Is part of Tunnel Road 'falling into blight?'

By some estimations, it's a commercial strip with nine lives.

A Mecca for chain restaurants, hotels and stores, for decades Tunnel Road has been a center for commerce just beyond the reach of downtown Asheville. In the 1950s and '60s it was the spot for teenagers to cruise a circuit of drive-in burger joints, yielding in the 1970s and '80s to motels and big national chain restaurants.

As downtown waned, Tunnel Road boomed, becoming the strip where most tourists landed for a visit to Asheville, pulling into a name-brand hotel not far from the Red Lobster or a Chili's. For years, that formula worked just fine, despite the aging of some buildings and the resurgence of downtown.

But now, parts of Tunnel Road, especially closer to the tunnel, are beginning to look a little rough, with one developer suggesting it's bordering on blight. Other key players say that while the area certainly needs attention, it still has plenty of life in it — another of its nine, you could say.

Opinions vary, but just about everyone agrees the corridor needs some spiffing up.

"I think it's still a vibrant area," said Karl Koon, president of Sea-Nic Enterprises Inc., a real estate company that owns numerous properties on Tunnel Road, including Buffalo Wild Wings, Outback Steakhouse, Cracker Barrel, Dairy Queen and Papa's & Beer restaurants, as well as Clark Tire and a Holiday Inn. "But yes, there are a couple of properties along there that could be utilized in some better or 'highest and best use.'"

Asheville resident Ashley Ledford, 27, said overall the area is still thriving, but it could use a helping hand. She used to work at Big Lots at Innsbruck Mall and said panhandlers were always a problem.

"People were asking for money constantly," she said. "They'll knock on your window. When I worked at Big Lots, it was scary to walk to your car at night."

Still, the 1-mile stretch of Tunnel Road from the tunnel to Asheville Mall remains a hotel and restaurant powerhouse, with a dozen hotels and about 20 restaurants dotting the corridor, as well as offices and retail shops.

"I love it over here," said Fairview resident Diane Brank, who was loading bags from Big Lots into her car Friday. "I can come over here and hit the dollar store, Big Lots, the grocery store, all in an hour or two. I like the convenience of it."

But she laments the condition of some of the hotels, saying it looks like some of them might be "kind of drug-related."

"The way I describe it is there are two or three really nice hotels over here, and the rest of them" — she makes a thumbs-down gesture, Brank said, adding that if folks come in from out of town, "We recommend Biltmore."

From cruisers to decline

An Asheville native, Koon, 59, remembers the early heyday of Tunnel Road, when cruisers gunned their hot rods in a circuit between drive-ins that included Wink's, Babe Malloy's and Buck's. At Wink's, a radio station broadcast on the back of the lot, and the deejays would lower a bucket down to diners to take their musical requests.

"My grandfather purchased a lot of that property in the early '50s," said Koon, whose family owns Asheville Oil Co. "The tunnel was the divider between the city and the country back then. There was a Gulf Station where Buffalo Wild Wings is now, and it had a real big map of Western North Carolina. People could see how to get to to the Smoky Mountains, to Cherokee. You had the Starlight Theater over here, a place with in-ground trampolines. There was a lot of things for families to do."

Developer Rusty Pulliam, who has brokered numerous deals that put businesses along the corridor, also has fond memories of Tunnel Road. He agrees the number of suspect-looking businesses is small, but the aesthetics problem is serious, he says.

And when Asheville Outlets opens in May on the west side of town, that could pull more shoppers from Tunnel Road. He worries about a downward spiral.

"I think Tunnel Road is on the edge of falling into a blighted status, where people are not going to want to be there if it continues," said Pulliam, whose company is partnering on a hotel and business office project downtown. "But I will say, Tunnel Road has nine lives. It has come back and reinvented itself several times in my 30-year career when I didn't think it would."

Some buildings could use a reinvention, and several others are vacant.

The In Town Motor Lodge, with an "Open 4 Business" sign out front and a rusted metal staircase leading to the second floor, is for sale. On a recent rainy afternoon, an old Volvo station wagon full of someone's possessions was the lone vehicle in the parking lot.

Down the street, at the Blue Ridge Motor Lodge, the building is in better shape but the parking lot isn't much more full. The building is old, too, dating to the 1960s, and the pool was filled in a while back.

Property Manager Marina Morey said the owners, who also own the In Town, have a renovation planned for the 60-room Blue Ridge. Business remains strong.

"Our season really starts in May and runs through December," Morey said, peaking during leaf season. "You can't get a room through the month of October."

At $65 a night, the Blue Ridge is not a premium hotel, and Morey said they do a lot of weekly rentals to construction workers and other tradesmen. A dilapidated, closed gas station sits next door, and Morey acknowledges that they've had trouble with homeless people in the area panhandling guests.

"I think there's a lot the city of Asheville could do to improve things in this area," she said, noting that downtown has received a lot of attention during its renaissance. "We're seven minutes from downtown. One thing they should focus on is the homeless people. Like all of us who are running a business, when you have a panhandler on your property or at a restaurant, that doesn't help. A lot of times, I think the city of Asheville closes its eyes to the homeless problem."

City aware of the problems

Above the tunnel's entrance that overlooks the corridor, a campsite is perched just off a winding road. Two-liter bottles, clothing and cold medicine boxes litter the hillside nearby.

