Developer plans 7-story apartments, retail for University Inn site in Chapel Hill
A centrally located, now-vacant motel in the town’s Blue Hill District soon could make way for a multistory apartment building with ground-floor retail.
Developer Leon Capital Group has applied to replace the former University Inn at 1301 Fordham Blvd. with 341 one- and two-bedroom apartments and roughly 18,450 square feet of commercial space. The plan also includes courtyards, a community garden and recreation space.
The 3.9-acre project site is located at the corner of Fordham Boulevard and Ephesus Church Road, across the street from the Ram’s Plaza and Eastgate Crossing shopping centers. It also would includes a 428-space, five-story parking deck.
The site’s current zoning allows a building of up to seven stories that has at least 10% commercial space. The proposed project would replace a two-story inn that closed in November after 50 years in business and several years of court cases.
The proposed retail space would be slightly larger than the 15,000 square feet in the Berkshire Chapel Hill building near Whole Foods on South Elliott Road.
The Berkshire was the first building constructed using the district’s form-based code, which speeds the approval process for projects that meet design guidelines. It has five ground-floor retail spaces, the largest of which has remained mostly vacant, despite two attempts to open a Living Kitchen restaurant there.
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In January architect John Felton told the town’s Community Design Commission that putting retail at the corner of the Ephesus Church-Fordham intersection would give it the best chance of success.
“This retail here at this intersection, where you’re at the (traffic) light and it’s more visible, and any retail that moves up Fordham, around a courtyard or an access point, will be much healthier,” he said.
The public will be able to weigh in on the University Inn proposal at future Community Design Commission hearings.
Blue Hill requirements
Development projects in the Blue Hill District, which runs from roughly Franklin Street to Fordham Boulevard, and from South Elliott Road to Legion Road, follows a form-based code for how buildings should look and blend in with their surroundings. The commission and the town manager approve district projects.
The Town Council has been refining the code, including on Feb. 19, when the council made changes aimed at at reducing the visual impact of taller buildings and creating more pedestrian connections and visually open developments.
The University Inn project will not have to meet those changes, however, because the developer submitted the application Feb. 18, ahead of the council vote.
Town planner Corey Liles said the triangular site, which has busy roads on two sides, creates “interesting constraints” for any development plan. The town’s vision for the district has long included the prospect that a third road could be built across the rear of the property, connecting Fordham Boulevard to Legion Road.
However, the N.C. Department of Transportation has since said a connection to Fordham Boulevard will not be possible until more is known about the number of cars that corridor could carry and how it might be improved to serve additional traffic, Liles said.
The proposal submitted in February includes a driveway aligned with Legion Road that could serve cars entering the parking deck. The driveway would then become a pathway for pedestrians, bikes and emergency vehicles, Pennoni engineer Justin Brown said.
Another road also could link the property in the future to the Park Apartments site, which is being redeveloped.
Leon Capital construction
The latest version of the plan has been revised to reflect some of the commission’s January feedback, including a suggestion that the developer open up the design to create the illusion of two buildings.
The initial design “looks and feels like a fortress,” Commission Chair Susana Dancy said.
She suggested creating a place where residents and pedestrians can escape from the busy corner, while board member Susan Lyons advocated for “a strong commercial building with some really cool architecture to it.”
“I would encourage you to not be afraid of starting over, because this one is pretty bad,” Dancy said. “I say with hope that you can do better.”
The new design features a V-shaped building with a Fordham Boulevard-facing plaza leading into a central courtyard with a pool.
Dancy also encouraged the developer to consider alternative parking deck designs, such as the 300 East Main parking deck in Carrboro, as a way to better use the awkwardly shaped site.
“That parking deck is partially visible,” Dancy said. “It serves the Hampton Inn and it serves the retail nearby, and it is partially visible from the street. There’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t dominate it, but you can see that it’s a parking deck.”
The University Inn site would be the second Blue Hill District project for Leon Capital Group, which also is developing the 328-unit Trilogy Chapel Hill apartment building — formerly the Hillstone — on the north side of Ram’s Plaza.
Just north of the Blue Hill District, Leon Capital Group also is working with Wegmans Food Markets to build a 99,000-square-foot grocery store between U.S. 15-501 and Old Durham Road.
