News

Fairmont Cedars is most visible of work transforming downtown's north end

By Bill Moss, Published: January 26, 2023

Ron Stephens, then a Hendersonville City Council member, announced his candidacy for mayor 10 years ago with praise for the city’s robust economy and its growing popularity for both retirees and younger professionals.

Hendersonville, he said, was on the verge of a “new golden age” 100 years after the development of much of the downtown and the advent of the city’s tourism economy.

All that was before the new development that the city will see in the coming three years. Nowhere is the changing face of the City of Four Seasons more visible than on Church and King Streets between U.S. 64 and Five Points. In that three-block stretch, townsfolk have already welcomed the completion of the $60 million Hendersonville High School addition and renovation, the adding of an artificial football field and the reopening of its historic auditorium with the Bearcat red drapes.
Next up are:
• The repaving of King Street later this year from the railroad tracks on the south end to Five Points, repaving of North Main from there to the Clear Creek bridge over I-26 and the repaving of Church Street this year and next.
• The demolition of Fire Station 1 and construction of a new fire station on the Boyd Park site.
• The demolition of the old Girl Scout cabin and the makeover of Edwards Park as the new home of a new Laura E. Corn Minigolf attraction.
• A complete renovation of the Hedrick-Rhodes VFW Post 5206 at Five Points, featuring a catering kitchen, public meeting space and veterans services.
• The demolition of the Chariot and three other buildings around the Cedars and construction of as many as four six-story towers in the Fairmont Heritage Place development.

Edwards Park, new fire station in the works

“The projects are up and running,” City Manager John Connet of the work under construction manager Edifice on the fire station and Edwards Park projects. “Notice to proceed has been issued as of Jan. 2 for both projects. It’s going to take approximately one year to construct the mini-golf, maybe a little bit ahead, not quite a year. And the fire station may take a little more than a year.”
The $4.3 million VFW renovation, a county project funded by American Rescue Plan money, is expected to be completed by June 2024.
All of those public projects will be dwarfed by the new Fairmont resort, a transformative downtown project that promises to add a pool, spa, shops, five-star restaurant, sports bar and meeting space to a 3½-acre site surrounding the historic Cedars.
Toronto-based Fairmont announced the partnership with Miami real estate developer Gregg Covin last June to build the Hendersonville resort. Covin had been exploring the Cedars property for a potential development as back as 2018. He has partnered with the Shipmans and investor Brian M. Gaines to make the vision a reality. Covin is married to Shelley Shipman, the daughter of Cedars owners Fran and Tom Shipman.
Elizabeth Wilson Pauer is sales gallery director for the Fairmont Heritage Place The Cedars.Phase 1 is under way now with construction expected to start soon on the first two towers containing 130 condos. Fairmont is pre-selling condos now at prices ranging from $400,000 to $3.8 million and options that include studio (491-531 square feet), one bedroom (875 square feet), two-bedroom (1,390 square feet), three-bedroom (1,628-1,808 square feet) and penthouse (up to 3,635 square feet).
“Both of those towers are going to go up (this year) so by the end of 2024 you’ll be able to move into the Pisgah, which is behind the Cedars, and then the Dupont, which is where the Chariot was, in March of 2025,” said Elizabeth Wilson Pauer, who is sales gallery director. Roughly 35 to 40 percent of the units in phase 1 have sold, she said.
“I would say (buyers are from) Florida but then we also have Texas,” she said. “We have a couple from New York. We have a couple of locals.”
What’s the attraction?
“They love the area,” Pauer said. “They love the amenities. They love the perks of Fairmont.”
Condo owners get a 20 percent discount at other properties owned by Fairmont, which has 81 hotels worldwide, and its parent company, Accor, as well as other VIP benefits. Condo owners can swap their units for stays at other Accor properties and they can rent their units to guests when they’re away.
Phase 2 would add two more towers, bringing the total units to 244.
“Depending on how well this goes — which, so far, it’s going very well — Gregg wants to do another tower, the same kind of layout, where Autobell is,” Pauer said. (The developers also own the Autobell property.)
A fourth tower, if it comes to pass, would be where the sales office currently sits, at 739 N. Main St., between Bank of America and the Charleston Inn.

While there’s no doubt that some local residents are distressed by his most visible new symbol of the city’s new Golden Age, the developers point out that project has deep local roots, and they say the city ought to take pride in having been chosen as its home.
“This is a family business,” said Pauer, who was hired as a sales manager by Tom and Fran Shipman’s daughter Amy. (Along with her twin sister Amy, Pauer has been lifelong friends with Amy Shipman.) “We have partnered with Fairmont. Fairmont is known worldwide. It’s a huge hotel brand. They've picked Hendersonville to be the first one in the Southeast U.S. It's not Asheville. This is going to be a very nice luxury five-star establishment."