Adjoining property owners got a chance to review the preliminary site plan for a proposed nine-storey building at 101 E. Main St., on the Downtown Mall. But beyond talk of what would be Charlottesville’s fanciest parking facility, they didn’t get to learn much.
 |
| Keith Woodard owns these buildings and would like to turn them into a single nine-storey building with an "automatic-valet" underground parking garage. |
Keith Woodard is looking to turn half an acre, currently the site of four buildings and a parking lot from Main Street to Market Street, into a nine-storey building with office, retail and 82 condo units on the north side of the Downtown Mall next to the Wachovia building. Joseph Celentano of VMDO Architects presented little but a map showing the footprint of the building. Not included were any architectural renderings, elevations, square-footage calculations or anything else to give a clearer sense of what the building would look like.
What Woodard, who has owned the properties since 2003, did share was a description of the “automatic-valet” underground parking garage: A person drives into one of three entry/exit stations, parks on a steel palate, gets out and swipes a magnetic strip, which activates a system that automatically takes the car to its designated rack. He estimates the process would take one to one and a half minutes. “Everybody has the best parking spot,” said Woodard.
Woodard intends to apply for a special-use permit, presumably to allow for greater density on the site. That means it will get thorough oversight from both the Planning Commission and City Council before construction can begin.
One foreseeable problem is that three of the four current building facades must be preserved, per demands of the Board of Architectural Review.
“I think it’s great to do historic preservation,” said Ludwig Kuttner, who owns the Central Place building nearby. “But not to have development, and positive development, is stunning.”
Adjoining property owner Gabe Silverman took the opportunity to blast the slow City processes. “Instead of being proactive they’re being reactive,” says Silverman.
Colette Hall of the North Downtown Residents Association shared her concerns about the building shadowing Lee Park and whether the building might drive away the nearby Hill & Wood Funeral Home, which she says has been a good neighbor.
Woodard would not comment on the project’s timetable.
