The city’s Land Planning Committee is set to recommend to the full City Council that the former First National Bank building on Garnett Street be used as the S-Line train station.
Council Member Garry Daeke is a member of the land planning committee, and he attended a meeting of the committee held Thursday, Dec. 19. Daeke told WIZS that a couple of options were discussed, and ultimately, the committee decided to get behind the former bank building over the Garnett Street Station.
But that decision comes with a hefty price tag – Daeke said development of the bank building location and mobility hub concept would cost five to seven times the cost of the Garnett Street Station option. The price is between $15 million and $25 million for developing the bank building idea and $3 million to $4 million for the Garnett Street Station option.
“The bank building is such a central part of downtown,” Daeke said. “We’d like to put it to good use.”
Estimated costs of getting the bank building itself ready for its new use are about $10 million, Daeke said, compared with $7.2 million for the Garnett Street Station. The city owns the bank building, but not the Garnett Street Station, so there would be extra costs involved to purchase that property.
Daeke said N.C. Dept. of Transportation officials would like to have the city’s answer by January so plans can continue for the S-Line development. There’s still a lot of legwork to do to secure various federal grants and other funding options, he said, but NCDOT officials have said that if all goes well, the project could take between five and eight years to complete. “If funding takes a while, it could be 10 to 15 years,” Daeke said.
“I’m really looking forward to this occurring,” he said, adding that figuring out the grants and other financing is a necessary part of the process to create a mobility hub for the whole community to use and enjoy.
The bank building has lain vacant for a number of years, but it hasn’t been a bank for decades.
“There’s just so much structural work to do,” he said, including the possibility of creating a second-floor walkway from the William Street side of the building.
According to Daeke, assistant city manager Paylor Spruill has noted that the building is “overbuilt” to support the weight involved, but there remain questions about upgrades to the substructure.
Then there’s the question of the access road located between the rear of the buildings parallel to William Street, which is presently used by existing businesses for loading and unloading.
There would still be a need to have some type of access road back there, he said.
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