Silence grows at Asheville’s Haywood Park complex

Jason Sandford October 14, 2008

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

The Haywood Park Hotel complex is growing quieter, as more and more tenants move out. I can’t name them all, but business after business has disappeared. The Ariel art gallery is gone. And Chuck Tessier moved out of his offices just last week.

Everyone was moving out in advance of the planned Tony Fraga massive tower project. But that project got shot down by Asheville City Council a couple of weeks ago. So that leaves Fraga with an empty Haywood Park Hotel complex and no firm renovation plans. He’ll likely move forward with a scaled down version of his renovations, but it’s unclear.

So drop by the listen to the crickets chirp at Haywood Park. The only thing really left is the Bier Garden, which had planned to move out by the first of the year. Those plans may be put off, the bar owner tells me.

Meanwhile, it was just coincidence that I got Gasperson Moving and Storage in the photo here. Gasperson Transfer and Storage lost its Woodfin warehouse to a major fire on Monday.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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2 Comments

B Smart October 16, 2008

There was a man who had a small shoe repair shop there. Is he gone too?

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Zipperhead October 15, 2008

Build, Build, Build, means Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!!!

It will never change Asheville away from it’s hippy state of mind. It will just make it easier for us hippies to pay our bills.

We need growth and if the only way to do it is to build up then so be it. We need the employment in the area.

I remember going to work as a laborer in a skyscraper being built in near by city. Sweeping floors, hanging sheet rock, dumping trash etc. After the building was completed and getting to know a few of the new tenants I got a job at one of them. This later turned into a business contact that I have to this day and it has paid of well. This is what we need for the residents of Asheville and Buncombe county.

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