News-Record.com

There'll be some extra Christmas lights next week on the Greensboro skyline.

Roy Carroll II says construction crews will strike up temporary lights in the long-dark old Wachovia tower, which is being stripped of its outer skin in its extreme makeover as Center Pointe.

There'll also be sparks from welding crews working overtime to dress down the building in preparation for its new facade and exterior.

Carroll gave me a tour Thursday of the tower's top floors. Fortunately it was unseasonably warm so the wind was more breezy than blustery.

Carroll said he'd had a talk with brothers Steve and Jim Jones, who have closed their sales office and are rethinking their approach to Bellemeade Village.

Carroll also said he hopes they'll be able to make Bellemeade work because it's in every downtown developer's best interest that they do.

Unlike other parts of the city, he said. developers need to pull for one another because they depend on one another's success.

He also said he fully expects Bellemeade Village to becme reality because the land is too valuable for it not to.

As for the view from the top of the tower, I'll come clean. It made me queasy, especially with the outside walls gone, and with only a cable and a warning sign between me and the pavement below.

The vista is tremendous, though. Carroll said early buyers preferred the First Horizon Park side of the building. Now that Center City Park has opened, the requests are roughly half and half.

On a clear day, I could see why for myself.