The ArtsCenter, a Carrboro nonprofit, agreed to pay the Town $85,000 over the next three years to cover costs involved with its withdrawal from the development of a mixed-use building known as The 203 Project.
The Carrboro Board of Aldermen formally approved the settlement during its Oct. 1 meeting. According to the settlement, the ArtsCenter also won’t seek funding from the Town until next summer, and the Town agreed to waive up to $10,000 in development fees for a new ArtsCenter building within town limits.
“We’re all very happy with the agreement we came to,” Board of Aldermen member Damon Seils said.
Last year, the ArtsCenter partnered with the Town to build out the 203 South Greensboro Street parking lot. The 203 Project is a plan to build a facility that would include the Orange County Southern Branch Library, town Recreation and Parks department offices and the WCOM community radio.
The building also would have housed the ArtsCenter, but in January, the ArtsCenter withdrew from the project to build its own standalone facility.
“We were very enthusiastic about collaborating,” ArtsCenter Executive Director Dan Mayer said. “We just needed more and different space and opportunity than was provided by that project.”
But by then, Carrboro, Orange County and the ArtsCenter had completed the schematic design, which included rough drawings of the site plan and cost estimates, Town Manager David Andrews said.
Seils said the Town and the ArtsCenter participated in a mediation on Aug. 27 to determine which partner owes what portion of the design cost. The option to withdraw had been built into the 2018 agreement, so either party could decide to leave after the design process finished as long as the withdrawing party paid its share of the design costs.
“The Town had certain understandings about the cost, the ArtsCenter had a certain understanding," Seils said. "And we just needed to come to some agreement about what the language of the agreement said."
