"Businessman Roy Carroll's plans to build one of the state's tallest buildings have taken a step forward with his acquisition of a key downtown Greensboro parcel.Carroll, who heads The Carroll Cos., has completed his $1.5 million purchase of the 1.5-acre surface parking lot at Bellemeade and North Eugene streets. The parcel, which had been owned by Guilford County, could become home to "Project 561."That's the name Carroll has given to the $50 million office tower project he unveiled last summer at a Greensboro Rotary Club meeting. It would be the tallest building outside Charlotte.Carroll told me Tuesday that the parking lot, which the county agreed to sell to him last fall, is a good fit for the project, given that it neighbors NewBridge Bank Park and sits across the intersection from Carroll at Bellemeade, a hotel and residential development now under construction."
Now here's the part no one bothered to tell you:
That parking lot for which the Guiilford County Commissioners accepted the paltry sum of $1.5 Million Dollars is currently used by Newbridge Bank Park, Sandhills Center and Monarch as well as Genoa Pharmacy which is open to anyone who wants to use their low cost pharmacy services. Besides people with mental health issues, Genoa also caters to people on Disability, retirees on Medicare and Medicaid and others whose pharmacy needs are not being met by most pharmacies.
On top of that, these entities serve far more than Guilford County. On any given day you will find people from bordering counties there as well as these services don't have locations outside of Greensboro.
Of course our elected leaders who are solely fixated on short term gains never thought about any of those things or the fact that all of these services already suffer a parking shortage because most of the parking spaces were already reserved for Newbridge Bank Park causing them to be empty most all of most every day.
The Business Journal article goes on to say:
" Carroll made an offer to the county for the property in July, and after no upset bids were submitted after an advertisement for bids, the county commission voted in September to sell Carroll the property for $1.5 million."
But one has to wonder if perhaps Roy Carroll instituted the County's effort to place the property up for sale considering other recent sales of municipal property locally. You see, Guilford County was earning revenue from the parking lot in the form of monthly parking fees for each and every parking space even if the space remained empty. It's not as if the lot was really surplus or unused property.
Employees of all the previously mentioned companies plus Newbridge Bank Park paid monthly fees to Guilford County for the right to use the lot.
Any why are local politicians remaining silent here.
Any why are local politicians remaining silent here.
