City officials to hold public hearing over potential sale of Talbots Lot
A piece of prime real estate in downtown New Bern that is currently owned by the city is being offered for sale. On Wednesday, the city will hold a public hearing to discuss the possible sale of the property.
On Thursday, the city announced a special meeting of the New Bern Board of Aldermen will be held at the New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. located at 316 S. Front Street.
The purpose of the meeting is to entertain public comment for the sale of the properties and consider adopting a resolution to sell the properties.
In November, the New Bern Board of Aldermen approved a minimum starting bid price of $750,000 for two vacant properties known collectively as the Talbots lot, located at 304 and 308 South Front Street.
The 19,490-square-foot property is zoned C-1, which allows for neighborhood commercial activities and small-scale freestanding businesses.
The resolution approved by the city officially deems the property as surplus and makes it available to the public through the upset bid process. The resolution was carried by a vote of 6-1, with Ward 1 Alderman Rick Prill the lone no vote.
The city acquired the property in 2000 and 2001 for a total of $209,000. Since that time a number of plans for the Talbots lot have come and gone, with little to show besides vacant land and frustrated developers.
The property’s name comes from a failed development plan to bring a Talbots retail store to the site in the mid-2000s.
UHF Development Group LLC, which is owned by Hubie Tolson, designed the potential development plans after their bid was accepted by the city.
In an interview with the Sun Journal in March, Tolson said Starbucks and Joseph Bank had also shown interest in the lot at the time.
In addition to the retail space, Tolson said he had planned to build 40 to 50 boutique hotel rooms with an internal parking space to avoid traffic problems downtown. Tolson estimated the total cost for the development would have run between $10 and $20 million.
After pushback from the community, however, Tolson pulled out of the development project.
In February, the board of aldermen voted 4-3 to pass a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kessler Collection to work together to identify economic incentives for the group to develop in New Bern. Two sites were mentioned in the MOU, Talbots and Union Point Park.
After community uproar ensued with the news, the group backed out of potentially developing Union Point Park and the city removed the property from the MOU.
The Kessler Collection, which is developing the former Elks Temple building as a $25 million luxury boutique hotel, placed a price tag of $15 million on the development of the Talbots lot for retail space and apartments. The lot still remains a part of the MOU.
This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: City officials to hold public hearing on potential sale of Talbots Lot