The city has not ignored homelessness, actually making a move to end chronic homelessness in Asheville a major initiative over the past decade. But a study that came out last week noted Buncombe County experienced its first increase in chronic homelessness in seven years in 2015.

The data shows 74 people were experiencing chronic homelessness in January, a 57 percent increase over last year.

Asheville Police Department Spokeswoman Christina Hallingse said the department "has community resource officers and district officers that address panhandling and homeless concerns in this area."

"This area brings a mix of known regulars and transients," Hallingse said. "Our (officers) work closely with the city of Asheville Homeless Coordinator and the Veterans Restoration Quarters staff, as well as other local service providers, to connect those in need of assistance with available services."

Enforcement actions, which include warnings and citations, are taken by APD officers for those panhandling in the area.

"Even though we are aware of panhandling issues in the area, we still encourage individuals to report activity," Hallingse said.

Tunnel Road has not been forgotten, but the city is limited in what it can do regarding aesthetics, according to city officials.

Shannon Tuch, development services director with the city of Asheville, said her department has just hired an enforcement coordinator, and that should help with properties that have fallen into disrepair.

"I would say, historically, we haven't done the best job, especially during the recession, in keeping up with properties," Tuch said. "But we are in the process of really trying to dive in."

The city is limited in what it can do, however, and has a responsibility to enforce state statutes as they pertain to buildings and safety. If the city determines a building is unsafe for any reason, it can post it as uninhabitable and notify the owner.

"It's the property owner's responsibility to take care of it," Tuch said. "If they fail to take care of it or mitigate that safety issue, then we can take stronger actions, from a hearing up to demolishing it. We are authorized to demolish, but we're not compelled to demolish."

The easiest solution for property owners is to secure the building by boarding it up and preventing entry, which seems to be the case with the old gas station. Generally speaking, if a building just looks bad and is "not posing an imminent threat," the city has little leeway to demand a remedy, Tuch said.

Mayor Esther Manheimer disputes the "blight" notion.

"Tunnel Road is not edging toward blight, but it is in transition," Manheimer said. "Clearly, the original concept of chain restaurants and big box stores is not a concept supported by the community. This area needs to move in the direction that much of the rest of Asheville is already experiencing, with locally owned shops and restaurants, integrated with surrounding neighborhoods."

The city "should play a supporting role with infrastructure investment that aims to improve quality of life — providing safe walking, biking and driving infrastructure," the mayor said.

Councilman Chris Pelly cited another concern — no housing.

"I believe part of the reason there may be a perception this area is, 'on the edge of becoming blighted,' is because there is, at present, no residential component to this section of Tunnel Road," he said. "We have seen other areas where residential living has been reintroduced, most notably downtown, where there is a heightened awareness about these issues that leads to a more active response."

Manheimer said some neighborhood organizations in east Asheville are "eager to see a Tunnel Road comprehensive plan put in place similar to the Haywood Road study and rezoning council passed last year.

"I would invite that opportunity, and I know that process would address some if not all of the issues ...," she said.

The corridor, Tuch said, still has "some good potential there," and "blight" is "too strong a word" to describe the area.

"It's an an area that needs some attention," Tuch said. "If you can get a couple of catalyzing developments in there, that could really potentially clean up that area. Generally speaking, we want the market to respond and take it from there."

Still a draw

Koon thinks the market will take care of the doldrums Tunnel Road is in. An area right off the interstate and so close to a thriving downtown should thrive, he says.

His company owns the former Fiddlin' Pig building, which has been empty since the bluegrass and barbecue restaurant closed in 2010.

"We had one national concern really close (to signing), and we are still pursuing national tenants, which we prefer," Koon said, adding that they'll likely demolish the building to accommodate a new user. "The tenants we have are strong national concerns. Some of the leases we make go out 50, 100 years."

Those establishments, clearly, are in it for the long haul, he said.

Koon said one longtime Tunnel Road tenant that stands out as a concern is Innsbruck Mall.

Pelly agrees, and again pushes the idea of some residential development.

"My take is that Tunnel Road has the space — consider just the 20 acres that comprise underutilized Innsbruck Mall — to absorb high density residential development," he said. "It's near downtown, on a transit line, and the zoning allows it."

Koon puts it this way: "I don't know what the long-term plans are for Innsbruck Mall, but that's an awful big parcel near downtown."

Built in 1966, the mall comprises 213,000 square feet. The exterior was renovated about a decade ago, and the downstairs level is fully occupied, with an Office Depot, Big Lots, a Dollar General and several other stores, as well as a blood plasma service.

But redevelopment or a sale would be problematic, Pulliam has said, because Innsbruck has "a lot of longer term leases over there, so it would take a lot of money to get off the leases. And to tear it down and start over, from a developer's mindset, it's almost impossible to do anything with that site."

Tax records indicate the mall's owners are Douglas and Lydia Brendle, of Elkin. The malls sits on just more than 20 acres, and the land and building had a 2014 tax value of $11.3 million.

A sign out front advertises that a 1.85-acre parcel is available, but that is a separate parcel, according to Roy Borden, of Beverly-Hanks, the listing agent. It's a parking lot now, but Borden said it's a natural spot for a retail store, restaurant or small hotel.

As far as the mall, changes are unlikely, according to Linda Richardson, general manager of Brenco Real Estate Management in Elkin, the company that manages Innsbruck.

In March, she summarized the mall's status this way: "The only thing I can tell you is the fate is what it's always been — no different from the past."