Asheville residents protest proposed 20-story hotel, cite concerns for historic neighborhood

By Kimberly King

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Asheville City Council is facing backlash over the downtown YMCA redevelopment project that includes a proposed 20-story hotel that would become the tallest building in the city.

Greenville-based developer Steve Navarro, who owns the Furman Co., said Monday the hotel height is allowable according to the city’s master plan, which he said allows for a building up to 265 feet high.

However, 12 members of the East End/Valley Street neighborhood expressed their disappointment and concerns about the 10-acre Project Aspire, which also includes plans for a 19-story office building.

The East End/Valley Street neighborhood stretches from Charlotte Street down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to McCormick Field and has about 2,500 residents. The new hotel would go up just feet from Charlotte Street and be across the street from the city center that houses a Hilton.

“The fact that we continue to be nudged out is a travesty,” Kimberly Collins said. “The fact that they want to build a 20-story building in downtown Asheville, which will make it the largest building in Asheville, is just outrageous.”

“Sit down and listen to what a community is saying,” said Renee White, president of the East End/Valley Street neighborhood.

The neighborhood has a deep history in Asheville and is a historic Black neighborhood with many residents’ families going back generations.

“I would like to see the reparations committee brought in and work as a collaboration,” longtime resident Sharon Greene said.

“City council, you know, had a moratorium on hotels for about a year,” said Ryan Pickens, another longtime resident of the neighborhood. “I just don’t know how we got from a moratorium to a 20-story hotel being put in a historically Black neighborhood. It makes no sense to me.”

The hotel would go on property owned by First Baptist Church, which is doing the project off Charlotte and College streets in partnership with its neighbor, the YMCA.

“First of all, I want to say we are not hotel developers,” Navarro said. “So, we are not the ones benefitting from this being one size or another. There will be a different hotel operator there. The desire for a hotel is to have a conference quality hotel, that downtown Asheville doesn’t have significant enough meeting space.”

Navarro said the plan puts the hotel at a site where city leaders developing a master plan think a building of that size could and should go.

“This site is zoned for a larger hotel,” Navarro said.

Project Aspire also includes plans for apartments.

“We’re building more residential than anyone downtown in one place, almost 600 units, maybe a little over 600 units,” Navarro said.

But in the first phase of the project, just a small portion of that will go up, Navarro said.

“The church and the YMCA are the ones that will have ownership in this and will use these funds to do good for the community. In phase one, the housing will be approximately 150 units, and we’ve committed 30% of those will be affordable at 80% of area median income,” Navarro said.

Experts in the industry tell News 13 that income amount would be about $45,000. Navarro said none of the units in the first phase will be “deeply affordable,” which experts in the industry tell News 13 would be for individuals making significantly less. Navarro said those units would come in phase two of the project, though it’s unclear how many years it could take to get to phase two.

“Every project that includes deeply affordable housing includes subsidies,” which this project does not have, Navarro said.

For White and her neighbors, the issue is about respect. White isn’t opposed to a hotel on the site, she just said the developer and the entities involved weren’t transparent about the fact the project required a profit-making hotel to make the residential piece in both phases work. She and others also don’t want to see a high rise towering over their historic neighborhood.

“If they really want to be serious about collaborating with the community, we should have been in on every phase of this project,” White said.

“I’m really committed to this neighborhood,” said Jim Abbott, who’s lived there 24 years. “But I defer to my Black neighbors that have a stake and know the history. If it’s possible not to vote on this tomorrow, that would be good. We have started the process of talking with the church and the neighborhood. A lot needs to be done to make sure it serves the neighborhood.”

“It seems to me, if they have a real philanthropic mission and they’re committed to that, that they’ll understand that, ultimately, the community here, which is historically Black, does not want this size of development, especially a 20-story hotel,” Ryan Pickens said.

Asheville City Council will have a public hearing on the project tomorrow at City Hall during the regular council meeting.

Rick Freeman, president of the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods, has published a letter expressing support for the East End neighborhood.

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