proof positive that you don't need monumental, breathtaking, detailed, or even attractive architecture to have a great urban experience.

If it gets torn down, Kostas needs to relocate to somewhere else downtown; preferrably somewhere nearby - whether in the Arcade or 21 Battery Park or wherever. I like that store. In my experience, It's one of a surprisingly few places downtown that are known, respected, and frequented even by suburban-dwelling locals who otherwise could give a crap about the downtown retail and entertainment scene. The base of this resepect is the quality and quantity of merchandise that they carry, and the service offered by the employees, not the store's trendy hipness or just the fact that it's downtown. Tops is another such store that comes to mind. We're going to need more places like Kostas and Tops if we're going to make downtown more of a full-service retail destination that can compete with a shopping mall.

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  • 7 months later...

Yes indeed. Two. One would be a condo tower and the other a hotel, built as part of the redevelopment of the Haywood Park Hotel, which itself would be shut down and redeveloped as offices. Surprisingly, developer Tony Fraga is considering building at least one of the towers to "resemble" the Grove Arcade tower that never got built.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll...144/1009/NEWS01

I'm trying not to get too excited, as we all know that "resemble," especially in developer-speak, is nothing to count on. However...

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  • 2 months later...

Okay... there's been more talk of this story in the paper. I've also managed to track down some renderings, but I'm alarmed. It's very hard to tell, so I hope some other folks here will take a look and see what they can see -- but it appears that there's going to be some significant demolition to make way for this project, including the destruction of two art deco buildings!

Take a look and see if you can see what I hope I'm missing. If this project is going to take out some art deco buildings, I'm going to bring the hammer down on it -- as much as I can as a private citizen anyways. Nobody messes with art deco in my town.

http://www.fircgroup.com/residential/asheville/haywood-park

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Okay... there's been more talk of this story in the paper. I've also managed to track down some renderings, but I'm alarmed. It's very hard to tell, so I hope some other folks here will take a look and see what they can see -- but it appears that there's going to be some significant demolition to make way for this project, including the destruction of two art deco buildings!

Take a look and see if you can see what I hope I'm missing. If this project is going to take out some art deco buildings, I'm going to bring the hammer down on it -- as much as I can as a private citizen anyways. Nobody messes with art deco in my town.

http://www.fircgroup.com/residential/asheville/haywood-park

Luckily, I think you ARE missing something. To me, it seems that the two things that look like they will be demolished are 1. the Kostas building (which is a boring brick box), and 2. the Haywood Park parking deck (which, who cares?) Seems like they will leave the two historic department store buildings that now constitute the Haywood Park complex, and perhaps even the atrium, which was a (pretty well executed) 1980s addition, untouched.

Expect this to be ultra-upscale, as this is definitely the classiest part of downtown. And it looks to me like they're being pretty good citizens and keeping all the historic stuff pretty much intact. That can't be cheap...

The question is, is there room in this market for this AND the Ellington? I for one doubt it, especially considering how stingy banks are with loans.

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I hope that things will be clearer when larger renderings are released. They're building a website for the project. My main concern is the Pearlman's Furniture building and the Starnes Building. In the small rendering that shows an aerial view, it would seem, but it's hard to tell, that both of these art deco buildings are left alone. However, it's so hard to tell that they could just as easily be coming down.

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The pearlman's building is in the bottom left of this rendering, as a blank, white placeholder. The developer doesn't own this building.

reside_haywood_4.jpg

This rendering shows a partially obsucred view of Haywood Street, but you can see that the buildings along Haywood will be unaltered.

reside_haywood_5.jpg

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Hmm, on closer look at some of the renderings on the C-T homepage, it seems like the Haywood Building might be demolished, have its facade preserved while the structure behind is demolished, or be otherwise structurally modified to allow for the condo tower planned along Haywood. I wish they wouldn't; there's plenty of area for the tower without tearing this guy down.

Something that we've maybe forgotten is that The FIRC Haywood Park proposal abuts city land that was put out for RFP last year, and was originally acquired for the new parking deck project that died a couple years ago. Wonder if Fraga could use his weight to get the city to turn that into a park rather than selling it off to a developer. He could then construct his development to address that park. Seems like a pretty good idea to me...

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I spoke with a representative at the developer's office this afternoon and asked some questions. Here's what I learned:

-- No art deco buildings will be harmed in the construction of this building.

-- The shopping arcade on Page Avenue will be designed to look similar to the Grove Arcade.

-- Atop the Page Avenue arcade will be an amenity floor for the hotel, featuring a green roof and a pool, among other things.

-- Atop the Haywood Street deck will be an amenity floor for the condo tower, featuring similar amenities.

-- The developers are considering adding a public outdoor ice skating rink that can be turned into a bistro area during warm weather months. Very preliminary.

-- The developers are considering adding an affordable residential component to the project, either by putting it in this project directly, building it directly elsewhere downtown, or contributing to a fund for it a la the Ellington.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Did you happen to hear about the Haywood Building (built 1917) - whether that would be demolished, modified, the facade preserved, or what?

To my knowledge they plan to renovate the existing structure for office and retail.

I personaly think it would be a disaster not to build it Especially with the plans they have for the hotel it is resurecting history of a prominent individual in Asheville, plus the condos, newly renovated and extended arcade to turn it in to a "Epicenter" type project. The area would thrive off of the revenu and become an attraction to highend retailers and Travelers. In turn making the city more of an attraction.

Of Course this is a optomistic view.

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Here are a couple of renderings that show what I'm talking about. The first one clearly shows that the modern-designed condo tower will not be set back from Haywood Street:

haywood_1.jpg

The second clearly shows that something will be built that is "taller than" the haywood building. East of the Starnes bldg, you will see that it steps up to 5 stories, though stories 4 and 5 are set back slightly. The Haywood building is 3 stories tall - this makes me think there is a slight chance its facade will be preserved and used as the non-setback portion of that building. However, notice in the 3rd bay from the left on the building, how there is an archway that corresponds to the main entrance. There is no such feature on the Haywood building. Also, the furthest bay to the right is a parking entrance (though one of the retail bays of the Haywood Bldg facade could potentially be converted to a parking entrance.)

haywood_2.jpg

I would rather they push the condo building back from the street by 40 or 50 feet, which is how deep the Haywood building is and explore ways to make the complex work without the parking entrance on Haywood Street (Share the 21 Battery Park driveway, or letting all vehicular access be from the alley off Page Street, for example.) This would leave the Haywood Building intact, and preserve the very attractive Haywood Street facade of the entire Haywood Park complex.

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To further illustrate my point. Here is an illustration.

Red = footprint of hotel tower designed like the Grove Arcade tower

Green = new retail "arcade" space

Blue = footprint of new modern condo tower

Purple = Haywood Building (1917)

Cyan = Bon Marche / Starnes Building (1923)

Yellow = Haywood Park Hotel atrium (1987)

The first drawing below is a depiction of the current plan, as best as I can tell. Note how the condo tower impinges on the footprint of the Haywood Building. The Haywood building would be demolished (with facade possibly though unlikely preserved) and replaced with a 5-story structure.

haywood_drawing_1.jpg

The second drawing is my change for the complex. The condo tower is pushed back ~50 feet from Haywood Street, outside of the footprint of the Haywood Building. The Haywood Building is left alone.

haywood_drawing_2.jpg

The aerial shows that the 21 Battery Park driveway is more than wide enough to handle the traffic for both 21BP and this project, but I don't expect that to happen due to the difficulty of drafting an agreement with the 21BP developer and HOA to share the driveway. Nevertheless, there are still alternative locations for parking entrances than right off of Haywood Street.

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  • 3 months later...

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