Fate of NoDa Mill Buildings a Question of Priorities: One Group Proposes Converting Structures into Homes for Artists
By Greg Lacour, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Jan. 3–The Charlotte City Council has to decide what to do with the Johnston and Mecklenburg Mill buildings, two vacant structures in the North Davidson community that over the years have eaten millions in taxpayer dollars.
But to decide what to do with them, council members have to decide what they most want from the buildings.
Do council members want to recoup as much as they can of the $6.7 million the city has spent on the old mills since 1990?
Do they want an emphasis on affordable housing, the aim of a recent large-scale project that fell through? Do they want an effective complement to a nearby, planned transit station?
“What should we look for in these buildings,” councilman Pat Mumford said Tuesday, “that have been such a nightmare for us for so long?”
They haven’t decided, although they discussed the questions during a workshop Tuesday, following a presentation by a potential future owner.
The Historic North Charlotte Neighborhood Association, which represents the rapidly growing NoDa community, wants the city to sell the 60-unit Mecklenburg Mill to a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, Artspace, that specializes in converting historic urban buildings into affordable lofts for artists.
Artspace’s presentation to council members Tuesday wasn’t a formal proposal. But the group is interested in the building, and the association believes an Artspace project could help NoDa remain an eccentric, colorful artists’ community, Roy Close, Artspace’s director of resource development, told council members.
The council decided to refer the matter to its Housing and Neighborhood Development Committee, of which Mumford is a member, to refine what the highest priority is. Members agreed that they couldn’t assess the worth of the Artspace presentation without comparing it with other proposals — and those won’t come in until the city specifies what it wants a project there to achieve.
“We’re really talking in a vacuum right now,” said City Manager Pam Syfert.
The city has endured significant embarrassment in recent years over the buildings, relics of the days when north Charlotte was home to textile and other types of manufacturing. It took over the Mecklenburg and Johnston mills a year ago after the bankruptcy of their former developer. Then city officials evacuated Mecklenburg Mills in May after a structural engineer determined the property, infested with termites, was unsafe.
—–
Copyright (c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Tokyo:7879,