Interested citizens must wait a little longer to voice comments concerning a proposed hotel project in downtown Mount Airy due to what is termed “unforeseen circumstances.”
The city council had voted during its last meeting on July 1 to schedule a public hearing for this coming Thursday on a development agreement for the project eyed on former Spencer’s textile mill property now owned by the municipality.
But due to a scheduling mixup, a public notice of that July 15 hearing was not published in the newspaper at least 10 days in advance of it as required for matters involving economic development using taxpayer funds.
The public hearing is considered the next key step in plans by a Cary-based entity, Sunhouse Hospitality, LLC, to transform the large Sparger Building fronting Willow Street at the former Spencer’s complex into a boutique hotel.
Sunhouse also is proposing to develop a convention-type market center in a portion of the Cube Building nearby.
“We’re going to reschedule it,” Mayor Ron Niland said Friday of the hearing. He added that it likely will occur during the first meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners in August, which normally would be an afternoon session.
Niland expressed plans to move that to the evening in order to give more citizens a chance to speak.
The actual development agreement has not been prepared, the mayor said Friday, explaining that it is still being worked on by attorneys for the city government and developer.
One site-related change in the project’s scope has been made which involves a drawing. “But it doesn’t change anything materially,” Niland added.
The mayor has said the proposed development agreement, once finished, will contain no deviations from what has been announced previously concerning the hotel/market center plans.
Sunhouse, which presently owns and manages Hampton Inn by Hilton on Rockford Street, was granted an option in March to buy the former Spencer’s property involved for $350,000. The new uses it envisions have a potential estimated tax value of about $10 million.
Infrastructure improvements totaling about $2.9 million have been identified in connection with the hotel/market center development, around $1.63 million of which would provide parking areas at the project site.
Surry County officials have agreed to fund $1.5 million of the total along with Mount Airy.
Niland said on July 1 after the public hearing was set that there is a degree of urgency regarding the construction timetable. This prompted the board to meet and approve the hearing on that date, which typically would not have occurred due to its proximity to Independence Day.
The hotel/market center endeavor must be under construction by next March in order for the development to qualify for historic tax credits available for the refurbishing of former textile mill properties, the mayor said.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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