Due to lack of funding, Empire Properties has withdrawn from a deal with the city to build a boutique hotel - The Lafayette - by the Convention Center. The firm missed several deadlines imposed by the city for submitting plans for the hotel and acquiring a building permit. City Manager Russell Allen opposed granting Empire the deadline extensions last year, and yesterday the City Council agreed with Allen and voted unanimously to terminate the partnership.
Empire’s owner, Greg Hatem, read a statement at today’s council meeting outlining his firm’s successful renovations and enterprises downtown. Several city council members praised his contributions. Hatem concluded by saying that the current economy is unpredictable to even the “best and brightest leaders in the world,” and the City’s deadlines are impossible to meet under these conditions.
Once the economy improves, the city plans to solicit new bids for the site. This is the second hotel/condo on city-owned property the city has canceled due to the “unusual economy” this year, but a critical mass of hotel rooms downtown is crucial for attracting big events to the new convention center.
Hatem had big ideas for The Lafayette from the beginning. “Our dream was to create such a building that had not been seen in Raleigh since the magnificent ‘skyscrapers’ of the roaring twenties,” Hatem said at the meeting yesterday.
In this sound bite from summer 2006, he talks about his plans for the hotel during a stroll around downtown with GoCast.org.
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