That is the surprising spin the Charlotte Housing Authority is giving Steve Harrison. CHA says it is looking to cut out the middlemen and buy the 7-acre parcel at 11109 Providence Road West itself and build low-income apartments there.
Couple things jump out:
- The parcel would still have to be re-zoned. City council would still have to take a stand — or not.
- It certainly appears CHA was using Republic Development Group et al as a front group to slide that rezoning past Ballantyne. Otherwise what was their value add?
- Now CHA discovers that Republic “did not meet our qualifications process for us to do a joint venture with them, or to do a project on our behalf” says CHA spinmaster general Charles Woodyard? Like I said, front-group.
- How does any of this square with what CHA told us the other day, namely that it was pulling out of the project due to problems with “its density (the total number of apartment units relative to the cost of the land) and funding.”
None of this makes sense unless the CHA thinks it can come back with plans for even more apartments on the site — along with a pledge that it has cleaned up any conflicts of interest among its staff. Like we told you Ballantyne, the city of Charlotte and the Uptown crowd is gunning for you.
This is not over yet.
Bonus Observation: Tax credits, tax credits, tax credits. The hidden story all along in this mess is which private developer — if any — would wind up with valuable tax credits doled out by CHA. Doing it all in-house would remove that angle — perhaps.
