Partnership tackles new development, new year

Greenbridge

The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership approved a letter of support for a new proposed development along Rosemary Street at its Wednesday board meeting.

The development, called Greenbridge, would be a nine-story facility located at the 600 block of West Rosemary Street where the Queen of Sheba restaurant currently sits.

One of the project developers, Tim Toben, said the project would boast many environmentally sensitive features, including green roofs.

Current plans estimate 180,000 square feet total with 100 to 120 residential units and retail space on the ground floor.

Toben also said that the five-member development group would like to hire Barbara Trent, an award-winning documentarian and Chapel Hill resident, to create film that would capture the history of the Northside community located near West Rosemary Street. The documentary would be played in one of the public units of the development.

The plans have been submitted to the town's design commission for review and, if approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council, construction could begin as early as spring 2007.

Partnership member and downtown business owner Lex Alexander expressed some reservations about the amount of retail space, which he said would be difficult to fill.

Concerns also were raised about the price of the residential spaces as sustainable energy features could drive prices up.

But the group unanimously approved the letter with Mayor Kevin Foy and Tom Tucker, who is on the development team for the project, recusing themselves from the vote.

 

Wireless

Development of a plan to explore free wireless Internet along Franklin Street was postponed Wednesday.

The partnership still is waiting for results from a survey it deployed to downtown business owners on the issue.

The results are expected at the Jan. 25 meeting, at which time the partnership will begin creating a wireless plan.

 

Plan of Work

Following a planning retreat in December, executive director Liz Parham drafted a plan of work for the partnership for the coming year.

Strategies for the plan included making downtown a center for community life and commerce and bringing entertainment and technology to the area.

Partnership members asked for a list of more specific priorities to be drafted from the plan, which Parham said was possible.

Parham also noted that the establishment of an infrastructure for the group this year would make the goals easier to accomplish.

"I think a lot of this is getting systems in place," she said.

"Then a lot of it gets easier to maintain."

 

RFPs

Parham also told partnership members that several Requests-for-Proposals have been deployed.

The group is looking for RFPs for development of a logo and the group's Web site.

The group also is seeking someone to build a giving kiosk that would be located downtown and would accept donations to benefit social service organizaitons downtown.

 

COMPILED BY BRIANNA BISHOP