The $5 million Bank of America development deal for the Scaleybark light rail station is dead. Or so the Charlotte city council was told last night. As of this moment, what was supposed to be a crown jewel location along the $500 million transit line can find no takers.
Worse, the city may wind up on the hook for building a $1.1 million park-and-ride lot for CATS. The city already spent millions — at least eight or nine if memory serves — on pulling together the 17-acre site by buying up odd parcels of land. The entire site basically has a big bow on it for developers. And no takers.
Actually, no takers who will build the affordable housing the city wants on the site. Now the city may simply have to sell the land off to the highest bidder — and hope Charlotte gets its investment back. Then there is the odd little wrinkle of CATS counting on $5 million from the sale of the land in order to make its South Blvd. budget work.
Plus, CATS needs the park-and-ride lot built on the site sooner rather than later.
In sum, another time and money problem for CATS. What else is new?
But stay tuned. There seems to be much more behind the scenes of this latest CATS scandal.
