news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Leaders with the Ole Asheboro Neighborhood Association asked the city Thursday night to consider donating part of its 10-acre South Elm Street redevelopment area to the group so it could build and manage a proposed downtown hotel project.

A team of educators and business people told the Greensboro Redevelopment Commission that the community-run hotel could generate $874,000 in property taxes for the city and $500 million over 20 years for southeast Greensboro residents.

Bridget Chisholm, a hotel developer with Urban Hotel Group in Memphis, Tenn., has been working with city and county leaders since the summer to develop a 200-room hotel near the corner of South Elm and West Lee streets, just north of the Ole Asheboro neighborhood.

The project would be part of a larger redevelopment plan the city has for South Elm and Lee streets.

Chisholm, who has Greensboro ties, said Thursday night the hotel could increase property values in what is now a rundown section of town and would create up to 300 jobs.

Financing for the project would come from the federal government, which plans to allocate as much as $40 million to Guilford County in bonds as part of the federal stimulus package.

That program could allocate $9.8 million to Guilford County and $19 million to the city of Greensboro, Chisholm said.
The hotel, would take up 4 of the 10 acres the city owns for redevelopment. Some members on the commission are hesitant to give away that space.

“There is no way I’m going to vote for any project on this 10 acre site without knowing how it fits into the entire 10 acres because that’s foolish,” commission member Jerry Leimenstoll said. “That’s irresponsible. I don’t care what the money is for or what the deadlines are.”

Tyrome Hollomon, a married father with two children, urged the commission to approve the proposal sooner rather than later.

Hollomon moved his family to Ole Asheboro more than eight years ago with now-unfulfilled promises of economic growth in a neighborhood with vacant lots.

“This is a positive move for the city,” he said. “We’re not asking for a handout. We’re asking for an opportunity.”

“B” Akins, president of the Ole Asheboro Neighborhood Association, said the project would generate an immeasurable wealth of pride.

“We’re teaching our young folk that Greensboro is the gateway to the future,” Akins said. “That’s what we tell them everyday, but then when you look at our community, you tell a different story.”

Akins knows that the site could be developed by a brand-name hotel, but the profits would go to that company, not into the hands of Ole Asheboro residents who would manage the hotel.

She and her colleagues have been working on the proposal for months, presenting it to the commission for the first time Thursday. They will meet with the commission to see the project through.

“They’re about the dollars,” she said. “We’re about the dollars, but we’re also about empowering our community.”
The redevelopment commission will meet in the next two weeks to discuss the project again.

Contact Dioni L. Wise at 373-7090 or dioni.wise@news-record.com