
{"id":3763,"date":"2008-10-30T08:16:21","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T16:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2008-10-30T08:16:21","modified_gmt":"2008-10-30T16:16:21","slug":"roberson-square-site-on-the-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/10\/30\/roberson-square-site-on-the-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberson Square site on the market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Margot Carmichael Lester<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may have noticed the inconspicuous \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For Sale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sign stuck in the high grass on the corner of Roberson and South Greensboro streets. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no joke. The much-ballyhooed 91,575-square-foot Roberson Square property is on the market.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no bank willing to finance the project now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Elias Schtakleff, a partner in the property. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carrboro shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be affected by the turmoil, but banks don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t treat us in a different way \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they treat us like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like any other developer or builder in the nation. Everything\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on hold in terms of credit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Schtakleff declined to provide a firm asking price, but said the partnership is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153soliciting offers based on the land value plus the approved improvements.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Orange County land records data show the parcel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tax value is $309,050. <\/p>\n<p>The project, scheduled to break ground next spring, is now on ice. Schtakleff hopes the financial markets will stabilize and he and his partners can return to the bank for funding to restart the project. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it could be nine months or a year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\nIn the meantime, Schtakleff says, if they get a viable offer, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c reluctantly. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It took four years to get to this stage and we feel upset we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t continue,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Schtakleff said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are just a reflection of the current economy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>News of the sale took area developers by surprise, but the reason for it did not. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the smart thing to do if you can sell and make money on it today,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Kara Pittman Hart, co-owner and broker at Terra Nova Global Properties. <\/p>\n<p>Terra Nova markets The Alberta, a four-story residential\/commercial project on the same block, which will feature 23 residential units and street-level offices and retail. Though it has yet to pre-lease or sell any of the space, Hart isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worried. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not too concerned that we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had sales in the first two weeks. Everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of in a holding pattern. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pent-up demand in Carrboro for this kind of project and right now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the only ones [actively] doing it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Another developer, Laura Van Sant of Main Street Partners, also remains bullish on downtown development. Her 507,500-square-foot commercial project, 300 E. Main, is proceeding on schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re working with our architect and engineers to develop construction drawings and working with contractors on prices for various pieces of the first phase,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We still hope to begin work early next year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That said, downtown developers know they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not immune to market ills. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the credit crunch drags on, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly going to make it more challenging to get financing, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to be a lot more creative,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Van Sant said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in a pretty strong position financially, so we hope the worst-case for us would just be a few months\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 delay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Margot Carmichael Lester You may have noticed the inconspicuous \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For Sale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sign stuck in the high grass on the corner of Roberson and South Greensboro streets. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no joke. The much-ballyhooed 91,575-square-foot Roberson Square property is on the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}