
John White, public policy director for the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, was one of several people who spoke in favor of the project, and mentioned that during the recent N.C. Central University homecoming festivities, the event's host hotel was located in Cary because there weren't sufficient lodging spaces in Durham.
"They ran out of options," White said.
Shelly Green, CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, added that Durham is more than 80 percent below national benchmarks for the number of hotel rooms built in a downtown area. Bill Kalkhof, Downtown Durham Inc. president also spoke in favor of the additional rooms, saying the additional rooms would be critical to drawing events to the Durham Convention Center and perhaps reduce the center's $800,000 to $1 million annual operating loss in recent years.
The Greenfire project was just one of two transformative projects highlighted in pitches to commissioners Monday. The other, the redevelopment of the Chesterfield building and former host to Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company at the corner of South Duke and Main streets also earned unanimous support from commissioners in its bid to sell $65 million in federal recovery bonds to finance the $89 million project.
The seven-story Chesterfield building, which used to be a cigarette factory, was slated to be the final piece of the West Village development until its owner, Blue Devil Ventures, defaulted on a loan in December. Now former Blue Devil Ventures associate, Durham native and one-time commissioners candidate Josh Parker has put the project on the fast track via Chesterfield Partners, which has secured financing to buy the property from creditors. Parker's development company, TBL Group is now teaming up with GWH Ventures to redevelop the old warehouse.
On Monday, county commissioners approved the sale of the recovery bonds through the same federal program that Greenfire is employing to use bond sale proceeds to finance its capital project.
Just like in the case of Greenfire, neither the public nor the government has any obligation to repay the bonds. They are the sole responsibility of the borrower, Chesterfield Partners.
The county approval was just one of many steps. Chesterfield Partners still must get the OK from the Durham County Industrial Facilities/Pollution Control Financing Authority and the N.C. Local Government Commission before the bonds can be sold.
If the developers secure all the necessary approvals, they'll be ready to break ground in January, Parker said, with a completion date in the third quarter of 2012. The lower floors would house retail and office space with 152 loft-style apartments on the upper floors to rent between $800 to $1,400 a month, Parker said. The roof would offer a swimming pool, jogging track and even a community garden, Parker said. Parker also said the developers would set aside 4,700 square feet of office space to offer below market rates to nonprofit groups.