Charges fly over plan for hotel
GREENSBORO — Proponents of a downtown hotel with 51 percent African American ownership have backed off their threat to stage a protest against two white hotel owners who question the merits of their project.
City and county officials have “bungled” the process in approving special federal financing for the hotel, said Mike Weaver and Dennis Quaintance, majority owners of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants & Hotels. The two own the O. Henry Hotel and the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro.
The two have requested all public information relating to the hotel project and have threatened to sue the city and county to get the data.
That led to charges by some hotel supporters that the move was a racist one, designed to block the project.
Supporters threatened a protest march against Quaintance and Weaver on Feb. 1, the opening day of the new International Civil Rights Center & Museum.
Melvin “Skip” Alston, a real estate agent for the hotel project and museum founder, persuaded hotel advocates, including Deena Hayes, a member of the Guilford Board of Education, to view the situation in a different light.
“They saw two well-to-do white male hoteliers that were possibly trying to stop the opening of an African American -owned hotel,” said Alston, chairman of the Board of Commissioners. “I talked with them (Monday) morning and explained to them I thought it was more of a business dealing with Mike and Dennis than any sort of racial feeling.”
Alston said he knows Quaintance and Weaver have no race-tinged intentions.
Weaver and Quaintance said Monday that they don’t think council members and county commissioners asked tough questions when they approved allowing the hotel to be eligible for special federal financing. They said that without proper vetting, the hotel project might not succeed.
“It’s important for people to know that as a citizen, I have a right to be concerned about my downtown, and I make no apology,” said Weaver. “As a member of the hotel industry, I have a right to be concerned about my industry, and I make no apology. As a citizen, I have the right to question bad management in City Council and I make no apology. I think the City Council hasn’t given it full scrutiny and full due process.”
Alston is adamant, however, that Weaver has an ulterior business motive: He is interested in building a hotel downtown.
“They want to be in this market,” he said, “and they feel if this hotel is built that’s going to significantly impact their plans for doing anything in this market. It all adds up.”
Weaver denied that suggestion, but Alston said the motive is obvious.
Quaintance says that the entire hotel industry could suffer here if a glut of rooms forces hotel owners to slash room rates.
Weaver said the issue is seeing that government and the public get the right information to make informed decisions.
“I think we’re uniquely qualified to help council ask the hard questions,” he said.
If the city needs Weaver’s advice, Alston said, it should hire him as a consultant.
Still, he has volunteered to give Weaver any document he wants about the hotel deal.
Local investors backing the hotel — to be built at Davie Street and February One Place — want recovery zone facility bonds created under the 2009 federal stimulus act. The program lets private developers borrow at a low interest rate.
The bonds are funded and paid for privately; local taxpayers are not liable. But the construction projects still have to meet financial muster with a state commission.
Both Guilford County and Greensboro got an “allocation” under the program — $19 million for Greensboro and $9.8 million for the county — which allowed them to approve projects that could take advantage of the preferential financing.
Hayes, in an e-mail to the News & Record, said Sunday that she questioned the timing of the Quaintance-Weaver request. Hayes is a resident of the Ole Asheboro Neighborhood, which will become part owner of the hotel group.
Also, Hayes lives with John Greene, whose company — JCG & Associates — is one of the principals in the Urban Hotel Group, the development group partnering in the hotel.
JCG & Associates was named by Henry Isaacson, an attorney for Urban Hotel Group, as one of those principals at a recent council meeting. Guilford County voting records confirm Hayes and Greene live at the same Gorrell Street address in Greensboro.
Hayes could not be reached Monday for comment. But in the e-mail, she characterized her objection to questions raised by Quaintance and Weaver.
“I am totally supportive of any citizen or organization having access to public documents. I do not consider that racial,” she wrote.
Instead, she wrote, “The people inquiring happen to be 'hoteliers’ who have allegedly consulted city staff about a hotel project that would be built by them in downtown Greensboro. The political pressure is coming from 'private hotel special interest’ not a broad citizen/constituency.”
Staff Writer Joe Killian contributed to this report
Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
Photo Caption: This parking deck is part of the property being considered for a new luxury hotel in downtown Greensboro.
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