If you are ever wondering about anything along the 400 block of Hay Street in the downtown area, there is none better to ask than Jordan Jones.
He has a bird’s-eye view.
And for those wondering about the Hay Street Parking Garage, Jones can tell you about those plans, too.
“There will be four elevators servicing the parking garage,” says Jones, 37, project director for Prince Charles Holdings LLC, which renovated the historic Prince Charles Hotel into condominiums in what is now known as “The Residences at the Prince Charles.”
Kaufman Lynn did the construction renovations on the old hotel, Jones says, and the parking garage.
Now, more than 200 apartments are on the way, Jones says, adjacent to the renovated hotel, and they’ll be built atop the $17.7 million, city-owned Hay Street Parking Garage. The original plan was for offices and a Hyatt hotel to be constructed above the parking garage.
“We are pivoting away from our original plan of building an office building and a Hyatt Place hotel above the parking garage,” Jones says in an email. “In March 2020, we were a few weeks away from starting both of these buildings. COVID-19 devastated the office and hospitality markets and they both struggle to return.”
Prince Charles Holdings, Jones says, came up with another option.
“Due to the incredible success and demand we have for ‘The Residences at the Prince Charles,’ we are now planning to build 212 for-rent apartments above the parking garage,” he says. “Earlier in January 2022, we submitted our building permit to the City of Fayetteville for this new project.”
Getting up and down
Something else some folks have been wondering about is an elevator for the parking garage. City Manager Doug Hewett says not to worry. An elevator is on order and will be installed sometime this year.
But the parking garage, according to Jones, will have more than one elevator.
“There will be four elevators servicing the parking garage,” Jones says. “We have always promised the city to pay for these elevators and still plan to do so. A typical parking garage though does not require four elevators. The city's other parking garage along Franklin Street has one elevator. The purpose of having more than one elevator is to service the buildings above the parking garage.”
That makes good sense. After all, residents living in apartments above need a place to park. And so do folks living in the refurbished “Residences at the Prince Charles.” The Fayetteville Woodpeckers executive folks also pay for parking slots in the Hay Street garage.
There are 482 parking spaces in the garage, according to Jones.
“’The Residences at the Prince Charles’ has a lease to use up to 90 parking spaces,” Jones says. “I do not know how many spaces we currently use. Further, most of our spaces are only utilized at night and the weekend as some of our residents do not work in downtown so therefore they drive to their place of employment creating additional capacity during the daytime. We pay for each space that we use at the same rate as any other monthly parking user of $50 per space per month.”
CityView TODAY reached out to the Woodpeckers about how many parking spaces the minor league baseball team leases. The Woodpeckers did not respond.
City spokeswoman Jodi Phelps says 363 parking spaces are open to the general public in the garage. That would be for people perhaps wanting to visit downtown restaurants, pubs, merchants, take in Woodpeckers baseball games or maybe the 40th annual Fayetteville Dogwood Festival that is scheduled for April 22-24.
Epilogue
I’ve done all of the research I can on the Hay Street Parking Garage. All I can tell you is that general parking is available and one elevator is on the way, with three more later to come, and Prince Charles Holdings is paying for them.
“The City requested an elevator be installed before we complete our construction above the parking garage,” Jones says, “so we provided the city $150,000 to install an elevator. I understand from city manager Hewett that the city has started this process of purchasing and installing an elevator. This process though doesn't happen overnight. There are long lead times to procure the equipment from elevator companies.”
But the elevator is coming.
Apartments and three more elevators in due time. Things, you might say, are looking up.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
