Located at the corner of Weaver and Greensboro Streets in the heart of downtown Carrboro, a vacant lot has been the subject of contentious debates — but no developments — for many years. But last week, the Carrboro Town Council held a public hearing about what the future of that land will be.
The building that once occupied the 201 North Greensboro site had been home to a bank before Weaver Street Market bought it in 2002. It later housed organizations like WCOM-FM radio and the Weaver Community Housing Association. The last tenant, WCOM, left in May of 2010, and Weaver Street Market sold the vacant building a month later to Revco, a subsidiary of CVS Pharmacy.
Shortly thereafter, CVS announced plans for a brand new two-story pharmacy building, a proposal that drew widespread public opposition. That opposition culminated on the night of February 4, 2012, when an anarchist group calling itself the Carrboro Commune (inspired by the then-prominent Occupy movement) occupied the building in protest.
After an hours-long standoff, demonstrators left the building peacefully only after multiple entreaties from then-Mayor Mark Chilton. The Commune’s actions drew widespread criticism – and Chilton drew praise for standing them down – but the protest also underscored the strength of opposition to the CVS plan. Developers withdrew their proposal the following February.
But the old building remained, still vacant and decaying, for an additional three years – now surrounded by a chain-link fence, put up after the Commune’s demonstration. The building was finally demolished in 2016, but the empty lot remained, with no clear plans for its future.
In 2019, though, local developer Beacon Properties purchased the property from CVS, and came forward in 2020 with its plan for a three-story commercial and retail building – one that has met with much more public support.
Existing conditions for the 201 North Greensboro lot. (via Coulter Jewell Thames)
Site plans for 201 North Greensboro. (via Coulter Jewell Thames)
At last week’s Carrboro Town Council meeting, developer Jeremy Anderson said plans are not much different from the ones the council saw previously.
“The plan you saw back in 19, honestly, has not changed that much since then,” Anderson said. “It has just been kind of a slow process working through. Again, we all know that this, this was the old bank pad. This is the parking lot. I hope everyone is excited to see the fence come down if something new happened there.”
Carrboro Development Review Administrator Marty Roupe spoke at the council meeting about the proposed design of the new building.
“0.51 acres in size, 16,185 square feet and three stories, 42 feet high for the [dimensions of] proposed building,” Roupe said. “Parking information: What is proposed is 41 parking spaces.”
Carrboro Mayor Damon Seils spoke with 97.9 The Hill about what comes next for the project from the town government’s side.
“The public hearing is open,” Seils said. “I believe the first week in June is when we’ll take it up again. We had some good community engagement, a lot of folks came out to talk about it. So we’re looking forward to learning more.”
To learn more about the plans, click here.
Aaron Keck contributed to reporting. Photo via Beacon Properties Group.
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