1. It will purchase the K-7 building and land.
2. The purchase will be in conjunction with the previously announced plans to buy land in Huntersville for a sports complex.
3. Financing plans are being finalized, and the school has a $250k matching grant drive underway.
This announcement is a major step for the school which has been at the Griffith Street site for more than a decade already. The school's lease with extensions allowed the school to stay on the site for another 14 years, but it also contained an irrevocable option to purchase by the end of 2019. This announcement indicates the school is exercising that option.
This announcement also blows a gigantic hole in the logic behind the lame duck approval granted by Davidson's former Board to build a hotel next door. During the debate over granting the approval, it was repeatedly implied and insinuated that the school may not be there permanently or that it may move. In one discussion Davidson's former electeds even discussed what could be done with the site if the building was "razed".
This of course ignored the facts in the lease which clearly stated the possibility of permanence as well as the likelihood of at least many more years at the site. That flawed logic and the approval based on it is now shown for what it is...a major disservice to the town and community.
As previously reported, at the November 14th meeting prior to the hotel vote, former Commissioner Beth Cashion stated during her comments "I also understand they (CSD) are not the owners of that building, they are leasing that building and it’s an understanding, and a pretty clear understanding that CSD will not be there in that building in 10 years to come. CSD bought 40 acres out on Beaties Ford road and are starting to build their sports complex there so, I think we are tasked with a difficult decision."
That "pretty clear understanding" now appears very clearly wrong, and frankly, it just wasn't that hard a decision in any event. Decisions between a truly right choice and a truly wrong choice rarely are. Davison's former Board made the wrong one.
As fallout from the flawed process that led to that flawed decision based on flawed logic, Davidson now faces a lawsuit to overturn that approval.
With this announcement and the realization that the former Commissioners' decision permanently places a hotel practically on top of a K-7 school, funding this lawsuit should become an imperative for the community.
Donations can be sent to:
The "Stop the Griffith Street Hotel" GoFundMe is HERE. for online donations. Checks payable to Luke Charde Special Account can be mailed to PO Box 785 Davidson, NC 28036 (Mr Charde is a plaintiff in the case.)
This is a very interesting development as it indicates that the leaders of CSD do not think it is as big of a deal to have a school next to a hotel as many of their parents and Davidson residents do OR it is more financially beneficial for them to buy it now so they control their situation and sell it at a later date when / if they so choose.
ReplyDeleteI'd tend to agree on the benefits of thd school taking the future into its own hands - particularly after the way things were misrepresented by the previous Board. On the other hand, I'd be leery of reading to much into it regarding the admin's opinion of a hotel next to the school. The admin has been neutral on the controversy since the beginning, and it is not hard to understand why. As a 501c nonprofit entity, getting involved in a highly charged political issue in an election year would not have been prudent last year. Also, the school's landlord was on record as supporting the hotel. That had to be a very uncomfortable situation as well. From a purely business decision, when faced with living with the hotel or moving the entire school, almost certainly out of Davidson, that is not much of a choice really. Since the school had a lease that runs for at least another decade, taking its fate in its own hands in buying the school doesnt seem like an unwise move if the decision was to stay in Davidson anyway as a renter.
ReplyDeleteAll of that is beside the fact significant numbers of parents have been consistently opposed to the idea of a hotel next to the school. It also ignores the fact the Board who rammed this through did so relying on faulty information by assuming the school was moving. When it comes to the "school" those are the real issues.
None of that however means the school sees a hotel next to its location as "no big deal" or otherwise. Other types of uses would obviously be better. One does not have to be much of a mind reader to know that.