DURHAM -- Concord Hospitality's special-use permit for building a hotel at the McPherson Hospital site won Board of Adjustment approval Tuesday, and Preservation Durham Director Bob Ashley called it a "great victory."
Terms of the approval require repair and, to the extent possible, restoration, of the 1926 hospital building on Main Street between Buchanan Boulevard and Watts Street. The former hospital's south front, which faces Main Street, will be incorporated into the 145-room hotel.
"The facade of McPherson Hospital is going to remain," Ashley said, "and look very good."
Ashley was speaking at Tuesday night's Inter Neighborhood Council meeting. At the same meeting, Trinity Park representative Philip Azar said the neighborhood had developed a "very high level of trust" in the developer through earlier conversations over Trinity Park concerns, and came in together to support the permit request.
"It worked," he said. "It worked."
Tuesday's harmony between Trinity Park and a developer over the McPherson property was a stark contrast with the situation in 2007, when Trinity Park split into opposing factions over a proposed condominium project. After months of contention among residents and the developer, permit requests were denied.
