As local candidates discuss development and tax base diversification, town residents are discussing similar issues.
Residents discussed the plans of Shortbread Lofts, a proposed mixed-use development for downtown Chapel Hill, at the monthly Friends of Downtown meeting Thursday.
The project, slated to be located on the 300 block of West Rosemary Street, is composed of 76 residential units. The targeted market will be upperclassmen and graduate students.
Larry Short, project developer, said that Shortbread Lofts would ease the pressure on the Northside neighborhood by offering a new source of downtown housing. The Lofts would also increase housing competition in the area.
“Northside landlords will see there’s new housing that could attract their market,” he said. “So they will have to clean up and fix management and compliance with community rules.”
Along with the residential units, which would be a mix of two, three and four bedroom apartments, the project would include 6,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
The development would complement downtown streetscape renovations by the town to improve sidewalks and street lighting, said project civil engineer Phil Post.
The site would have 171 parking spaces, including 19 across the street meant for shoppers using the retail space.
While the plan still has to go through the town approval process, Short said the apartments would ideally be open for the market by fall of 2013.
The plan will be revisited by the Chapel Hill Town Council on October 10.
Notable
Shortbread Lofts was originally planned to be a larger condominium complex. But Short said due to the economy, they decided to downsize and switch to rental apartments. This change was made to target a downtown population that may not be able to afford purchasing units and would prefer to rent, he said.
*Quotable *
“Anytime I hear this rental conversation attracting students, you have to market to the parents too. What the student may want may not lash up with what the parent demands.” — Fred Black, Chapel Hill resident
“My question is, when this plan came through two to three years ago this seemed much larger. I’m curious as to what the logic was to change?” — Augustus Cho, candidate for Chapel Hill Town Council
“I can’t claim we’ll be saving the world or Chapel Hill, but we will do a darn good job of improving the site around our building.” — Phil Post, project engineer for Shortbread Lofts
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