Developer and small-business owners clash on South Elm St.

A decision on a five-story restaurant and retail complex on South Elm Street ended in acrimony after midnight before the Greensboro City Council hastily adjourned its Jan. 21 meeting, with small business owners berating a city council member and the developer walking out of the room in a huff. The city is considering giving LindBrook Development Services up to $100,000 in incentive grants and selling the developer property that is currently used as a public parking space for $180,150 to allow it to build a five-story complex of restaurants, offices and corporate apartments featuring outdoor dining on the parking-lot side of the structure. The development would take four parking spaces out of circulation, and the city would lease the developer 11 spaces. That was the sticking point for a host of small business owners who said they otherwise supported the project. With the specter of business closings looming over downtown, business owners said having space for their clients to park is critical to their survival, and the city has refused to lease them space in the past. Some also resented the developer receiving incentives after they struggled to build up their property and business investments before the downtown renaissance took place.

“I didn’t have any incentives,” shouted Robin Davis, CEO of Mack and Mack, an apparel factory and retail business on South Elm Street.

At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, a developer himself, had taken an unpopular stand in favor of Lindbrook, and he argued his point from the dais before Bill Heroy, owner of the building adjacent to the proposed project, shouted him down. “You, sir, are very insensitive,” Heroy said. District 4 Councilman Mike Barber added a friendly amendment to a motion to approve the development stipulating that the city would “address the parking issues with haste.”

The motion failed on a 5-4 decision, with Barber, Perkins, District 2 Councilwoman Goldie Wells and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny voting in the minority. As council took a vote to table the matter until Feb. 3, LindBrook Development Services President Jim Marshall stormed out. “They can find the parking,” he said. “I have plenty of other places to employ my assets, believe me.” The parking lot has become a coveted piece of real estate for the businesses — Natty Greene’s, the Green Bean, M’Coul’s and the Green Burro among them — that have created a thriving cluster near the intersection of South Elm and McGee streets.

“That parking lot is the lifeblood of downtown Greensboro,” said Simon Ritchy, who owns the building that houses M’Coul’s and the Green Burro.

John Bailey, co-owner of Bailey’s on Elm, sounded a dire warning. “Me and my sister have invested everything that we have to have a small business in downtown Greensboro,” he said. “The one question that I’m asked by new clients is, ‘Where am I going to park?’… All the clients in the hair salon are mostly women, who come down there by themselves, and they have to get harassed by homeless people.”

Perkins said he preferred to err on the side of bringing new development. He said when developer Roy Carroll completes work on the building now known as CenterPointe, the city needs to have the next major downtown building project in progress. He argued that the parking lot would not be there forever, and the city needs the additional tax revenue.

“Greensboro’s going to grow up,” he said. A couple days after the meeting, Matheny said he hoped Marshall would reconsider the project.

A special meeting was scheduled at Matheny’s request at council chambers in the Melvin Municipal Office Building on Tuesday at 5 p.m. on the incentives request and proposed property sale, but a formal vote will not be taken until the council’s Feb. 3 meeting. Matheny has said several times that he would like to get Acting Transportation Director Adam Fischer and the business owners together to discuss to address the parking shortage.

Among the possible solutions mentioned by Matheny were having the city lease daytime parking to the businesses, adding a second level to remaining parking lot, and having the city lease private parking behind the Cone Export and Commission Building on South Greene Street. Almost all the objections to the project involve parking, Matheny noted, rather than opposition to the building itself.

“I was very adamant about, let’s not lose this development, and let’s deal with the parking situation,” he said.