F & M Buys Normans
County to get parking; city to develop pedestrian mall

BY WESLEY YOUNG
SALISBURY POST

It's a deal.

Rowan County and F&M Bank concluded a deal on the Norman's property this morning, clearing the way for a big push forward in downtown development.

In a complicated deal announced this morning, F&M Bank will get the old Norman's buildings in the 200 block of North Main Street, with the city of Salisbury chipping in $150,000 for a pedestrian mall for the property.

Meanwhile, Rowan County will solve its parking needs by buying all the property owned by Dr. John Robert Crawford III and Clarence Mayfield in the 300 block of North Main Street.

''Thank you for what you have done for the good of our city,'' Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz said, at a special meeting of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. ''Of course, this area is very important to us and our future.''

The room was filled with people: F&M Bank officials, city officials, people involved with downtown redevelopment and others. Everyone stood and clapped their hands after the county commissioners finished acting on the proposals.

The event marked a happy ending to a controversial chapter that opened last year when the county board turned down their own offer to sell the property to F&M.

What F&M now has is a one-year option to buy the former Norman's property for $927,500. This includes the Mayfield building, the Norman's building, the Norman's annex and the old McCanless Garage in the 100 block of East Liberty Street.

The county will pay Crawford $912,500 for properties that sit towards the south side of the 300 block of North Main Street (facing Liberty Street), and will pay Mayfield $565,000 for other properties on the north side of the block, generally facing Kerr Street. The county will end up with most of the land on the block, though not all of it: on the Main Street side, the county will own the Crawford building and the Hometown Furniture building, but not the three properties in between those two buildings.

The votes on all the land transactions were unanimous on the Rowan County Board of Commissioners this morning. Commissioner Dave Rowland, who had opposed previous deals on the Norman's property, told the Post after the vote that he is now satisfied with the price the county is getting for the Norman's property.

F&M plans an initial investment of $3.7 million on the former Norman's property. The first phase will be the renovation of the Mayfield building for a bank administrative center employing 30-35 people. F&M will maintain its home office and operations center in Granite Quarry.

F&M has no current plans for the Norman's building or the buildings on Liberty Street.

The city of Salisbury and the bank will jointly reopen Easy Street, which used to run through the property and connect Salisbury Station with Main Street. Easy Street will become a pedestrian mall.

Steve Fisher, general counsel for F&M Bank, said the whole deal wouldn't have happened without the city funding for Easy Street.

Last year, F&M agreed to buy the property for $625,000, before the deal fell through. Fisher told the Post this morning that the city's $150,000 commitment for Easy Street development was key for the approval of today's deal.

Fisher called the deal a ''lesson in perseverance.''

''We have been working on this project since 1996 when we first came to the county with a proposal,'' Fisher said in a news release he delivered to the Post before today's meeting. He added that the property will give F&M ''enough room to grow, to develop well-landscaped parking, and possibly partner with other developers with some of the buildings.''

In the news release, county and city officials talked about how the deal will help their plans for downtown.

- Newton Cohen, chairman of the county board, said the 300 block of North Main Street will give the county ''space for future offices, jail space and parking.''

''We could put a cross walk over Liberty Street on the second floor,'' Cohen noted.

- Randy Heman, executive director of Downtown Salisbury Inc., said the Norman's deal - coming on the heels of the proposed Chamber of Commerce move and a Flowers Bakery redevelopment plan - means this is a ''truly exciting year for downtown Salisbury.''

- Salisbury City Manager David Treme said the city's agreement on Easy Street fits into a pattern of recent city improvement projects: the Innes Street Corridor Plan, adopted in 1995, the Park Avenue Neighborhood Strategic Redevelopment Plan, adopted in Feb., 1998, and the Flowers Bakery Area Redevelopment Plan, adopted in July of 1998.

Paul Fisher, the chairman and chief executive officer of F&M Bank, says the county showed ''tremendous foresight'' to buy the Crawford and Mayfield properties.

Fisher outlined for the Post his plans for the Norman's property:

- F&M will restore the Mayfield building on the property, and add street lighting, benches, brick sidewalks and landscaping to Easy Street.

- Easy Street will connect Main Street to what he's calling a plaza behind the Mayfield building for street festivals, art events and musical performances.

- Fisher also wants to build a ''Charleston-style'' walled garden for public and private use behind the Mayfield building.

Downtown improvements are vital if the city is to compete with Concord Mills, a huge mall going up in Cabarrus County. He said it is ''more important than ever that Salisbury position itself in a way that we will be able to continue to prosper after that takes place.''

The goal, he said, is to ''build Salisbury into something that is so special that people will come here to enjoy the quaintness of the city, to shop, to dine, to go to the theater, see an art exhibit, to live, and to experience yesterday today.''

Cohen noted that the county has poured $13 million into the Justice Center downtown, in addition to $3 million for the library and $3 million for the old post office renovation. He said the projects all demonstrate the county's commitment to downtown.