Drawing shows the proposed "Mooney's Corner" at right, a three-story building plus a rooftop penthouse. At left, across Main Street, is Stowe's Corner, which is currently nearing completion. (Drawing provided by The Lawrence Group)

Town planners, representatives of Artisan Builders and interested neighbors spent much of Thursday reviewing plans to replace a brick building next to Town Hall  in downtown Davidson with a new retail and office building.

Design drawings show a 3,900-square-foot multistory building intended to complement and face the Stowe building, which is currently under construction at South Main and South streets. “Mooney’s Corner,” a name that reflects the location’s history, will likely include a street-level restaurant, two stories of office space and a rooftop “penthouse” meeting room that may be available for community events.

“My sense here is that we don’t have a conflict,” said Town Planning Director Kris Krider after a day of taking public comments on the project. “We have an opportunity to add to our downtown fabric, which is terrific.”

A DAY OF WORKSHOPS

This building, 212 South Main, next door to Town Hall is slated for redevelopment.

On Thursday, the town hosted a daylong public “charrette” – or planning workshop – about plans for the lot at 212 S.  Main St. The day began with a site visit at 9 a.m. and lasted until the evening, when the day’s sessions were summed up. Town planners took public comments and heard concerns about such issues as preserving the two large oak trees on either side of the building, making sure the rear entrance takes advantage of the pedestrian walkway behind Main Street, and keeping the building from getting too tall.

“We’ve heard loud and clear that nobody wants anything taller than the Stowe’s building,” said David Malushizky of the Lawrence Group, which is designing the new site for Artisan Builders.

Brad Remmey, one of the partners in Artisan, said his company, which formed in Davidson in 2001, doesn’t need more space as much as it wants to spiff up what is now “an old and dilapidated building.”  Artisan Builders, which specializes in higher-end custom homes, intends to occupy part of one of the office floors in the new building.  Mr. Remmey added that his company wants to facilitate the wishes of town planners to get more retail into the storefronts along Main Street.

Mr. Remmey hopes to see Mooney’s Corner finished by the end of next year. Discussions are already underway with possible renters for the site, including one restaurant that Mr. Malushizky said would be interested in taking advantage of the nearby Davidson Farmer’s Market, possibly even by cooking up and serving market produce.

FROM WAREHOUSE TO TOWN LIBRARY

Mr. Malushizky said in his research into the history of the site he found early references to the name “Mooney’s Corner” as the former southernmost ending point for Davidson’s business district.  He wanted to bring that name back to life.

According to Mary Beaty’s 1979 book, Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937, the name refers to Robert D. Mooney, an early 1900s home builder and owner of Mooney’s Hardware on Main Street. The original building at 212 S. Main St. was a warehouse for the hardware store, and also saw incarnations as a garage, a mattress factory, a meeting hall, and the town’s first public library.

“This is the library many Davidson residents remember from their childhood – dark and not at all antiseptic, but a wonderful source of books,” Ms. Beaty wrote. In the 1950s, Mecklenburg County took over the library, demolished the former warehouse, and erecting today’s one-story brick building.

Artisan Builders bought the building from Jay Wade in 2003 and moved in.  The next year, the company proposed and won town approval for a 3-story mixed-use building on the site, but never built it.

“We were ready for permits, but then construction costs skyrocketed and it didn’t make economic sense to move forward,” Mr. Malushizky said.

Davidson Town Planner Parviz Moosavi (with back to camera) reviewed the site plan for Mooney's Corner, standing on what was once a driveway access to the building.

Now the plans are back on the table. This spring, Artisan purchased two small parcels of adjacent land, one from the town and one from neighbor Bob Knox. That will allow the new building to have a footprint that is almost double the current structure, by extending to the back and to the south.

During Thursday’s workshop sessions, Mr. Krider said Town Hall eventually could expand forward toward Main Street, so a plan for the rear of a new Mooney’s Corner needs to take that into consideration.

“It will be years before the town does anything,” Mr. Krider noted, “but we want the back (of Mooney’s Corner) to line up with the corridor that leads to Knox Court, which is intended as an arts district and pedestrian walkway.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

The town’s planning staff will now take the comments received during Thursday’s workshop to work with Artisan Builders and Mr. Malushizky to revise the building design.

Mr. Krider said Mooney’s Corner will be placed on the agendas for August planning and design review board meetings.

LINKS

See our previous coverage on this project, “Retail/office building proposed next to Town Hall.”