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Council hears 4 plans for Grey Hosiery Mill site

The Hendersonville City Council on Thursday night heard a “high level overview” of four proposals for the redevelopment of the Grey Hosiery Mill site.

“It’s a victory to have four groups submitting proposals,” said Rory Dowling, project manager for the Development Finance Initiative, affiliated with the UNC School of Government. “It speaks to the confidence that developers have in the city of Hendersonville.”

Over the next three weeks, Dowling said, DFI will dig deep into those proposals so it can have its recommendation ready for the council’s consideration at its next meeting.

The four firms that submitted proposals are Belmont Sayre of Carborro, N.C.; Professional Development Associates (PDA) of Erie, PA; SpringBridge Development of Florence, SC, and Leder Properties of nearby Brevard. Three of the four plans are for hotels. One is for a mixed-use commercial property.

Dowling said SpringBridge submitted only a letter of intent. He will follow up to gauge the extent of its interest in the project.

In November, the City Council agreed to invite developers to submit plans for a 130-room hotel or something else commercially viable on the site while retaining at least the original 100-year old part of the mill.

Three of the proposals offered plans for hotels but with the number of rooms greatly reduced – from 54 to 60, depending on whether they would be built in the original mill building or in a new structure, with all old buildings razed.

Dowling briefly described the developers and their proposals:
• Belmont Sayre of Carrboro specializes in mixed-use developments in downtowns and urban neighborhoods. It is a leader in the adaptive reuse of historic, environmentally challenged buildings. The firm will partner with Charlestowne Hotels of Charleston, SC, and proposes a hotel with 57 rooms in the old mill building, a small event space and no retail space. Belmont Sayre has been involved in the redevelopment of the American Tobacco campus and the Carmichael Building in Durham and the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh.

• PDA of Erie, PA would partner with Cobblestone Hotels to build a three-story hotel with 54 to 60 rooms. It would not preserve any of the structures on the 2.1-acre site, and it would not build retail or event space until sometime in the future. PDA has been involved in redeveloping the historic Renaissance Centre in Erie.

• SpringBridge Development of Florence, SC, in its letter of intent, did not go into any detail about what it would do. “It’s tough to tell what they are really proposing. Significantly more detail is needed” from them before any analysis can be done, Dowling said. SpringBridge, a hospitality and commercial real estate management and development firm, was founded in 2013.

• Leder Properties of Brevard proposes adapting the mill structures for commercial use only. Its proposal, Dowling said, was “light on details” but was an “interesting concept” involving event, retail and restaurant space. The firm, which has 40 years of real estate experience, has been involved in the redevelopment of the Lumberyard District on King Street in Brevard. The former lumberyard now features a small indoor/outdoor event space, a restaurant, a bicycle shop and an art gallery.