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East Main project heads for review

Posted on August 14, 2008August 15, 2008 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Wednesday morning, while a light drizzle fell outside what’s to become the new leasing office for Main Street Partners, Laura Van Sant spent a few moments inside on her cell phone conducting a key first step for the new enterprise: getting the power turned on.

The office, located at 206 East Main St. in the building recently occupied by Archer Graphics, may be new, but the project now leasing has been rolling along for quite some time.

Officially dubbed 300 East Main Street, the project represents one of the largest redevelopment efforts in either downtown Carrboro or Chapel Hill, sweeping from the intersection of Main Street and Boyd Street near Nice Price Books to the present municipal parking lot on the corner of Main and Roberson streets. It includes a 150-room hotel, a five-story parking deck, almost 500,000 square feet of new floor space and sweeping changes for two of Carrboro’s most venerated institutions — Cat’s Cradle and The ArtsCenter.

The development has been in the pipeline for several years and represents a close collaboration between town planners and policymakers and Main Street Properties of Chapel Hill LLC. The eight-member corporation includes Sherman Richardson, his son Bobby Richardson, Kevin Benedict and Van Sant, who also acts as the spokesperson for the LLC.

Last year, the town approved the first phase of the proposal, a five-story, 48,000-square-foot commercial building at the corner Lloyd Street and Main Street. On Aug. 26, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen are scheduled to open a public hearing on the so-called Phase B of the plan, which includes the rest of the development.

In a recent interview with The Citizen, Van Sant said the main point she wants to get across is that while this is a major redevelopment it is not an attempt to alter Carrboro.

“We really like what Carrboro has going on,” she said. “We’re not trying to turn Carrboro into another Meadowmont or something it’s not.”

It has taken three to four years of work in earnest, she said, to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. Among the challenges, she said, was working through Carrboro’s regulatory system and making the new design work in a way that allows the Cradle and the ArtsCenter to expand. Also making things a challenge has been economic uncertainty. Banks have tightened up on lending and are requiring more pre-leasing. As a result, Van Sant said, the proposed hotel will likely jump ahead of the already approved Phase A building. Still, she said, Main Street is keeping in mind that what they’re building will be around for decades, and the overall project — in a growing downtown in a growing community —won’t be captive to the current business cycle.

The key to the design of 300 East Main is flexibility. Several of the buildings and the parking deck will be constructed in a way that will allow for easier expansion and renovation.

“We need to be flexible. Over time, obviously things are going to change. Today’s retail space might be tomorrow’s office space.”

Carrboro’s Hilton

Aside from the signs that say “Leasing Now,” the first signal Carrboro residents will receive that 300 East Main is moving ahead will be the demolition of the Performance Bicycle Shop at 404 East Main along with a group of houses behind it. Going up in their place will be a parking deck and a hotel, retail and office complex. The hotel will be owned and operated by the Atma Hotel Group, which owns and operates the Holiday Inn Express on Farrington Road and Chapel Hill’s two Hampton Inns.

Manish Atma said he is in negotiations with Hilton Hotels to build a Hilton Garden Inn, which would feature 150 guest rooms with an indoor pool, exercise room, a small restaurant and lounge and several meeting rooms. The bottom floor of the five-story building will also include roughly 18,500 feet of retail space.

Atma said he thinks a Hilton Garden would be a good match for Carrboro.

“It’s not a $200-a-night hotel,” he said “and it’s not a Super 8 or a Motel 6.”

Van Sant agreed that a boutique hotel was not the way to go. “This will be the closest hotel to campus that’s less than $200 a night.”

Plans for next door to the hotel call for a five-story parking deck that would be accessed via a road that runs behind the development from the main entrance at Lloyd and Main streets. An extension of Boyd Street would also lead to the deck.

Van Sant said the plan is to build the parking deck out of pre-cast sections. The technique not only allows for faster construction but will make it easier to expand the deck.

Earlier this year, the board of aldermen said they might want to lease a section of an expanded deck to increase parking availability downtown.

Next Week: Frank Heath, owner of Cat’s Cradle, and Jon Wilner, executive director of the ArtsCenter, talk about how the changes ahead will affect two of Carrboro’s best-known venues.

2 thoughts on “East Main project heads for review”

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  2. Pingback: A new downtown Carrboro « The Daily Triangle

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