Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here’s a look at drawings depicting a new 50-room boutique hotel that’s proposed for Patton Avenue in the former Bank of America building across from Pritchard Park.
The project plans for The Parisian are those of MRK Property Property Development. The development company, with offices in Asheville, Miami and Charlotte, bought the 1970’s-era office building a few years ago for $2.7 million. The company, which owns the former S&W building adjacent to the bank building, also bought the old Windsor Hotel building on Broadway several years ago and remodeled that into a boutique hotel with ground-floor retail space. The company is now selling units in The Windsor as condos.
Here’s a description of The Parisian from the MRK website:
Three buildings in the heart of Asheville’s historic downtown tourist area combine to make up the Parisian Hotel. MRK is in the process of developing a 50-room, 5-star luxury boutique hotel by assembling and renovating these buildings. Existing architectural plans provide for a 5-star restaurant, event space, meeting rooms, gallery and a full service spa as well as an exercise facility.
In recent meetings with adjacent property owners, the developers are telling folks they want to start renovations next fall.
Downtown Asheville has been a hotbed of new hotel construction over the past couple of years. So far this year, two new hotels have opened – The Hyatt Place on Haywood Street and the Hilton Garden Inn at the corner of College and Charlotte streets. Construction is underway on three others – a Cambria Suites on Page Avenue, an AC Hotel on the corner of Broadway and College streets, and The Arras (the former BB&T).
downtown IS a tourist area. duh.
Fisher Caudle, you’re so funny!
Not just for tourists, is the point here, Fisher. Why, here’s one spunky local, using the downtown area for political speech:
bit.ly/2gEAa4y
Darn those “Democracks”, eh, Fisher?
Just doin’ his part in this greatest of all democracies.
Oh, the irony of a pricey 5 star hotel with a view of bums and rastafarians in Pritchard Park. Seems we have definitely achieved “urban” status.
Just FYI, the Windsor is no longer selling the units as condos..
Thank you for the update
That’s nice they’re giving the rats nearly a full year notice to find other accommodations.
Thank the gods… no new hotels announced in over a week… we could all die shivering in the dark… etc. Yawn.
I think this might be the first time I’ve heard the phrase “historic downtown tourist area”. Yuck.
I thought this project first came up a couple years ago and then was canceled when the county decided to build the new social services building right behind it.
Why would the social services building effect the hotel if the entrance is on the opposite side? If anyone would be affected by that building, it would be the Ethiopian restaurant, the BeBe Theater, etc.
Coincidentally, the last time I attended a show at the BeBe, two panhandlers came begging, and the social services building wasn’t even open yet. A Harbinger of things to come…?
You realize that the social services building was already there, has been there for years, and is still functioning throughout the construction process, right? People don’t stop needing assistance just because construction is happening . . .
No, I did not realize this. It certainly explains my experience.
This is all on record.
http://ashevilleblade.com/?p=953
Byron Greiner complained that the social services building and the transit center concentrated “undesirables” in that part of downtown, and wanted the social services moved out of downtown and the property sold. He said that MRK was going to put condos there instead. (Greiner, let’s remember, is one of the unelected ruling class of Asheville.)
Let’s just treat everything MRK says as BS, and that they were just waiting it out to see what happened while letting the building become Rat Central. I bet they’ll tell their guests to use the DHHS parking deck as well.
Thank you for this, luther
About 2 years ago, the developers stated they wanted the social services department moved out of downtown because they were concerned it brought too many panhandlers. I guess they opposed the county’s building the expansion, because they percieved it as doubling down on the existing location instead of moving to keep “those people” away from the tourists. http://ashevilleblade.com/?p=953
They then tried to sell the property for a while.
http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/07/29/answer-man-old-bank-america-building/30843481/
I guess now either they weren’t able to sell it, or they decided that the social services building isn’t as much of an issue as they thought? Perhaps they realized that even though it’s close as the bird flies, it’s actually pretty far away as the tourist walks, or that it really isn’t the source of panhandlers, or maybe other potential buyers were scared away by the same social services boogeyman that spooked them in the first place?
Thank you for this reminder, orluz
Hmm. Would delaying the renovation work until late 2017 also mean that it’d be assessed by the county for property taxes in its current state or as a “work in progress” and not as the finished hotel? Back when the Bank of America was still located there, the assessment was over $5m, but that nearly halved when they moved out. (The recorded sale price was actually $3.25m in 2014; the current county valuation is $2.7m.)
I still think they’re hedging their bets with this property (as with the Windsor) to see what happens when all the other hotels open.
You can bet that one of the things that will happen is that they will all band together & demand that the City do something about all those scruffy “non-tourists” spoiling the “Asheville experience” for the paying customers.
BTW, a quick google search shows that MRK is the only entity anywhere using the phrase “downtown tourist area” regarding Asheville…