The new face of Ashvegas

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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This is the new face of Ashvegas. Get used to it, because we’re only going to see more of these “urban lofts” and high-end condos go up around town. This one is dubbed Lexington Station on South Lexington, going up behind (or next to, depending upon your point of view) the gallery on the corner. By the way, remember when that gallery was the Star Bootery? I loved that place.

I’m not sure what I think about all these fancy condos. On the one hand, having people live downtown helps feed the vibrancy that we all know makes downtown of the most eclectic, exciting downtowns in North Carolina. And this sort of “in-fill” development stands as a much nicer addition to town, rather than continued sprawl.

The flipside – Ashvegas is changing before our eyes. Old locations fall beneath the crawl of the bulldozer and the power of the wrecking ball. The housing that’s going up caters to really just one demographic – rich white people who can afford to pay $700,000 for a downtown condo. I’m not crazy about rich white people taking over my downtown.

Apparently there’s no stopping this trend, so we’ll just stand back and watch. What do you think?