Asheville – At the last pre-meeting briefing of Asheville City Council, which was held via Zoom, Mayor Esther Manheimer brought up a few issues about which her constituents had been murmuring and which she thought merited council consideration. One was that the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium had been taken offline, and she considered this a “critical issue.”
Auditorium in Need of Repairs
For a couple decades now, the auditorium has been in need of repairs, and the city has made efforts to address the problems. Capital needs really captured public attention when the Civic Center’s roof sprung a leak over the stage during an Alison Krauss concert back in 2005. Yet, headlines over the last month trigger flashbacks with complaints about HVAC issues and peeling paint.
Failing HVAC System
Last May, the Asheville Symphony announced it was going to reintroduce social distancing post-pandemic due to problems with the auditorium’s HVAC system. Then, on July 10, it was announced that the HVAC system had failed. The city’s operations manager, Chris Corl, recommended closing the venue and rebooking scheduled events at other venues that he oversees in Asheville. It was time for the city to cut its losses and give up trying to hold what events might still work.
Corl expected it would take nine months to fix the HVAC system. One reason was that it would take about six months to get the parts.
Damage from Deferred Maintenance
Damage from deferred maintenance included paint peeling off the walls so much that the new layer looked like a map of the oceanic floor, with its peaks and valleys and continents depicted in the previous color of paint. And the indoor rain had returned. In fair weather, water marks could be seen on the ceiling, which was so much at risk of caving that nets had to be installed to protect patrons. Worse, it was déjà vu, reminiscent of 2005 and the years intervening, sounding like a parody of an ad campaign or maybe an excuse to raise taxes or float some bonds.
The Pit of Despair
The other item Manheimer asked councilmembers about entertaining formally was the Pit of Despair. Located across from the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, the building had been a dilapidated deck and storefront, which, at the turn of the century, the city purchased for $2.4 million for the construction of a souped-up parking deck. This plan was shut down by community input, as were earlier plans from the private sector to build a hotel.
A few years ago, a large, inclusive design initiative resulted in plans for a $13.2 million park to be constructed on the site. It would include a granite plaza and a bounteous display of local plantings, including “woodland gardens.” The roads, of course, would have to be rerouted, too. Council presumably approved the plan, but any record of the so-called approval turned into one of those “if that’s what it says, then it’s not what it means” things.
“It’s a new day,” said the mayor, arguing that new members were on city council, the city was under new management, and a lot had happened since the plans had been reviewed. Without appearing to look like a capitalist, she hinted and cast aspersions that seemed to imply the prime real estate had a higher and better use that could generate the kind of revenue the city needed to deal with the dilapidated auditorium across the street.
Commitment to Building Affordable Housing
Lastly, Manheimer wanted to make sure the city hadn’t lost its commitment to building affordable housing into renovations of the downtown transit station. She wanted to know what groundwork would be needed to include this in the bond package the city hopes to have assembled next year.
Turner added her interest in following through on the city’s intentions to build affordable housing next to the Deaverview Apartments. The city quickly spent the proceeds from the sale of land to White Labs. Since a portion of the White Labs property had been acquired through urban renewal, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required $1.6 million of the proceeds to be spent as Community Development Block Grant funds. Purchasing the Deaverview property for a purpose-built community was one way to meet HUD’s fast deadline.