Norfolk to start cleaning up site of stalled Granby Tower

NORFOLK

Nearly a year after work halted on Granby Tower, the city is finally moving to clean up the construction site, which some officials describe as an eyesore.

Surrounded by chain-link fence, the corner of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue is stark. There are deep holes filled with water, piles of discarded wood and steel and weeds growing 6 feet high amid rubble.

Cement pilings meant as the foundation for the 34-story, $180 million condominium project lay discarded. An earth mover and mobile crane rust in the sun. Nearby Bute and York streets have been torn up and closed.

The man behind the project, developer Buddy Gadams, lost his financing last September amid the meltdown of the credit markets, and has been pursuing new investors ever since. City officials have been steadfastly supportive.

However, Mayor Paul Fraim took the first step toward cleaning up the site earlier this summer when he insisted that Gadams’ Marathon Development move barriers blocking 14 spaces along Granby Street in front of the federal courthouse. Gadams complied. By the middle of the summer, city officials began telling Gadams to do more.

“The time is growing closer where the city will have to take some affirmative steps to reclaim the street, if Buddy hasn’t made real progress,” Fraim said.

Assistant City Manager Stanley A. Stein said Marathon has agreed to reopen one lane of traffic on Bute Street. The chain-link fence there will be replaced with a wooden fence. Stein said local artists, perhaps schoolchildren, will be asked to decorate the fence.

Gadams said Marathon, and not the city, will pay for the repairs.

City officials may also soon decide to repair sidewalks demolished along Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue.

City officials say that cleaning up the site is necessary for the survival of businesses operating in the area.

Keith Large and Richard Grether, owners of the Oasis restaurant at York and Boush streets, say their business has dropped 40 percent since construction for Granby Tower blocked York Street. Large said a plea he made to Fraim that a walkway be constructed along the closed section of York Street has gone unanswered.

Officials also want the site cleaned for aesthetic reasons – they say it is a blot in a portion of downtown that is booming. “We need to figure out a way to make it less objectionable looking and more functional,” Councilman Barclay C. Winn said.

Nearby, cranes are working on the Wachovia Center office tower, Residence Inn by Marriott Hotel and Belmont at Freemason apartment complex. Combined, those projects will bring more than $200 million of investment to that area.

E-mails from between Gadams and city officials, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, indicate Gadams has been busy trying to lure financiers. Leucadia National, a diversified firm that is involved in mining, manufacturing and banking; National City Corporation, primarily a mortgage firm; a Canadian group that is unnamed and investors from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates have all been courted, according to e-mails.

Roderick Woolard, the city’s director of economic development, forwarded an e-mail to Gadams from city officials in April asking that on-street parking along Granby Street be restored. “Hold them off. We are making progress,” Gadams responded.

On June 17, in an e-mail sent to Woolard and Vincent J. Mastracco, Jr., Marathon’s attorney, Gadams said he was close to cutting a deal with the Middle East investors. “We are going to get this deal done,” he wrote.

A week later, Woolard informed Gadams that “based upon the mayor’s instructions last night, he wants the barricades moved now” on Granby Street.

Responding by e-mail, Gadams said Tuesday he continues to pursue financing.

“We are working very closely with a lender and are working hard to close the loan as quickly as possible,” he wrote. “I’m optimistic that we will get the funding closed soon.”

If it hasn’t happened by the end of this month, the City Council may take stronger action. Members indicated that Granby Tower will be added the agenda for their retreat Sept. 29-30 in Smithfield.

“At some point we’ve got to say, you’ve got 30 days to get your financing, or we’re going to take all of the barricades down,” Councilman Don Williams said.

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com