Demolition beginning, new downtown apartments coming

Demolition begins Monday on the old North State Chevrolet site at 451 N. Eugene Street in downtown Greensboro to make way for the Greenway at Stadium Park apartments, according to a press release sent out today. Construction is scheduled to start in September and the 70 "exclusive" and "luxury" apartments are supposed to open next summer.

The four-story apartment building will be sandwiched between the Greenway at Fisher Park apartments — a relatively new complex built by the same developer —and the Greensboro Grasshoppers stadium near the northern edge of downtown. The Stadium Park apartments will share some amenities with the Greenway at Fisher Park apartments but will boast some additions, including a second pool.

The portion of the downtown greenway (the inspiration for the complexes' names) along Smith Street, between the to complexes, is partially completed and more work is scheduled by the end of the year. Construction has already begun on the nearby northwest cornerstone of the greenway, and the area has seen other recent changes including the addition of Deep Roots Market and the relocation of the Boston House of Jazz to 125 Summit Avenue in downtown.

There's more action going on in the area, and we'll post an update once we have details.

Council to consider funding shovel ready industrial sites

In a letter earlier today (March 30) to interim Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth, Assistant City Manager Andy Scott outlined three proposals submitted to the city for financial assistance from private developers.

"We have received three proposals for assistance in developing shovel ready industrial sites," he wrote. "Council will call a public hearing at its meeting on April 3, 2012. The sites will be considered and an award made at the April 16, 2012, Council meeting. Over the next three weeks, City staff will evaluate the proposals based on "

The first and largest request for funds listed is from the Carroll Companies for Birch Creek Business Park, costing $5,360,766. Simpson Schulman & Beard submitted one for Rock Creek Center costing $1,615,00 and the third came from Samet Corporation for $2.5 million for Triad Business Park.

At a special council meeting March 27, Scott told council there were four new sites the city could look at for shovel ready development, naming the three listed above as week as 310 acres at Reedy Fork Ranch. It is unclear why only three sites are included in his letter.

Scott's letter was included in the city's IFYI report released this afternoon.