SESRP 2011-06-04_Elm St Answers1

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SESRP

Response to Questions on S. Elm Street RFPAuthors

Judy Siegel and Evon Smith

6/8/2011

Documents enclosed are : question responses, under separate cover are: Proforma, Environmental

example, Financials



Please see our responses to your questions below:

1. Is there anything in the PowerPoint presentation that you would like to add to the proposal

evaluation packet?

a. Yes, please include the following slides:

i. #36, 29, 35 and 38-47 (these slides are images of the objectives and vision by

phases

2.Provide 2010 financial statements.

b. See attached document

3.Is the SESRP, LLC an existing or proposed entity?

c. Proposed . We typically develop the LLC’s by project.

4. Since access on Bragg will be prohibited by the Greenway…

The access to the western parking lot from Bragg is not necessary and can be omitted. The

primary point of access is from the mid-block point along South Elm Street; this will suffice as

the sole entry and exit to the parking. As the project moves forward, we will also evaluate the

desirability of right-in and/or right-out access from Lee Street.

5. Give specific examples of how your plan speaks to the key principles in the Redevelopment Plan:

a. Transform it into an attractive, safe, and vibrant gateway.

Although we consider the design we have proposed to be very preliminary – even premature

given that we have developed it without input from the multiple stakeholders, we suggest

creating significant public space in the center of South Elm Street at Lee that breaks the street

pattern and captures the attention of the voluminous traffic on Lee Street, making passersby

intuitively aware of the transformation that is underway. A distinctively elegant architectural

structure will anchor vistas up and down South Elm Street. Its prominence and utility will

establish it as an icon for the city. To ensure that this gateway is experiential and not just visual,

the public green space will extend to connect to the Greenway along Bragg, encouraging cyclists

to participate in the activities that will be programmed in the park, which are anticipated to

include festivals, markets, and parades. It will balance Center City park, creating a southern

terminus to a new recreation and retail axis. The interaction of people from all sectors of

Greensboro will improve the safety of the space and ensure its vibrancy.

b. Restore it to economic use.

The economic history of the site is obviously challenged. By integrating multiple uses and types

of occupants – from housing oriented to young adults to families to seniors, from office workers

to retail shoppers to institutional and/or arts-based organizations – our past experience has



shown that diversity is one of the keys to revitalization because it offers flexibility. Other

projects in which our team has been involved over the past several decades illustrate that

economic revitalization is a multi-layered process, with the economic anchors and the use

patterns predictably shifting every few years. The initial impetus must be of significant scale to

signal a transformation, yet the associated retail will not create financial returns during the first

several years of operation. Food-based operations typically have the most success in drawing

the social and economic energies of a community to a new location. They must be supported by

establishing as many new residents as possible; in this case, we will tap off the visibility of Lee

Street to showcase the new living opportunities that will draw new residents from the entire

Greensboro metropolitan area. As the redevelopment expands, it will interconnect with the

existing residential community to the south and provide services that are needed by our

neighbors.

c. Forge connections to the neighborhoods and downtown.

The underlying theme of our team and our concept is interconnectivity – in terms of economics,

uses, circulation patterns, racially, geographically, and even in terms of the design and

development process. The most important aspect of interconnectivity is human: our team has

already begun forging relationships with the different communities and partners that will come

together to make South Elm Street an intersection of life in Greensboro. We have spoken with

the residents of adjoining communities, the universities, philanthropic organizations. The design

will reinforce this social integration with physical features. Key among those will be the public

park along South Elm Street that links Ole Asheboro with the existing commercial section of

South Elm Street. We propose bisecting the blocks with a new east-west street that aligns with,

and could eventually connect with, Brooks Court (which terminates east of Arlington Street), in

order to reinforce those connections with Ole Asheboro. The building types, uses, and massingwill also follow the pattern of connectivity – those at the north end of the site nearest

downtown and Lee Street will be the highest and densest, those along South Elm Street will be

lined with retail to re-energize that pattern to our north, and those along Bragg will step down

in scale to include townhouses near adjoining single-family homes.

d. Support the area’s cultural heritage.

We are excited about creating a project which lies at the nexus of the nation’s civil rights

transformation. Despite politicians’ claims of our current “post-racial” society, we believe that

social justice and racial equity remain delicate at best. This project has the potential to reinforce

Greensboro’s (and South Elm Streets!) role in moving our nation forward along those lines –both physically and in terms of actual human relationships. Our team is anchored by developers

who grew up in Greensboro and intimately understand the cultural and social landscape, and

they will guide our sensitive yet bold response to those issues. We are pleased that we have

forged strong professional and personal relationships within our team that span the spectrum of

our former divisions, and we fully intend to capitalize upon the outward relationships we have

already established with the residents of Ole Asheboro, Wernersville, local businesses as well as



the relationships we have established with the several universities, financiers, and

philanthropists to make this project a meaningfully collaborative experience that unites the city.

We have particular expertise from prior projects such as Broadway in Baltimore and the

masterplan for the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem in empowering the residents and

neighbors who feel disenfranchised, so that their valuable input energizes the city’s

redevelopment prospects. One of our team’s strengths is balancing the practical financial needs

of a development with the community input process in a way that strengthens the outcome.

In addition, we specifically intend to physically represent the cultural heritage of the

surrounding community – both immediate and Greensboro –at-large – by incorporating the

work of local artists. We are also considering identifying specific aspects of the development,

such as the crosswalks, benches, plazas, or other highly-interactive elements, and sponsoring a

design contest to make custom elements that reflect the cultural heritage – it would be open to

the entire Greensboro community to spur involvement and to make the built form more

meaningful and relevant.

e. Establish a mix of uses for all ages and incomes.

