Politics

Hendersonville candidates Q&A

By Bill Moss, Published: October 24, 2013

What do you think should be done with the Grey Hosiery Mill property?

BARBARA VOLK: I'd like to see it redeveloped. City Council has struck out twice. We worked with a process and offered it to one developer and he came back and told us, 'Sorry, we're having business problems. We're not doing anything.' The latest one, we offered it to a developer to see if they could work something out with Wingate because I really wanted to see Wingate stay downtown. For a lot of reasons we were not able to do that. We're open to suggestions. We'll be discussing what it would take to just sell it to someone who could use it. I would like to see it put back into operation in some fashion in some type of public use."

RON STEPHENS: "Both (studies) told them that (a hotel and convention center) would not work there. Why did you spend $50,000 on a study about building a hotel? What's the difference? Are people going to stay in a hotel when they won't stay in an apartment? And these (proposed by White-Challis) were not super-expensive apartments. There is a big demand for apartments in this town. ... At our (real estate) last sales meeting, there were two people from agencies saying they have clients looking for property near or in Hendersonville for apartments. There is a big demand for them and they would work down there. This was a personal vote. This was not based on sound business."

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JEFF COLLIS: "We've tried to look at different uses and it just hasn't panned out. It's a taxpayer owned property, and with all the rental vacancies that we see on Grove Street ... I don't see luxury condos that have rents 100 percent higher than any of the normal rents being taken up next to the future site of the jail. There's nothing you can tell me that will change my attitude on that because I'm there every day. ... I just don't think it would be good use of the building to give it to developer that has vacant property. That's one proposal (the Challis White group, which includes Hendersonville developer Jim Hall) that's floating around. A couple of council members support giving the building to him and I think that's a horrible way to use taxpayer-owned property. I just hope folks will educate themselves on what's going around behind the scenes and get involved when we start discussing it again."

Diane CaldwellJERRY SMITH: "We've had three strikes, and I feel like we've struck out. ... I think at this point I would suggest we sell it, and if the developer would like to have some sort of historic easement on it, for tax purposes, fine, we'll put it on it. I agree with Jeff (Collis) that if someone wants this building they're going to have to pay for it. At this point I feel like we have given the best effort to try to assert the City Council's oversight as to what goes there and it just didn't work. So at this point I am in favor of auctioning the property with sealed bids. As I have said many times, if someone were to walk in the door with their checkbook and write us a check I am ready to talk."

JEFF MILLER: "I'd like to see us quit doing all the studies, other than the environmental study. I don't think we should give it away unless to build there would cost a ridiculous amount. I don't know how much of it is really architecturally worth saving considering the cost of renovating it. I differ somewhat on Jeff's opinion of rentals. If you go on the other side of the jail, those apartments on Grove Street are 100 percent occupied. There's rents like $1,700 a month on some of them. So I don't want to draw a line because of an issue with one person in a group of investors that are wanting to do this. ... The city does not have to accept the bid, if it comes in if it's ridiculously low."

DIANE CALDWELL: "I have heard so much about the mill building in the past few years. We have gone from one project to another project. This is not going to be popular, I understand that. Hendersonville is dealing with parking issues downtown. Flatten the mill building and put a two-story parking deck there, something that would be conducive to the design of downtown Hendersonville. I don't know what the expense would be, I don't know the square footage, that's just something I'm putting out there. If we're going to sell it, the city needs to decide what they want to get out of it. I don't think it should be put out for bid without a minimum cost."