Politics

Sen. Tillis hunting for space in Hendersonville

Thom Tillis speaks to an audience at the Historic Courthouse in 2012.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 18, 2015

State Rep. Chuck McGrady said he got the idea a few weeks ago to "play matchmaker" between his former boss and his hometown. He wanted Thom Tillis, the former House speaker and newly elected U.S. senator, to open his Western North Carolina office in Hendersonville and not Asheville.

By the time McGrady got the message through, he learned he would not need to argue.
"He said I think we ought to go to Hendersonville," McGrady said.
The new senator was swept into office in a close race that included a strong boost from Henderson County, which voted 60 to 36 percent for Tillis, and no help at all from Buncombe, which favored incumbent Kay Hagan 57 to 39. Tillis's office did not return calls on his choice of an N.C. mountains office but McGrady and County Manager Steve Wyatt confirmed that his staff is hunting for space.
Options include the Grove Street Courthouse, where U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows has his 11th District headquarters, the Historic Courthouse, which has more appeal to Tillis, or some other space on Main Street. Tillis, people familiar with his thinking say, would rather have a higher profile spot.
"I knew he going to have a Western North Carolina office," McGrady said. "I know he's very interested in Hendersonville and thinks it would be good place to have an office and I know he's out having people look at places in Hendersonville including possibly county property."
McGrady said the effort has been back-burnered "not because it's any hesitation" but because the freshman senator is pressing to "get his Senate office up and running fast.
"In the first quarter I would expect that he'll get a Western North Carolina office," McGrady said, "and I think there's a very good chance that office will be in Hendersonville."
Wyatt confirmed he is working on it, too.
After getting calls from McGrady and state Sen. Tom Apodaca and polling county commissioners, the manager "offered to assist in any way possible with the location of the senator's office in Henderson County," he said. "I met with his staff on two occasions, and the senator is evaluating his options."
McGrady and Wyatt said there were pluses and minuses to the options. The Grove Street Courthouse has a security checkpoint and fellow Republican Meadows as a ground-floor tenant. But it has no esthetic appeal, is crowded and is two blocks off Main Street. The Historic Courthouse is prominent but inflexible renovation-wise.
Wyatt said any plan to create space for Tillis aides would require someone to "double bunk."
"The problem with the courthouse is you can't reconfigure anything," McGrady added. "I have a sense, though, that Tillis himself would prefer to be on Main Street."
There is precedent for a North Carolina senator to pick Hendersonville over Asheville for a WNC headquarters. Elizabeth Dole installed her aide, Graham Fields, in an office on Main Street at Fourth Avenue.