Fayetteville works for new parking deck

City, private landowners negotiate over downtown depot lot for structure

FAYETTEVILLE — City officials, engineers and private landowners will work over the next month or so on the specifics of putting another parking deck downtown.

City Attorney Kit Williams updated the council Tuesday on the progress of negotiations between the city and private landowners of the depot lot northwest of Dickson Street and West Avenue downtown. Council members authorized Williams to pursue negotiations following a 5-3 vote Jan. 21.

“Nothing is clear or solid at this point in time. It’s a very complex matter,” Williams said. “A public-private partnership is always difficult.”

The proposal that the council saw from real estate broker Sterling Hamilton, representing landowners Greg House and the Bank of Fayetteville, would have a five-story parking deck facing West Avenue, with the first floor being commercial. A police substation also would go there.

At the southeast corner of the lot would sit a five-floor hotel, which would include the bank.

The train depot building with a Chipotle restaurant and the freight building with Arsaga’s restaurant would remain on the lot’s west side. A transit hub would go north of Arsaga’s.

The city would swap land south of Dickson Street, at the northern end of the civic space, with House to build some type of commercial or mixed-use building.

Williams said he met with House on Tuesday. The sides still need to work out the terms before the council is presented a contract, Williams said.

The council hired engineering firm Olsson for $634,000 to do engineering work associated with the deck, wherever it goes.

The Walton Arts Center parking lot will become a civic green space once the cultural arts corridor is built downtown. Voters approved building the arts corridor during an April bond election.

The council was presented two options to build a parking deck to replace the 290 spaces lost: the depot lot, or the cityowned lot on North School Avenue, across the street from the Spring Street deck.

If the council cannot agree to terms with the owners of the depot lot, city staff would go to work on building it on School Avenue. No council members said they were opposed to that option during the Jan. 21 meeting.

Williams told the council that House is proposing just the first floor of the deck be commercial, rather than having a separate building line the outside of the deck facing West Avenue. The city’s bond attorneys say private developers could build within the city’s deck, as long as those costs come from them, and not the bond money voters approved, Williams said.

The sides also talked about the possibility of putting parking associated with the hotel on top of the city’s parking spaces on the deck, Williams said. Williams expressed concern over the parking deck essentially serving the hotel rather than the public, as originally intended.

It also may be possible there would be one access point for the deck, facing West Avenue, Williams said. The proposal previously called for at least two.

Engineers will survey the depot lot and do geotechnical work to analyze the ground beneath, Williams said.

House said before Tuesday’s meeting with the city that he wants to be sure what he’s proposing can be built before agreeing to anything. He said he plans to address the City Council at a future agenda session to present more specifics.

Williams also told the council that House wants the “air rights” over the depot and freight buildings, meaning the ability to build over them. Several council members and Mayor Lioneld Jordan expressed opposition to that idea.