ASHEVILLE — Downtown's historic Flatiron Building, long a beacon of small business on the corner of Battery Park Avenue and Wall Street, will become a 71-room boutique hotel after a contentious City Council vote.

Council approved a conditional rezoning request for the 20 Battery Park Ave. property on a 4-3 vote June 25, a reversal from a month ago when a majority of members said they wouldn't have voted for it. The decision clears the way for developer Philip Woollcott's proposal to restore the building to what he's called its "original glory," and in the process converting it to a hotel with restaurant, street-level retail and commercial office space.

Mayor Esther Manheimer, Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler and council members Vijay Kapoor and Julie Mayfield voted to approve the plan. Keith Young, Sheneika Smith and Brian Haynes voted in the minority.

Mayfield, who spoke against the project in May, said Woollcott and his team addressed some of her concerns by meeting with opponents of the project — a notion some residents disputed — as well as searching out other avenues for long-term preservation of the building.

Ultimately, Mayfield said she saw "no clear path" to a different use of the Flatiron, particularly as no other viable plan was presented in the six weeks since the hotel project last was heard by the body.

"I am not happy about this decision," she said, "but I cannot keep moving the goalposts just to avoid a vote I don’t like."

MORE:

► Asheville Flatiron Hotel proposal, facing council rejection, withdrawn prior to vote

► Flatiron developer: Hotel, restaurant conversion will return building to 'original glory'

► Asheville's Flatiron Building may become a hotel. Its tenants have concerns.

Plan made second pitch

The project returned to council after attorney Wyatt Stevens pulled the project from consideration in May. In the time since the last meeting, Woollcott and staff changed the proposal from 80 hotel rooms to 71 and reserved the second floor of the building for commercial office space, similar to much of its current use.

It also came following recent revelations of the criminal history of a minority owner of the Flatiron, in addition to questions raised about past city-issued bond money approved for upgrades there.

The latter was a chief complaint by Young, who made a motion to postpone the vote another month to gather more information, largely about a 1985 council vote to pay out $800,000 in bond money for Flatiron improvements. That vote, like the June 25 final tally, was 4-3.

But Young took longtime building majority owner Russell Thomas — not in attendance — to task for a deferred maintenance schedule that hadn't been articulated to the body and one that left the property in need of major repairs to its electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems.

"You're telling us we should do this because of maintenance, but again the question of what was the maintenance schedule on the building has not been answered, again," he said.

Stevens said Thomas, of Midtown Development Associates LLC, the building's primary owners since 1985, did not receive city funding for past upgrades, instead saying it was approved for the building's ownership group prior to Midtown.

He also dismissed the relevance of bringing a past such payment into the discussion of the hotel proposal.

"There's no evidence to suggest (Thomas did receive the money)," Stevens said, addressing Young. "I would say even if there were — and there isn't — and you dug some more, what relevance, I would ask, does that have to a rezoning decision in June of 2019?"

What hotel opponents, supporters said

Much of the hour of public comments struck a similar tone to lower city planning meetings and the May 14 City Council session, including many of the same voices again speaking against it. At least 20 residents expressed displeasure with the plan, citing an influx of downtown hotels, displacing locals for tourists, concern of gentrification and the relocation of the building's many small business tenants.

Asheville resident Sarah Benoit said she was in favor of Young's proposal to postpone the vote to July and argued council hasn't done enough to hold property developers and hotels accountable.

"When are at least three or four of you really going to start to understand that a lot of us don't feel like you're worried about the people who live here?" she said. "You're worried about a few people who live here that somehow deserve to make all the money they can, every last squeezable million in whatever they're doing instead of being basically responsible?"

Related: Boyle column: Hotels and a city's soul

Kristen Daniels showcased a presentation of upcoming hotel proposals in the community, including several approved earlier this year by council. She called on council to deny the project in favor of plan for the city's future that "makes sense."

Daniels also criticized Thomas, saying he sounds "less like a man who selflessly offered reasonably priced office space but rather an irresponsible business owner that did not take care of his investment."

But resident Dan March argued Thomas and Midtown have invested in small business by offering reasonable rates to them for more than three decades. He said the building's owners "have paid for their share of goodwill in the public interest for many years."

"The Flatiron has served a very noble, small business purpose for many years," March said. "It's time now for it to find another purpose in Asheville."