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As Carroll sees it, Wachovia is a better idea now than it had ever been before. Downtown is coming back with the new baseball stadium, the Civil Rights Museum, a new Elon law school and a planned Center City Park in the old building's shadow.

"So much of the real estate industry is about timing," Carroll says."I like how the Wachovia project fits with other momentum and synergy downtown."

Carroll also believes local developers have rethought their skittishness about downtown projects.

"Everybody realizes that downtown is the heart of the community," he said. "If we don't have a strong, vibrant heart, everything else suffers."

So the question of why Roy Carroll is interested in resuscitating the Dark Tower is pretty clear. How is another matter.

Cherokee Investment Partners bowed out of the deal because of the sheer expensiveness of it all. But Carroll believes he can succeed if he can sell the deal as a public-private partnership.

Carroll cites a similar story in Winston-Salem, where the 18-story Nissen Building is being converted into 140 downtown apartments. The financing for the Nissen project involved up to $1 million from a group of private investors, a $3.5 million loan from a private downtown development foundation, a $3 million loan from the city and $12.8 million from a private lender.

The Nissen Building, built in 1926, also is eligible for more than $6.2 million in state and federal tax credits because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Winston really embraced how important that building is to downtown," Carroll said.

Whether similar community hugs and kisses are forthcoming here for a Wachovia project remains to be seen.

Yet City Manager Ed Kitchen has said for some time that he's interested in channeling more city resources into downtown development.

Without such help, Carroll flatly says, the project simply won't work.
For all the questions that need answers, there's certainly no doubting what Carroll's success would mean for downtown.
His project would become the most visible, significant milestone in downtown's rebirth, with 150 new residences for a growing urban community that thrives on its own growth: The more people who live there, the more amenities, perhaps even a longed-for grocery store.
One other lesson to be learned from the Nissen project: It would have failed without the faith, sweat and cash from a group of local business leaders with deep roots in Winston-Salem. People who felt about Winston-Salem like Roy Carroll, who was born and reared here, feels about Greensboro.

Meanwhile, Carroll agrees that it would be nice, and indeed useful, to rename the tower he hopes to remake.

"We're at the point where we need to come up with something other than the old Wachovia building," he said. "That's not very inspiring."
One name the building won't bear, Carroll said, is his own.
"I don't know that Greensboro needs a Carroll Building," he said.
What Greensboro most needs to be able to call the big cabinet at 201 N. Elm St. is a success.

Contact Editorial Page Editor Allen H. Johnson at ajohnson@news-record.com