Big project, small stir

Developer's plan gets little attention

CHAPEL HILL -- Roger Perry wants to build a half-million-square-foot living, working and entertainment complex near the intersection of U.S. 15-501 and N.C. 54, but he's not sure anyone has noticed.

At a public hearing Wednesday night, the Town Council chambers all but cleared out after nearly 20 residents spoke on the proposed Greenbridge development downtown. It would be about 217,000 square feet.

Perry's University Village, slated for the current site of the University Inn Best Western on the south side of N.C. 54, would be well over twice that size, with twice as many condominium homes.

Yet Perry says his company, East West Partners, has contacted neighbors from Oakwood and Rogerson drives across N.C. 54 both by direct mail and through Glenwood Elementary School, and only a few people have attended any community meetings. At two meetings, no one showed up, he said.

"I am absolutely astounded at the lack of comment from the neighborhood," Town Council member Cam Hill said. "As a former resident of Oakwood Drive, this is a big difference to the neighborhood. However, it's the appropriate spot."

Those who did attend the University Village hearing spoke in support of it, including some potential buyers and tenants.

"We've told Mr. Perry that we would like to be his first tenant in the office building," said Dutch Kuyper, chief operating officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management, currently based at Meadowmont Village, which Perry's firm developed in the late 1990s.

Kuyper's company was formed in 2004 and stayed in Chapel Hill for the quality of life it offered the founders. Now with about 35 employees and $4 billion in clients' assets to manage, Morgan Creek is looking to expand, he said.

"We worry that without this building," said Kuyper, "we could not remain in Chapel Hill given the lack of new construction on the horizon."

Robert Dowling, executive director of the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust, praised Perry's plan to provide 60 discounted condominiums for below median-income earners and to levy a transfer tax on the sales of the market-rate condos to help the lower-income buyers to pay their condominium association fees. Rising condo fees have made once-affordable units unaffordable over time, he said.

"I think this is a brilliant response to what has been a vexing problem," Dowling said. "I credit Roger for coming up with the idea. I wish I had it."

The prices of the market-rate condos would range from $250,000 to $600,000. The affordable units would cost less than $100,000 for one- and two-bedroom units.