Our proposal includes three distinct types of housing. The first will be oriented to young adults,

at market rate; whether that is young professionals or students will be determined based on a

market study. This audience will likely be the first phase in order to optimize their economic

impact. The second will cater to families, and is likely to include for-sale and/or rental

townhomes. The third will be affordable senior housing, which is anticipated to be a sought-

after opportunity for current residents of adjoining Ole Asheboro. In addition to the mixed-

income housing component, the retail and other services at street level will be targeted to serve

both the wants of people who are living in the outlying Greensboro (in order to attract them to

this pivotal public space) and the needs of the current neighbors, such as medical clinics and/or

a daycare.

6. 3 or more examples of goals/strategies for sustainable development.

Our team is uniquely qualified in sustainable development: the architect, the contractor, and

the developer are all breaking sustainable ground in their own rights. Our experience has helped

us understand that sustainable strategies should be targeted to reinforce the other values and

goals of the project and its stakeholders: cherry-picking the easiest or the sexiest solutions does

not have a meaningful long-lasting impact on those who own, use, or adjoin the project.

We will design the project in parallel with the values implicit in the LEED Neighborhood

Development criteria, and will design the buildings to meet a third-party certified green building

standard such as Green Communities, Earthcraft, and/or LEED. Many aspects of the project are

by definition sustainable – such as the proximity of jobs, adjacency to the city’s proposed

Greenway bicycle network, absence of steep slopes or wetlands, infill development on



brownfield site, walkable interconnected sidewalks, the mixed-use program delineated by the

project’s criteria, the street network and proximity to the rail station.

Prominently among our strategies, we intend to reinforce the substantial financial investment

that Greensboro has made in its Greenways. The use of bicycles as a means of transportation is

particularly appropriate for Greensboro given the large numbers of college students. To supportthat initiative, we will provide bicycle routes not only along the Greenway but also extending up

South Elm Street to interconnect with downtown Greensboro. We will provide convenient and

prominent bicycle parking, probably including sheltered and secured parking such as lockers, for

patrons of the retail shops and restaurants. Office and residential buildings will include secured

indoor bicycle parking and shower facilities.

Energy conservation is a pivotal issue in the design of our buildings; we will incorporate

envelopes of superior efficiency and will use energy-efficient HVAC systems and lighting.

Lighting of public spaces such as the central park is likely to be powered by photovoltaic cells on

the roofs of adjoining buildings.

Human Health issues are of paramount concern, particularly in the residential buildings. In

particular, we design our buildings to combat the growing prevalence of asthma in children by

limiting the use of carpets and providing direct exhaust systems from all kitchens and putting all

bathroom fans on delayed-shut-off timers or humidistats.

Local Food Production is an issue of particular interest to the individuals on our team. This will

be supported in two ways – by the incorporation of a farmer’s market in the public space within

South Elm Street, and by providing residents of our apartment buildings with gardening planters

and supporting materials such as rain cisterns on the rooftops or in the courtyards.

Stormwater Management is an issue of growing concern for municipalities in North Carolina. To

reduce the impact of our new development on public systems, we anticipate exceeding state

and local standards for stormwater management, by using strategies such as green roofs,

bioretention, tree box filters, and capturing/reusing stormwater through rain barrels and

cistern.

7. Experience with brownfield development

Each of our team members has been involved with multiple projects involving hazardous

materials ranging from lead paint to mold, asbestos, underground petroleum, and other

concerns. Most of Wiencek + Associates’ projects involve sites that have environmentalcomplexities: HIP’s Artists’ Housing was an expansion of a historical building on a tight site that

had a prior UST that leaked underground, and abatement across several adjoining occupied

properties required careful coordination.

Our developers have worked on several brownfields sites where the City of Winston Salem used

superfund money to pay for initial environmental assessments and the development team and



our environmentalist secured additional dollars to remove 150 tons of contaminated soil that

went almost to the water table. Additionally, superfund money was exhausted and our team

members worked with DENR and other sources to fund the remainder of the remediation

needs. On other parcels in Winston, our team addressed the removal and filling of large above

and underground tanks where oil leaks existed. We have developed over $25 million on the

specific brownfield sites mentioned above.

8. Provide calculations verifying that your residential program meets the project requirements…

See attached proforma

9. How building massing can be designed to better “respect” the historical character of South Elm Street.

The specific design of the overall masterplan, and certainly the design of specific buildings, is not

yet established, in the view of Wiencek + Associates Architects + Planners. While we have

illustrated an approach to the project that responds to the site issues as we understand them,

we are not so presumptuous that we think we have the right proposal until we have workedclosely with all the partners in the project and understand how to express and articulate their

values and concerns of the project through architecture.

The relationship of the new buildings to their historical neighbors will be a delicate balance. We

believe that the most dynamic and impactful expressions of architecture and community design

will be forward-looking yet contextually-sensitive without mimicry. Each segment of South Elm

Street has its own character, and we recognize that this project’s primary design objective is

vibrancy and economic vitality; this calls for a certain density and scale that will distinguish this

section of South Elm Street from its immediate neighbors. Nonetheless, we will look to the

pedestrian-friendly streetscape of the blocks immediately north of our site for inspiration andconsistency. The vast majority of one’s impression of a place is based on what is seen from the

street or sidewalk from the curb to the canopy above a store’s door. Focusing on that interactive

realm, we will articulate the streetscape by allowing retailers to have substantial influence over

the design of their storefronts, rather than carrying the facades of the upper apartments down

to the street level. We will consider as part of our process of involving community input and

working with the city planning department whether we should also modify the massing of upper

office or residential levels.

10. What is meant by guarantees on the Sources and Uses matrix?

Guarantees we (the developer) have to make to investors and lenders. In some cases ourdeveloper fee can be used to make those guarantees.

SESRP 2011-06-04_Elm St Answers1

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