The Fraga Towers
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Scooting along like a gorilla on a skateboard, Tony Fraga’s plans to erect a 25 story building and a 23 story building have passed through the processes necessary to come before City Council. As I’ve said before, I’m neither here nor there on tall buildings. But the economic and environmental impact of The Fraga Towers are items that ought to be examined closely and debated hotly. Operating in the shadow of the Parkside controversy, the Fraga project hasn’t had an examination that’s told Asheville what to expect when hundreds more hotel rooms and condos are built in the heart of downtown.
Tonight the Asheville City Council will review the project, so it’ll be a great place to learn more and to voice your concerns and questions. We know that this project doesn’t jibe at all with the first draft of the Downtown Master Plan, and we know that the national economy is in crisis. We know that the wealthy require a service class, and we know how the middle class is being squeezed further out of town.
There is a great deal of uncertainty as to whether the project will ever take place. Fraga has said that he wouldn’t break ground until 60 of his 100 condominiums are sold. He estimated a 2010 construction start but made it clear that if the economic climate doesn’t look good, it’s unlikely the building would go up. The nearby Indigo Hotel, which is under construction, will add a lot more hotel rooms to downtown, so it’s uncertain as to whether The Fraga Towers could be economically viable.
In the light of so much uncertainty, and at the doorstep of enacting a Downtown Master Plan to practice smart, sustainable growth, it seems unwise to rush ahead with passage of the project. It’s the biggest construction downtown will have seen since the early 20th century, and there will be years of problems for the small downtown businesses surrounding the immense building site. I hope Council will kick this one down the road for six months, then make a decision that reflects a sober assessment and a faith in the Downtown Master Plan.
6 Comments
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Who is Tony Fraga? He’s first and foremost a developer. He makes money on building dreams (and nightmares) then leaves the area of destruction to find new places for conquering. The buildings that he wants to erect are obscene threats to the culture of this city. His towers will bring cars and the cars will drive on already limited roads with no chance of building more roads and no chance of widening existing roads. The city doesn’t have the infrastructure to support these high-rises and apparently few if any of the city politicians realize his threat to existing lives and businesses when the digging begins and the roads begin to snarl.
Goodbye Asheville, hello Miami, Atlanta, and all points west!
The Wild Gardener
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September 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
From Ashvegas:
Read the rest.
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September 24th, 2008 at 1:14 am
The sad fact, and I say this as a second generation Asheville native, and Cherokee grandmother WNC native, that 2880″ ” Asheville is inevitably destined to become increasingly gentrified as long as world and American population increases. As the less of evils, I’d rather see consolidated growth near and above the city than more on our slopes. Sustainable infrastructure would be fabulous, but I fear we’re still about a generation of voter majority and more importantly capital away from that.
Downtown has already lost much of it’s heady charm from the initial reawakening of 15 or so years ago. My approach to manipulation of growth here is drop-in-bucket through my purchasing power. When it comes to people wanting to come here to visit or to live, I find those at all levels of the economic spectrum equally annoying and occasionally pleasant. Every additional body is just that. I’d rather have them, to loosely quote ‘Fight Club’, stacked in a human filing cabinet than sprawled out over what’s left of our surrounding rural areas.
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September 24th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Asheville Disclaimer commentary on Fraga project, circa April 16:
http://www.mountainx.com/disclaimer/comments/041608disclaimer
… The project’s detractors are finding difficulty arguing with the seeming resurrection of a dead man’s long-dormant plan.
“Well, the whole thing sounds disproportionate, in both overall scale and hip-to-waist ratio,†said downtown community organizer David Timbley.
“But, in the end, anything that was dreamed up by a developer 90 years ago is OK by me.â€
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September 24th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Exactly. You can’t stop them from coming, so why not save the rural areas?
The only way to stop it is for county wide moratorium on all new construction, and that ain’t happening.
What’s less appealing: The Fraga towers or the mcmansions on the mountain tops?
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September 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I think that’s a false dichotomy, Bob. We can, will, and ought to have more living space downtown. However, if all of that living space is for the ultra-wealthy, then it’s middle class sprawl we’ll see instead. Mixed-use developments with affordable units that are in scale – that’s an entirely rational way forward. Combine that with a sensible steep-slope restriction and encouraging growth along existing infrastructure corridors, and we’ve got a problem we can manage that will result in positive growth for newcomers and oldtimers.
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