This July 2003 artist's rendering shows the planned Saks Fifth Avenue store.
Posted on 04/30/2004 9:24:02 AM PDT by southernnorthcarolina
There's a big hole in the ground at the corner of Park and Gleneagles roads in south Charlotte. Developer Dee-Dee Harris wants to fill it with a glitzy Saks Fifth Avenue store -- and public money.
In a rambling plea sent this week to city and state officials, Harris asked for unspecified assistance from government. Without help, she said, her $200 million project might collapse. Construction has stalled for nearly three months. Harris' letter notes that low profit expectations have made private money tough to get.
"We read daily that the state is granting other out of state developers and companies funds to bring jobs to North Carolina," she wrote, "yet none of them seem to compare to this ... oasis."
In an interview late Thursday, Harris said the development would create at least 500 jobs and bring new amenities to Charlotte, such as a five-star hotel.
Particularly because it is located in suburban south Charlotte, public funding for such a project could set an extraordinary precedent.
When Harris made a similar, unpublicized inquiry to city staffers last year, she was told that it did not fit the city's goals of revitalizing urban areas and encouraging development along transit corridors, said assistant city manager Ron Kimble.
Harris' request also indicates a continuing challenge for the city: how to navigate a stream of developers asking for help.
The city and county recently approved paying for public parking as part of the redevelopment of Elizabeth Avenue. They are considering a request to help renovate the old Charlotte convention center.
"When I read that other developers were seeking parking funding, I thought, `Good heavens,' " said Harris, president of Harris Land Co.
The Harrises are one of Charlotte's wealthiest, most powerful and prominent families.
Dee-Dee Harris and her husband, Cameron, live in a $6 million mansion near the proposed shopping center. Insurance executive Cameron Harris, former chair of the county Democratic Party, is the brother of developer Johnny Harris.
Republican John Lassiter, chair of the Charlotte City Council's economic development and planning committee, said it is too early to decide.
Dee-Dee Harris announced the Saks deal in July 2003. The project would include homes, smaller stores, a luxury hotel and 2.5 acres of gardens above an underground parking garage.
But Harris' plan ran into trouble, according to her letter: "We have almost $15,000,000 of our own leverage money invested in (a) huge hole."
Signing Saks required many financial concessions, she said, declining to describe them except to say the retailer will be paying no base rent.
Democratic council member Susan Burgess said the deal could be worth considering if it were similar to Grubb Properties' Elizabeth Avenue project, slated to bring a movie theater, housing and stores to a now-bland strip just outside uptown.
That $220 million development plan has several safeguards for the governments. For example, the developer must spend millions of dollars before public funding starts, and the parent company of Presbyterian Hospital is a guarantor. Harris' request has no such detail.
Harris said her project is in reach of some of the city's less wealthy areas, notably on the west side of Park Road. She acknowledged the east side of Park Road is a high-wealth area.
"That part of town's in pretty good shape, last I checked," said Republican council member Pat Mumford. He said he isn't spending much time on the request, given budget constraints.
In the letter, Harris called the "once-in-a-lifetime" project a "coup" and a "pace setter" for the state.
"Every person wants to leave the world better than they found it," she wrote. "If that were not so, I would be playing tiddly-winks at the beach now. Instead I have chosen to dedicate the last twelve years of my life to taking almost insurmountable ... risks and jumping hurdles too tall for me, but they are not too tall for you."
Evidently tired of her Junior League meetings and bridge clubs, Dee Dee didn't let her total lack of real estate development experience (the "Harris Land Company" seems to have been a recent invention, probably for the purpose of this project) stand in the way of luring Saks Fifth Avenue to a highly questionable location near her home, and near Quail Hollow Country Club (where the Wachovia Open, starring Tiger Woods, will be played next week).
Even under the best of circumstances, public-private projects (the article refers to a couple of others) are dubious propositions. This one raises (or certainly should raise) all sorts of red flags, from the political connections to the bizarre location (Saks was courted by nearby SouthPark, Charlotte's most upscale mall, for their expansion; SouthPark just opened a new Nordstrum's, and still has room for Saks should Dee Dee's project fall through), to the underground parking (figure $2,000 per space for surface parking; $10,000 per space for above-grade structured parking; and a whopping $25,000 per space for underground parking, and it's no wonder they need a tax subsidy -- but we can't have anything as tacky as visible cars, even if they're all Mecedeses and Jaguars, in that neighborhood, now can we?).
And I love the part about the proposed project being "in reach of some of the city's less wealthy areas, notably on the west side of Park Road." Well, lower income people spend a lot of money at stores like Saks and at 5-star hotels, don't they? But at least the project will be convenient for lower-income store clerks and maintenance workers to get to, right? Not really; she managed to choose a location away from the light-rail corridors (and don't get me started on the financial efficacy of that boondoggle).
This one doesn't even come close to passing the smell test.
(This place is in the precinct next to mine.)
Is this woman not the perfect liberal???
Take a huge risk on a poorly planned investment and promptly turn to the government to bail her out!
After yesterday's rain the construction site could probably pass for a Wetland. (Ba-dum-bum-CH!)
I think instead of having the city subsidize on-site parking I think they should just run a CATS shuttle from the South Meck parking lot to Saks. But then again I don't pay property taxes. Ha!
Poor Dee Dee will have to sell her sole to get help on this one. Then again, the Harris family owns half the town and can probably put leverage on certain people in certain places.
This one doesn't even come close to passing the smell test.
As for the smell test, this scenario plays out in many towns across the country .
1)Acquire urban redevelopment funds to develop a project guaranteed to fail.
2) Acquire bail-out funds to drag the project through the first 18 months.
3)Go bankrupt.
4)Return to number 1) for next project.
We all go to Hell anyway, don't we?
And by Hell I mean Hecht's. Much better sales than Belk. Plus they have Brandini ....
Thanks, Mr. Lassiter. How about representing me? I don't want my tax dollars going to fund this project. Stop this government spending in Charlotte!
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