City Mutations

Rhinoceros Times ^ | 1/22/04 | by Allison Hart

[Huber]

The Charlotte City Council potentially trashed a $24 million deal Tuesday night when it unanimously voted to rezone what was once the land of the Hornets. You know, the Charlotte Coliseum that sits out there on Tyvola Road like a giant white elephant the city spent in excess of $100 million to build.

The property was supposed to be sold for $24 million, but now nobody’s sure what it will fetch.

Last year, Crescent Resources – the development subsidiary of Duke Energy – stepped up to the plate and committed to buying the 154-acre parcel for $24 million as part of a $100 million corporate underwriting plan designed to help finance the new $431 million arena the city is building for billionaire Bob Johnson and his NBA Charlotte Bobcats.

But it turns out the deal was only good if the coliseum land was zoned to allow for the development of a mixed-use office site. That’s what Crescent Resource wanted. City planners, however, had another, conflicting vision in store for the property. They requested the council rezone the land to allow for more residential and retail development, slashing the amount of office space from up to nearly 6.5 million square feet to just over 2 million square feet.

On Tuesday night the council approved the request, which for all practical purposes nullifies the deal with Crescent Resources to buy the land for $24 million and throws the property up for bid on the open market.

Even more disturbing is the prospect that the council had no idea that the deal with Crescent hinged on particular zoning requirements for the land. The snafu wasn’t officially and publicly discussed until last summer, well after the council had already voted to build a new arena – with its accompanying finance plan – against the overwhelming desire of the public.

Exactly who knew what and when they knew it will likely never be certain, because the arena financing deal was negotiated behind closed doors by city staff. Also uncertain is how much the Coliseum land will be worth without a guaranteed price, something the council supposedly thought the city had when the arena deal was approved.

Despite the possibility that the land, after being rezoned, might now be worth considerably less than $24 million, councilmembers across partisan lines said they thought the plan to turn the area between Tyvola Road and Billy Graham Parkway in west Charlotte into apartment homes, office buildings and shop was best for the city.

“I’m comfortable with this,” said Councilmember Don Lochman, a Republican. “What’s more important is what’s best for this part of town, not how can we maximize our dollars.”

Republican Councilmember John Tabor said he last heard that Crescent was now supportive of the city’s development plan and zoning, but maybe not with the asking price.

So maybe the city will knock a few million dollars off the Coliseum in a fire sale, not that it will make much difference on the price that is less than a quarter of the building’s original $100 million value. If Crescent – or anybody else for that matter – won’t pay the full $24 million, the city can always sell a few hard-won parcels of uptown land surrounding the future arena to make up the difference.

Councilmembers, however, didn’t so much as blink at that prospect and stuck to their development guns.

“It’s hard a thing to balance,” Tabor said. “This will have a huge impact on the people out there.”

“I think it’s good,” said Councilmember Nancy Carter, a Democrat. “It puts an element out there that’s not there now and rounds out our offerings in that area.”

Also on Tuesday night, councilmembers heard from residents of an east Charlotte community who oppose a proposed rezoning of 1.8 acres on the corner of Albemarle Road and East Lake Forest Drive that would allow for the construction of a child care center.

Scott Terry, chairman of the Lake Forest Neighborhood Association, said that since the neighborhood consists mostly of elderly residents who do not have children, the center would not serve the immediate area as the developer indicated. One of the elderly residents who lives in a neighborhood next to the proposed center said he was concerned about the noise small children would produce in the quiet neighborhood where he planned to spend the rest of his days in peace.

Terry also said heavy traffic and pollution along Albemarle Road would create a dangerous environment for the center’s small children.

The child care center’s architect and developer, Anthony Hunt, said his firm had considered the traffic, noise and pollution issues while designing the center, and said he was confident none of the three would pose a problem. Hunt also said the center’s location along the city’s bus line makes it convenient for single, working mothers who live along the Albemarle Road corridor. He also pointed out that 400 people signed a petition saying they wanted the day care center at the proposed location.

The overwhelming number of signatures seemed to drive the developer’s point home until Councilmember Susan Burgess, a Democrat, noted as she perused the petition that many of the signers live in southeast Charlotte or on the west side of town – miles from Albemarle Road.

“We just wanted to make the point that 400 people want that site,” Hunt said.

To wrap up its unusually short meeting – not to mention scantly attended; councilmembers Patrick Cannon, Malcolm Graham and James Mitchell, all Democrats, were absent – the council heard from a doctor who wants to build a combined medical facility and church on three acres of land on West Sugar Creek Road.

Dr. Fidelis Edosomwan, lead physician and principal of the development company Genesis Holdings, wants to build a sports medicine, physical therapy and urgent care facility, similar to one he owns and operates on Beatties Ford Road, in northwest Charlotte that serves an area of the city he said does not have consistent access to medical care. The proposed 10,000 square-foot facility would include dental services in addition to the other offerings. Edosomwan’s wife is a layperson for the proposed church that would be built in conjunction with the medical center, said the Edosomwans’ representative, Jeff Brown.

“Their philosophy is to serve the underserved,” Brown said. “Even though it’s limited in scope, it will fill a great need for residents in the area.”

One person, Mark Palmer, spoke against the rezoning that would permit the medical center and the church because he said neighbors in the area had not been properly notified of the rezoning petition. Palmer said neighbors also feared the encroaching commercial development would create a domino effect that threatens the area’s remaining residential properties.

Brown and city staff said the rezoning would not destroy the residential feel of the area and would, in fact, provide needed resources for the people who live in the area. Councilmembers seemed to agree.

“This, to me, means taking services to where people live,” Burgess said.

Now if the council can only find somebody to take a $24 million white elephant of a coliseum off its hand, that would really be some service.

[Huber]

When government steps into the private sector...