GREENSBORO — Plans for a multi-million dollar development in downtown Greensboro fell apart this week when the city backed out of a deal with a big-time developer.
Roy Carroll, owner of The Carroll Companies, is responsible for developments across the city including Center Pointe, a 17-story, mixed-use building with luxury condos, located downtown. Born and raised here, he says he loves Greensboro and has a vision for downtown and thinks the city’s move to cancel his company's project is a step backward.
“We’ve got to figure out the direction we want our downtown to go and then we’ve got to put people in charge that understand that and want to make deals happen and look at what’s better for the entire community,” said Carroll.
The development had been planned for Bellemeade Street between Edgeworth and Eugene, across from the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ stadium.
Carroll says phase one would have been a $30 million parking deck. He says phase two would’ve included a 15 to 20-story, mixed-use building with a hotel, offices and retail shops. The total investment was estimated at $110 million.
But the city cancelled with Carroll earlier this week citing conflicts with “Project Slugger.” That’s a planned 6-story office complex set to open on stadium property in late 2019.
The city committed to providing hundreds of parking spaces for Project Slugger and planned to use space at Carroll’s Bellemeade property.
The city says the Bellemeade project’s timeline didn’t match up with Project Slugger’s. Now, the city plans to build a parking deck-only at a nearby property.
Carroll says the city only informed him of time constraints with Project Slugger last week and it doesn’t make sense to cancel his project for a smaller one.
“Why would you punt potentially $110 million project for a 6-story office building? I guess only in Greensboro,” said Carroll.
Interim City Manager David Parrish tells WFMY News 2, although the city and Carroll had been in talks about the project for months, ultimately it was just time to move in another direction.
“I think Mr. Carroll is a tremendous asset to this community and we still intend on having a long-term relationship with that corporation,” said Parrish.
Parrish says the city has invested $300,000 into Carroll’s Bellemeade project. It will be a total loss unless they come back to the project in the future. Carroll tells WFMY News 2, he never says never, but he would have to have some guidelines laid out ahead of time before working on this project with the city again.