New plans for Regency Inn are on the City Council meeting agenda for the Tuesday, May 16 meeting.
This should go under the heading – if at once you don’t succeed try, try again.
In November 2021, the City Council agreed to make a deferred payment, no-interest loan of $3 million to Partnership Homes to purchase the Regency Inn at 2701 North O. Henry Blvd. The $3 million covered the purchase price of $2.75 million as well as $75,000 for architectural design, testing, surveying, attorney’s fees, inspection, insurance, a phase 1 environmental report and other expenses, as well as a $100,000 administrative fee for Partnership Homes.
Partnership Homes was supposed to raise an additional $10 million for renovation of the old motel into permanent supportive housing for the homeless.
At the time Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter questioned the wisdom of allocating $3 million for a $13 million project when the source of the other $10 million was unknown.
As it turns out, Abuzuaiter was right and Partnership Homes was unable to raise the money to complete the project.
So now, a year and half later, the Greensboro Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development has another plan.
The City Council is being asked to approve a plan to enter into an agreement with Step Up on Second, Inc. and turn the current $3 million lien on the property into a no interent loan that will be forgiven after 20 years of continuous operation a permanent supportive housing facility for low income persons.
The City Council is also being asked to commit to allocating $1 million for three years for operation of the facility which after renovation will have 57 studio units.
Step Up on Second Inc. is a non-profit with headquarters in California and has permanent supportive housing projects across the country, including several in North Carolina.
Guilford County is being asked to provide matching funds for case management with Guilford County providing $1 for every $2 provided by Greensboro.
More socialist give aways….can you move your illegals from Jefferson over to this new soon to be rat hole?
Yet another doonboggle.
Why do these deals have to be so complicated and a developer from California of all places? They have homeless all over the sidewalks there, yet they come all the way to Greensboro to invest their money in low-income housing. By my calculation, they are looking at 57 units @ 600SF each +/- and that would be roughly $292 SQFT in renovation costs to an existing structure, not including the purchase price of the property. I sense a loophole issue down the road with the taxpayers holding the bag.