Next step in parcels purchase approved
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 5, 2016 1:46 PM
During the work session of the Goldsboro City Council Monday night, the council unanimously approved allowing the city to accept a letter of intent from Second Act Communities to purchase two parcels of property in the downtown area.
Second Act Communities is looking to purchase 207 and 219 S. Center St. for $250,000 for the purpose of developing a mixed-use retail and residential building on the site in the future.
By approving the acceptance of Second Act Communities' letter of intent, the property enters a 10-day upset bid process immediately.
"At the end of the 10 days we would come back (to the council) and talk about terms, and if the council wants to accept the offer or not, and what kind of terms the council would want to have," said City Manager Scott Stevens. "As we've shared before and shared with the community, we want a pretty specific developmental expectation before we transfer (the property), and make sure we have that in place before the project moves forward."
The city acquired the two parcels of property in 2006 for $450,000, with the intention of the lots becoming a recreation center.
Then, with the creation of the downtown master plan in 2007, that intention changed to envision the development of mixed-use residential properties funded by private investment in that area.
"Both of these properties being under the city's ownership since the time of the acquisition, they have brought no tax revenue to the city," said Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. Director Julie Metz.
Second Act Communities held a meeting, which was open to the public, on Feb. 24. The purpose of the meeting was to educate the community about the vision for the potential mixed-use development and loop the community in early on the process.
About 40 people attended the meeting, listening to presentations and tossing questions to representatives from the Virginia Beach, Va., based non-profit company.
"That meeting was very well, and it was about an hour and a half to a two hour long meeting, where everybody had a chance to express concerns or ask any questions about the project," Ms. Metz said. "Representatives with Second Act were very patient and informative and interested in hearing the feedback. I think overall at the end of the meeting, everybody felt pretty comfortable with the information that was shared."
Second Act Communities met with Stevens and Ms. Metz roughly two weeks ago, and an official letter of intent from the company to purchase the property -- the same one that was approved by the City Council Monday night -- was received by Stevens from Second Act Communities on March 23.
The company is projecting a $15 million to $20 million investment to build the mixed-use retail and residential structure, should the project be allowed to move forward after the bid process.
At the low end of the potential investment spectrum, a $15 million investment would bring tax revenue to the city in the amount of $97,500, and would see slightly more than $35,000 funneled into the city's Municipal Service District fund.
"Just to remind you, this is intended to be a mixed-use, multi-family residential apartment complex with commercial space reserved on the first floor on the street frontage of Center Street. The apartments are to be market rate," Ms. Metz said.
Market rate rent for apartments in downtown Goldsboro is in the range of $900 to $950 per month for one and two bedroom apartments. There are currently 122 apartment units downtown, 80 of which are affordable senior housing and 42 of which are market rate apartments.
Future construction on the development would not begin until a design is reached that the community agrees on. Ms. Metz said Second Act Communities is looking to create a design that is acceptable to the community and fits in with the downtown area.
There would be no binding agreements to allow a development to be built on the parcels of property until final design plans are approved by the city.