Our Opinion: Deck shuffles along | Editorial


It only seems as if they’ve been putting up a new parking deck for forever in downtown Greensboro.

The five-story, $37 million February One deck, to be joined at the hip with a planned hotel, has seen such a long, tortured slog into existence that you begin to wonder if building the pyramids was this much trouble.

As the News & Record’s Brianna Atkinson reported Sunday, so far the deck has been five years in the making, not counting the fits and starts that preceded the project.

Then there’s the cherry on top, a new Westin Hotel that will be attached to the deck.

Long story short, site work on the project finally did begin in 2019. Now the question is when it will end.

Now we’re told April 2023. We’ll see. We’ve been given target dates before. And they have come and gone before.

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There has been a lawsuit and skepticism and political intrigue and even underground tunnels.

Then there was COVID, and the complications that seem to come with public-private ventures (public deck, private hotel).

When all is said and done it may all have been worth it.

The deck has been designed to include spaces for retail businesses and restaurants. If it all comes together, downtown might finally get the beachhead it needs for major development to the east, beyond Elm Street.

But this project has tested both this community’s patience and trust.

The idea for the hotel actually was hatched 13 years ago, in 2009, and targeted originally for the South Elm Street/Gate City Boulevard area.

Without going into too much detail, there were threats of political reprisals for City Council members who didn’t support federal bond financing. There were sharp words, apologies and resets.

There also was a lot of second-guessing. Opponents challenged whether the demand for parking in downtown Greensboro warranted another taxpayer-funded deck. And whether the demand for rooms warranted another hotel in downtown Greensboro.

What’s different now from before is that Greensboro has seen a string of successes since the hotel was conceived 13 years ago:

  • The Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts once raised similar questions about costs and delays.
  • The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is planning an expansion.
  • Greensboro developer Roy Carroll has opened both the Carroll at Bellemeade apartments and a Hyatt Place hotel near First National Bank Field.
  • And Project Slugger, a nine-story, 117,160-square-foot office tower, now looms over right field next to the ballpark.

Further, this isn’t the only potentially game-changing project that has taken its sweet time getting done.

Bailey Village at Downtown East, a transformational mixed-use development on East Market Street, took longer than a K-12 education (plus three years of college).

The United House of Prayer bought the property in 2005 but construction of apartments and shops on the 13.7-acre site didn’t begin until 15 years later.

So, while the wait sometimes has been excruciating, at least we now know that big things can get done in Greensboro.

Finally, where there was a big empty space the deck is taking shape. The question now is when, not whether.

That said, as we’ve noted before during this saga, more clarity and transparency would have gone a long way.

The numbers cited to justify the deck have been murky at best, including the city’s contention that part of the need stemmed from an expected increase in Lincoln Financial employees (which the company never confirmed).

And the City Council in 2017 approved moving ahead with the project even though the last comprehensive study of downtown parking demand at the time was 7 years old. Two months later a study projected that the city’s downtown decks would be 51% to 90% full by 2023. But it was done by the company that designed the deck (not exactly the most objective observer).

Small wonder all these twists and turns haven’t exactly inspired public trust.

Yet, this may turn out to be a resounding success anyway, like the Greensboro Aquatic Center, which was rushed into construction without sufficient due diligence.

Despite our reservations, we’re hoping so. But whatever the outcome, this process has been excruciatingly opaque when it didn’t have to be.

In building this deck, the city has chipped away at the public’s confidence.




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Jorge Oliveira

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketing-online-ireland/ https://muckrack.com/jorge_oliveira

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