At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Greensboro City Council learned—as Rhino Times editor John Hammer put it–that the “third time really is the charm,” at least when it comes to —of all things —downtown parking decks. After two failed attempts, the council finally agreed on a land-swap deal with high-profile developer Roy Carroll that will allow the city to build and operate a downtown parking deck:
The City Council on Tuesday agreed to pay $5.5 million to Guilford County for the county-owned building and parking lot at the corner of Friendly Avenue and Eugene Street that now houses Sandhills Center, which provides mental health services for the county. The City Council also approved trading 0.364 acres of land with Carroll for the parking deck and 0.092 acres for an entrance on Bellemeade Street, and as part of the deal the city has agreed to sell Carroll the remaining 1.6 acres of land for $2.3 million.
Guilford County will be allowed to rent the building back from the city for two years at $1 a year. After that, the plan is for the city to demolish the building and complete the sale to Carroll. This will give Carroll the remainder of the street frontage on Eugene up to Friendly Avenue, minus the entrance to the parking deck.
The entire deal is contingent on Guilford County selling the 2.6 acre parcel to Greensboro for $5.5 million. The appraised value is $6.02 million.
…..Parrish explained that this plan will allow the city to build a less expensive parking deck because it will be precast concrete instead of poured, and – because the parking deck will be in the interior of the lot rather than on the street – the facade of the parking deck can look like what it is, a parking deck, and the parking deck won’t be taking up valuable street frontage.
All four motions to buy the land, make the land trades and design the parking deck passed on unanimous votes by the City Council. The City Council also had to rescind an earlier resolution to spend up to $30 million on Plan A.
The council also approved an ordinance allowing “low speed vehicle taxicabs”—the trolleys where people pedal around downtown and drink beer. They’ve been in use in downtown Raleigh for some time now. A couple of thoughts—Raleigh has a far more interesting downtown than Greensboro—just saying. And by law the trolley operators are allowed to not sell beer—it’s bring your own. I checked into the price in Raleigh and it was $35.00—in my opinion a bit pricey for a BYO deal. But— as Downtown Greensboro Inc. president (and former City Council member) Zack Matheny put it–“the key thing about pedal trolleys is that people are having fun…. (they’re) having fun peddling that thing down the street, maybe having a beer while touring around with their friends in downtown Greensboro, smiling, laughing and having a good time.”
