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Monday, February 11, 2013 10:46 PM Downtown project features loft living, retail Residential moves into heart of business district By Jon Jimison | Times Editor It’s a first for downtown Wilson, a project mixing retail development and residential living under the same roof. Officials say Nash Street Lofts will be a significant step forward and may be followed by similar projects. CommunitySmith, a Raleigh-based commercial real estate firm specializing in public-private partnerships, purchased the 129-year-old, three-story building at 215 E. Nash St. in the heart of downtown. Following redevelopment, officials said, the brick building built in 1884 will feature 13 units available for rent. Eleven units will be residential lofts ranging from around 500 to 1,000 square feet. Two first-floor units will be designed for use as "live-work” retail spaces such as coffee shops, yoga studios or art galleries, officials said. The nearly 13,000-square-foot brick building was originally part of the Hackney Wagon Co.’s carriage manufacturing complex. After 1913, it was used for a number of retail businesses, most recently Western Auto. "We’re really excited about this,” said Kimberly Van Dyk, Wilson downtown manager. "It’s going to be a significant investment.” This type of mixed-use development is a key component to redeveloping downtown, Van Dyk said. It was also addressed in the city’s recently adopted unified development ordinance. "We wanted the flexibility in uses in the downtown area,” Van Dyk said. "It’s already paving the way and we already have the results.” Downtown and CommunitySmith officials have been working on this project for about six months. "We need a strong residential component to be successful in downtown redevelopment efforts,” Van Dyk said, "to make downtown a neighborhood again.” While this is the first project of its kind, it will not be the last, Van Dyk said. Others are expected to follow. All this opens up the downtown area for more pedestrian traffic and feeds into the November 2013 opening of the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, which officials hope will draw more and more developers downtown. Van Dyk said the whirligig project was the talk of a recent conference she attended. CommunitySmith and Winston-Salem-based Rehab Development purchased the building from Wilson Downtown Properties. The transaction included federal Housing and Urban Development and Environmental Protection Agency funding. The sale closed Feb. 1, but financial terms were not disclosed. Rehab Builders Inc., a design-build construction company specializing in rehabilitating historic buildings, will head up construction, officials said. Its affiliate, Rehab Engineering, will manage the engineering. Dunn and Dalton of Kinston will serve as architects for the project, which should be completed by late this year. CommunitySmith is a private development organization that specializes in identifying commercial properties in the region that are candidates for redevelopment, officials said. Holton Wilkerson, CommunitySmith managing partner, said the group had heard great things about both Wilson and downtown Wilson from boosters in other areas of the state. So they traveled here and toured downtown. "We are really excited,” Wilkerson said. "With the arts factor and the Whirligig Park and the arts-driven economy of sorts, we found it more and more attractive.” Wilkerson pointed out this project offers market-rate apartments for rent. The two ground-floor apartments will offer live-work units split roughly 50/50. "It’s a home and storefront in one unit combined,” Wilkerson said. "The building has incredible historic character.” Officials want to blend the historic aspects of the building with all new plumbing, mechanical and electrical amenities. If all goes well, there could be future projects in Wilson involving CommunitySmith, Wilkerson said. Even though officials aren’t disclosing financial costs of the project, Wilkerson did say availability of some HUD and EPA funding can make a difference in projects such as this one. "This project is exactly what the City Council wants to see happen in historic downtown Wilson,” Wilson Mayor Bruce Rose said. "They will be restoring a beautiful building, and more people living in downtown will help restaurants and businesses succeed. This is why we need to save our downtown buildings whenever possible.” Henry Walston called the announcement exciting. "The Nash Street Lofts economic development project validates longtime downtown professional and retail establishments, the many new businesses that have opened or relocated to historic downtown Wilson in the past few years, and it encourages other forward-thinking entrepreneurs that historic downtown Wilson is rapidly reinventing itself into a vibrant, new commercial and residential neighborhood,” said Walston, Wilson Downtown Development Corporation president, WDP board member, and Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park project chairman. jjimison@wilsontimes.com | 265-7813 |
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@give it a break said...
You must really live in fear. I have walked downtown any night of the week to the Boykin Center and never seen any crime. Heck many work at BB&T everyday and I don't remember any issues with any of the hundreds of employees who go in and out every day even those who work late. And the police at the Live After Five events confirmed that people and crime fear downtown is not true today. Re: Whirligigs: Farmville has a Dogwood festival. I don't think anyone cares that Dogwood trees are there or not. Same applies with whirligigs and there are MANY of those festivals out west; nothing new here. Most of us could care less about 'acid park' and its history. that has nothing to do with the park or the festival. Tell you what....you just stay out of downtown and that'll make one more parking space available to us who actually enjoy going there. And your permit for your "glock" surely must have come from the Sheriff's department...were you scared and harassed while down there getting your permit?? The answer is no.
Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 12:48 PM
To "Give it a Break" said...You must really live in fear. I have walked downtown any night of the week to the Boykin Center and never seen any crime. Heck many work at BB&T everyday and I don't remember any issues with any of the hundreds of employees who go in and out every day even those who work late. And the police at the Live After Five events confirmed that people and crime fear downtown is not true today. Re: Whirligigs: Farmville has a Dogwood festival. I don't think anyone cares that Dogwood trees are there or not. Same applies with whirligigs and there are MANY of those festivals out west; nothing new here. Most of us could care less about 'acid park' and its history. that has nothing to do with the park or the festival. Tell you what....you just stay out of downtown and that'll make one more parking space available to us who actually enjoy going there. And your permit for your "glock" surely must have come from the Sheriff's department...were you scared and harassed while down there getting your permit?? The answer is no.
Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 12:48 PM
How is it the Wilson Police Dept has no record of the incidents you say happened in Downtown Wilson? Officials at the Wilson Police Dept say downtown has less crime than anywhere else in Wilson.
As for the Whirligigs staying in the farm field, who pray tell would take care of them when they were about to rust away and fall down? Wonderful folk art would be lost forever! What would the next owner of this farm do with them 20 years from now? Sell them for scrap? Wake up please!
Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 8:32 PM
You said it yourself, "crime is everywhere in Wilson". If my memory serves me correctly a Thomas Drug employee got a gun stuck in his face a year or so back while doing his job in your go-to-place. Just sayin'. I would not walk downtown after dark without my trusty sidekick Glock locked and loaded.
Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 11:58 AM
People rode horse and buggies downtown also. Let's condemn a business before they even start. Never seen a statue erected in honor of a critic.
Friday, February 15, 2013 at 8:29 AM
I am curious what size space is $400 a month. Back when the Buyers Market was in Tarrytown Mall (before the flood) I rented a space and paid only a very small fee for about a 14 x 24 or even larger. Your cost seems extremely high. Someone should make a good income at that rate.
Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 6:49 PM
