Clay Grubb, the CEO of Grubb Properties in Charlotte, has two major developments happening in Chapel Hill after the town has shifted to a more supportive stance to encourage positive growth and change.
His company has begun Phase 2 of the Glen Lennox redevelopment and is in the beginning stages of an East Rosemary Street venture in downtown.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity and brings back nightmares of the first time I tried to build a road in Chapel Hill 20 years ago,” Grubb told 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. “As we literally sold off the development site, I told my brother we would never, ever build in Chapel Hill. So to find myself building here is kind of ironic.
“The town has done a wonderful job of appreciating that development is not an easy business. If you want to attract the best developers, you need to work with them. And you need to be supportive of them; obviously, you want to be very strict upfront about what’s getting developed, but once you agree it’s very important that everybody then row in the same direction and try to get it done quickly and efficiently so that there’s less disruption for the neighbors, less disruption for the traffic. And obviously you can get it on the tax rolls and start having a positive impact in the community.”
Grubb received some initial pushback for the re-envisioned plans for Glen Lennox, the iconic two- and three-bedroom community which opened to accommodate the flood of World War II veterans going to UNC on the GI Bill.
“When Franklin Street was first built, I’m sure it was controversial because it wasn’t like that 200 years ago,” Grubb said. “So you’ve got to always be evolving. The reality is you just can’t go into some of these old buildings and provide what is necessary today in this high-tech research-oriented world. It’s the same with living spaces at Glen Lennox. We’d love to preserve the existing buildings, but then I get a call from a tenant who can’t open their closet door because of the settling, and they’ve got mildew issues and things that just come when you’re 60, 70, 80 years old. And so we’ve got to continue to evolve.”
The next phases of Glen Lennox include more green space, bringing in new trees and landscapes to replicate what is there today. Next, will be to take down some vacant apartments that are not up to standard and rehabbing those that were constructed on higher ground. Eventually, the Shopping Center on 54 West coming into town will be renovated or redone in the current motif, which is reflected in the Phase 1 clubhouse next to Link Apartments Linden.
Grubb Properties’ projects downtown will be commercial and lab space accompanied by another Link Apartments community.
“We would hope to do around 150 of Link Apartments that are really focused on folks who earn between 60% and 140% median income,” Grubb said. “They’re smaller apartments than the average. So it’s a lot of young professionals who otherwise really don’t have that opportunity to live in and around downtown.”
Grubb is highly enthusiastic about the future of downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro. He is part of the plan to solve the downtown parking problem by having fewer cars and spaces that can be used by people working and visiting in Chapel Hill at different parts of the day.
“So many communities are designed for the car as opposed to the human, and it’s humans that use this space and we have to get out of designing everything for the car and for the people who can use it,” Grubb continued. “And what’s the best way to get around? You can move about 10 times more people in the same amount of space than you can if they’re in cars versus walking and on bikes.
“And I would hope that evolution would include a bike path from Chatham County to downtown. But we have to have bike paths in downtown before we can build the connectors outside of downtown, because the study we did said something like 54 bike paths aren’t connected to each other in and around Chapel Hill. And so just building those connections will get more and more people out, and the safer it is to bike the more people will bike. So that’s a big one.”
Grubb says downtown is the right place to focus on because people can live and work there while accommodating the smallest number of cars.
“It is gonna be exciting and I think in general it’s a great time to be in Chapel Hill. The reality is not only will the town manage it so that it can be used more 24-7, you don’t need everybody having to have their own isolated parking spaces. You’ll find that as it densifies, people need less and less parking.”
Grubb Properties has already leveled the dark parking deck on Rosemary Street and will be building a new parking area for several hundred cars under the life science center, so people who work there can park by day and those spaces will become available for those coming to eat and enjoy Chapel Hill at night.
“Their first impression’s actually going to be Rosemary Street because that’s where they’re parking, which is great because that forces them out of their cars,” said Grubb. “So, by the time they get to Franklin street, they’re on foot. They’re looking, they’re observing, they’re interacting, they’re spending money and they’re engaged. It’s gonna be great to have people actually parking two blocks away and having all 50,000 of them now on foot walking up and down Franklin Street.
“If I could walk out of 150 Rosemary and go 10 blocks and sit outside in front of Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, 10 blocks is nothing. Everybody in New York walks 10 blocks for lunch. Many of them walk 20. Here it’s like three blocks is considered a long hike and that is because it’s not entertaining, it’s not exciting and it’s not safe. And so if we can design for humans to interact and enjoy it and bring back the arts and encourage these things that make it so that when you say, ‘Hey, I live in downtown Chapel Hill,’ nobody can stereotype who you are other than hopefully a Tar Heel.”
Clay Grubb and Brighton McConnell
“Glen Lennox Stories” is a series on Chapelboro sponsored by Grubb Properties
What the article fails to mention is the lack of ‘walkability’ for those in wheelchairs or using rollators (walkers with wheels). There are many senior citizens who would love to come downtown if getting around was more feasible. And, btw, those seniors often have disposable income they would be happy to share with downtown merchants.
Further Note: In the Orange County Visitors Bureau guide “Current Orange County Restaurant and Farm Market Operations” not a single business (out of 195) that is listed as ‘dine in’ mentions whether they are handicapped accessible or wheelchair accessible (not the same, btw). It would seem that perhaps there really is not much interest in attracting that certain segment of our population after all.
I’d love to hear about how redevelopment of Glen Lennox will affect housing affordability in Chapel Hill. Will there be a net gain or loss of affordable units?