Reports of the death of the Scaleybark transit-oriented development were, as Mark Twain might have said, greatly exaggerated.
Two of the original three development groups are back in the game: Scaleybark Partners, led by Peter A. Pappas of Pappas Properties, and as of last week, Crosland.
After a Bank of America-led development group pulled out April 9, Scaleybark Partners, which had pulled out in February, asked to get back into the negotiations. Its new proposal is squishier on whether it is committing to build some of the things the city says it wants: affordable housing, and a parking deck. It doesn’t say it won’t build them, but doesn’t nail down that it will.
And last week, a group that had dropped out even before Scaleybark Partners, led by Crosland, wrote the city asking to get back into negotiations, too.
Here’s a link to the Scaleybark Partners proposal. At last Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council’s Economic Development and Planning Committee, the committee decided to recommend that the council tonight (Monday) vote to keep negotiating with the Pappas group.
But that evening the Crosland letter arrived (here’s a link to the new offer from Crosland). It says it’s offering $6.4 million for the 17 acres of city-owned and Charlotte Area Transit System-owned land.
The Pappas offer is for $3 million for the CATS land, 9 acres, and $3.1 million for the 8 acres the city owns. But the 8 city-owned acres would be in a Phase II, on or before Oct. 1, 2012.
And with this kind of deal, the purchase price you see isn’t always an apples-to-apples comparison with another deal. Which is a fancy way of saying I don’t know if the Crosland proposal really is more money for the city or not.
Jamie Banks, the communications/marketing manager for the city’s Economic Development office, tells me it’s off the agenda for City Council tonight. Want to see what IS on the agenda? Here’s a link.