Fayetteville council OK arts section parking deck contract

FAYETTEVILLE — The City Council approved the final piece needed to build the arts corridor parking deck before a shovel can go into the ground.

Council members voted 5-2 during a special meeting Tuesday to approve a contract with Nabholz Construction for the guaranteed maximum cost of the deck. The council previously voted on the contract Dec. 7, but it failed 3-3. Mayor Lioneld Jordan called the special meeting after council member D’Andre Jones asked to reconsider his vote.

The overall cost of the deck is projected to be $13.2 million. In 2018, administrators estimated the deck would cost $10 million. The covid-19 pandemic has caused labor and supply chain shortages in construction, resulting in a cost overrun, administrators said.

Mark Kinion and Teresa Turk stuck with their no votes Tuesday. Jones, Sonia Gutierrez Harvey, Sloan Scroggin, Sarah Bunch and Holly Hertzberg all voted in favor.

With the vote, the land deal can close between the city and private owners of the lot northwest of Dickson Street and West Avenue, where the deck is to be located, said Susan Norton, Jordan’s chief of staff. Jordan said he plans to sign the deal in the coming days.

After that, work can start at the site.

Ted Belden, one of the owners of the lot the city intends to use for the deck, said Tuesday’s vote was three years in the making.

The City Council in December 2018 set the date for the special election in which voters approved a $31.6 million bond issue to create a cultural arts corridor downtown with an associated parking deck. The bond language voters approved in April 2019 did not specify a location or dollar amount for the deck but said it would be finished before 25 or more spaces at the Walton Arts Center lot could be removed to create the civic space of the arts corridor.

The deck will replace the 290 spaces lost once the Walton Arts Center lot becomes the civic space, an outdoor gathering spot where artists will be able to perform and sell or display their works. Grass, native vegetation and a canal pumping water from Tanglewood Branch will replace the asphalt of the lot.

Jordan said several downtown merchants support the project and the parking deck, which also will include a police substation so officers can more easily patrol the area. The arts corridor project as a whole will serve as a catalyst of change environmentally, economically and socially for the whole downtown area, he said.

“It’ll be a place where everybody is welcome and everybody can come enjoy the arts and be exposed to the arts, and I think that’s hugely important for this city,” Jordan said.

The land deal between the city, Belden and co-owner Greg House and Farmers and Merchants Bank has been negotiated since January 2020. The council approved a framework for the deal in March.

Three members of the public spoke in favor of approving the construction contract: Jerry Davis, general manager of 21st Amendment, Roger’s Rec, Los Lobos and West End; Peter Lane, president and CEO of the Walton Arts Center; and Brian Crowne, owner of George’s Majestic Lounge.

Both Turk and Kinion said they supported the arts but had issues with some specifics. Turk said she didn’t like the secondary components of the land deal involving swapping public land for private use and a lack of transparency involved in the process. Kinion said he wanted the private landowners to take on more responsibility to cover the cost overrun.

Bunch said she recalled several meetings spanning months in which the land deal was discussed. The city also hired a real estate attorney to help negotiate the deal. Bunch said she felt she didn’t need to be directly involved in the intricacies after the council already approved a framework for the deal.

“I don’t like overruns either. Nobody does,” she said. “But with the economy right now, everything is costing so much more.”