Canada Dry accuracy issue
Last week, we ran a story about interest from hotels in buying the Canada Dry property near the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. It quotes Carl Essa, the commercial agent charged with selling the property. The story raises questions about whether taxpayers should spend money – the asking price is $3.7 million – to revitalize High Point Road if private developers are interested.
Essa, I understand, has called some members of the City Council to say that the story is untrue. I’d like to respond to that:
1) On Thursday, before I left the office, I read back to Essa the parts of the story that included information attributed to him. It’s not something I’m in the habit of doing, but it seemed a way to assure Essa that the story would be accurate. In our telephone conversation, he assured the accuracy of each part I attributed to him.
2) He left a voice mail on my telephone that explained the following information: The hotel that was most seriously considering the property was NOT the one that offered space for the ACC Hall of Champions. Unfortunately, I deleted the voice mail. But I followed up by sending him the following e-mail (with some e-mail addresses and phone numbers deleted):
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Banks
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 3:38 PM
To: 'xxxxxxxx@essainc.com'
Subject:
Carl – sorry I missed you. I got your explanation about the most serious prospect NOT being the one that expressed interest in the HOC. We’ll go over it and confirm that I understood you correctly when I call you back, though.
Margaret Banks
News & Record
373-7031
Cell: 707-xxxx
Comments (1)
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This e-mail from Carl Essa came to me last night:
Dear Margaret,
I'd like to clarify statements I made in our conversation last week regarding the former Canada Dry site. I'd like to set the record straight with the following statement:
"Private developers have expressed interest in purchasing the former Canada Dry site. Some of these developers have expressed interest in the property as a potential hotel site, but we have talked only to the developers and not directly to any hotels. We also are unaware of the identity of those potential hotels.
"None of the private developers has proposed housing the ACC Hall of Champions as part of their plans, as was mistakenly stated in the newspaper. I regret if any of the comments contributed to this mistaken impression."
"We continue to be interested in discussing with the city or other potential purchasers the possible uses for the property."
Sincerely,
Carl Essa
Essa Commercial Real Estate
Posted on May 30, 2007 9:42 AM