News

Wingate pulls out of mill development

By David Suffia, Published: October 4, 2013

The developer chosen by a divided Hendersonville City Council to renovate the historic Grey Hosiery Mill announced Thursday that negotiations to land Wingate as a longterm tenant had fallen through.

"I come to you with a heavy heart," Robert P. Englander of Richmond, Va.-based CathFord Consulting, told the council. "We have been unable to come to terms with Wingate University" on the proposal to renovate the city-owned Grey Hosiery Mill for university use.
"The university needs 24,000 more square feet of space than the renovated building would provide. They also were concerned what their operating costs would be in a renovated hosiery mill versus a new or existing building that wouldn't need redevelopment. We just couldn't overcome their concerns."
The council gave CathFord 90 days to reach an agreement with Wingate.
Englander's report led to council discussion, and some disagreement, about what to do with the mill building.
Councilman Ron Stephens asked to table any action until after upcoming city council elections "because some of us might not be here after that, and this should be taken up by the new council."
Councilman Jerry Smith asked that city staff prepare options for the council to consider next month for possible sale of the building by auction or sealed bids.
The council voted 4-1 to ask city staff to come back at the next meeting with those options, with Stephens voting no.

The mill redevelopment has become a contentious campaign issue. The council voted 3-2 for CathFord's Wingate proposal, with council members Stephens and Steve Caraker voting no. Council member Jeff Collis has said the council is one vote away from reversing that and giving the proposal to a group that wants to convert the 98-year-old mill into apartments. Collis opposes that.

In other action:

• Police chief Herbert Blake said he had applied for a state grant to provide money to pay for a school resources officer to be stationed at Hendersonville's middle school, but the grant was denied. Only 18 SROs were given grant money in the state. Blake asked the city council for $40,000 to fund the middle school officer for this school year. The council agreed, but directed Blake and city manager John Connet to meet with the Henderson County sheriff and the school district to ask them to fund the middle school SRO after this year. The sheriff and school district currently fund SROs for high schools outside the city. Councilman Smith called funding of a middle school SRO money well spent. "Having an officer on campus is not only for safety, but it develops a relationship between police and kids at an early age."
• Tom Wooten, public works director, told the council that a study showed the city's streets are not in the best of condition, worse than other cities of similar size, with too many streets in poor to very poor condition. He said the city needs to increase it's routine maintenance to prevent more costly repairs in the future. Wooten said 2.4 miles of Hendersonville streets were resurfaced this year at a cost of $290,000, and another 3.6 miles had preventive crack sealing at a cost of $35,000.
• The city plans grand opening ceremonies on Friday, Oct. 11, for the new dog park on Seventh Avenue at Mud Creek and for 500-600 block Main Street renovation.