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Jason Sandford

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

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Asheville architect Peter Alberice of MHAworks Asheville shows renderings of a mixed-use project planned for downtown called Create 82 Broadway. /photo by Jason Sandford

As usual, there’s plenty of development action happening around Asheville. Here’s a review of six projects that are in the works:

The Aston: Mountain Housing Opportunities proposes to build a 7-story, mixed-use building with 88 affordable residential units and a total of 83,000 square feet of space at the corner of Hilliard and Clingman avenues. Al Sneeden, the developer who recently won Asheville City Council approval for his plan to create a new hotel out of a new building and four existing buildings on Biltmore Avenue, is the project contact. These plans are on the agenda for the next Asheville Technical Review Committee meeting on May 6 and are an updated version of plans first submitted back in early 2018.

The Aston project is not to be confused with another plan right across Hilliard to build 64 condominiums on a city-owned lot that was once home to a maintenance facility adjacent to the Aston Park Tennis Center. That facility has been torn down, and the city is working with Kassinger development group to build a mix of subsidized condo units alongside market-rate condos. The last public update on this project came in November 2018.

The Radview: The Radview is a 22,400-square-foot mixed-use project that includes 26 residential units, including 13 individual studio units, as well as 22 parking spaces and office, retail and artist studio space. The development is proposed for Park Avenue North, a road that winds up off of Roberts Street and behind the N.C. Glass Center and Crucible bar to a little knoll. Jeremy Goldstein is the developer on the project, while Laura Hudson is the architect. The project was recently reviewed by the Asheville Riverfront Redevelopment Commission.

25 Banks Ave. mixed-use project: This project had its initial review at the Asheville Technical Review Committee back in March. It calls for a 6-story, 79,904 square foot, mixed-use building containing 37 residential units and parking located on the corner of Banks and Collier avenues. The property owner is R&M Future Holdings, LLC and the project contact is Michael Goforth.

Create 72 Broadway: Greensboro developer Birju Patel, of BPR Properties, is teaming up with Asheville architect Peter Alberice of MHAworks Architecture and Asheville civil engineer Chris Day of Civil Design Projects for this 7-story, mixed-use project at 72 Broadway Street. There will be 24 condos, 150 hotel rooms, retail and office space, as well as a focus on local artists and their work, according to the developers. The project, called Create 82 Broadway, is planned for the parking lot space adjacent to the Asheville Masonic Temple. It will front on both Broadway and North Market Street and will include a total of about 1 acre of property, 2,351 square feet of commercial office space, 1,250 square feet of retail art space and a rooftop terrace. The development team recently held a neighborhood meeting to get community feedback.

45 South French Broad Avenue project: This project, which was reviewed by the Asheville Downtown Commission at its last meeting, calls for a 3-story addition to the existing building at this location, which is home to Hopey & Co. grocery store, Little Bee Thai restaurant, Grail Moviehouse and Hatch Asheville, a tech start-up incubator. (These plans were first presented back in 2017.) Building owner Charlie Ball told the commission that one level will be devoted to expanding Hatch Asheville; the other two floors will be residential units. Robert Todd of Red House Architecture and his team detailed the plans, which will next go to the Asheville Planning & Zoning Commission for approval.

Sears property redevelopment: A $40 million redevelopment plan for the old Sears property at the Asheville Mall on Tunnel Road is scheduled to be heard again at Asheville City Council on May 28. Planning has been in the works since 2017, but when City Council finally heard the proposal last month, some members expressed concerns, so the developers, Seritage Growth Properties, agreed to go back to the drawing board one more time. I’ll have a complete status update review coming up. Here’s background from the Sears project review by the Asheville Planning & Zoning Commission.

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Jason Sandford

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

  • 1

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6 Comments

  1. Corbu#2 April 30, 2019

    A couple of items to get Chris up to date on:
    1) The Wedge doesn’t own a gravel parking lot. The gravel lot on Depot St used to be part of the Dave Steel property and was sold to the developer of RAD Lofts. The dirt parking lot behind the Wedge belongs to the railroad.
    2) There’s a round about planned for the 5 points intersection and construction should start later this year. The RADview project will be inconsequential to traffic flow in the RAD. It’s just not big enough to make a difference.

    And what’s the worst thing to happen if there’s not enough parking at RADview? Maybe someone will be inconvenienced a little and have to walk farther than they’d like to. Worst case, if a lack of parking is truly a problem, the retail won’t be viable and the developer will have empty stores and no rent coming in. But that’s the developer’s risk to take isn’t it? Accommodating abundant parking any and everywhere is mostly responsible for the sad state of America’s cities and citizens. It doesn’t have to be that way.

    Why do people in Asheville always use the word “nightmare” to describe traffic here? How many times does one hear this? “Traffic is going to be a NIGHTMARE if that project (no matter what it is, apartments, breweries, condos, and god help us if it’s a hotel) gets built”. Granted, there’s a decent amount of traffic in Asheville, but it’s not that bad and everyone has options. One can go a different route, go at a different time, walk, ride a bike, or take a bus to get where they’re going. People can adjust to changing circumstances, especially if we can get better public transportation around here.

    Reply
  2. Corbu#2 April 29, 2019

    All of these developments look great and it will be interesting to hear the noise created by the anti-development and no more hotel crowd. Create 82 Broadway looks like a fantastic project on a site that’s been underutilized and begging for some high density urban redevelopment. RADview is a great looking building and the parking will work itself out.

    Reply
    1. Chris April 29, 2019

      Work itself out? How? Unless Wedge builds a 7 story parking garage on their existing stone lot, how will these magically appear?

      Adding more traffic to the 5 way intersection is going to a nightmare. That NEEDS a traffic circle. That’s going to be nothing but a complete cluster.

      Reply
    2. luther blissett May 9, 2019

      “Create 82 Broadway looks like a fantastic project on a site that’s been underutilized and begging for some high density urban redevelopment.”

      I’m all for mixed use on that site, but it’s another lump of Charlotte Boring that’s the loudly mediocre hallmark of Alberice and Day, slapped between the Masonic Temple and other predominantly brick buildings.

      Reply
  3. Chris April 29, 2019

    Radview – 26 residential units + 13 individual studio units = 22 parking spaces. That math doesn’t make any sense.

    Reply
    1. Big Al April 30, 2019

      The wording “…that includes 26 residential units, including 13 individual studio units…” seems to imply that 13 of the 26 residential units are individual studio units and the other 13 are not. That makes a total of 26 residential units with 22 parking spaces, still not enough but probably the best the developer could do given the terrain.

      RAD residents are pretty dim when it comes to parking anyway. Look at the lot next to 375 Depot Street (the Magnetic Theatre, et.al) right across from apartments above the gym and Eco Depot. A huge, brand spankin’ new lot that is FREE but nobody parks there until AFTER all of the on-street parking has been filled up. I mean, c’mon…

      Reply

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