news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Skip Moore acknowledges that his plans for the Weaver Foundation property downtown represent nothing more than lines on paper. But that’s a start.

If the city’s expanded cultural district takes off, consultants say, it likely will happen first at the Weaver property, a 4-plus-acre site of Church Street and Friendly Avenue.

“The land is available, and the owner is willing,” said Deb Ryan, the head of Ryan-Harris, an urban design firm in Charlotte. “You want to build from your strengths.”

Ryan and Candace Damon, a consultant with HR&A Advisors in New York, presented the Church Street Investment Strategy to the City Council during a briefing Tuesday.

Their report said the Weaver property “represents an important potential first project.”

Moore, the foundation’s president, already has a conceptual drawing of the area that includes three buildings: one that would include art and cultural uses, one that would be used by nonprofits and one that would be for residential.

Moore stressed that no decisions have been made on how the property would be developed or when.

He said, “We haven’t decided to do anything other than continue the discussions and over time figure out what is the best thing to put on that property.”

It has been decided that the site will include a $2 million carousel that the Greensboro Rotary Club will give the city, but that project is at least 18 months from completion.

To the north of the Weaver property, the Greensboro Children’s Museum will soon unveil an expansion and renovation project that will include a new garden, teaching kitchen, new exhibits, structural improvements and a relocated parking lot.

“It’s very exciting,” said Melanie Soles, the museum’s former board chairwoman. “We hope the Children’s Museum will be a major piece of (the strategy).”

The consultants recommended that over the next decade the city spend nearly $14 million to expand the downtown cultural district, noting that the public investment would encourage millions more in private development.

“I wouldn’t recommend this if I didn’t think you would get five or six times (the investment) in return,” Damon
said.

Among other things, the plan calls for creating “a cultural anchor” at the News & Record parking lot at Church and East Washington Street; preparing the Greensboro Transit Authority site bounded by Market Street and Friendly Avenue for residential development; and creating a streetscape for Church.

For the most part, council members liked what they heard.

“I think we need to look at the plan and start implementing it,” said council member Goldie Wells. “It’s not all going to happen at one time.”

Council members directed City Manager Mitchell Johnson to begin work on the plan, with the understanding that any significant action would require their approval.

However, the council did not take a formal vote; that will have to come at an official meeting.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com