Major restaurant group potentially bringing business to S&W building

Yesterday, Xpress reporter Bill Rhodes discovered that Asheville’s iconic S&W Cafeteria building and the Windsor Hotel had been purchased:

“A Miami Beach, Fla. gynecologist and his business partners — doing business as MRK Patton, LLC and MRK Broadway LLC — have purchased the former S&W Cafeteria building and the former Windsor Hotel recently, according to papers filed with the state of North Carolina Secretary of State and the Buncombe County Register of Deeds.

The S&W building at 56 Patton Ave., long considered the jewel of Asheville’s Art Deco past, went for $1,963,000. Its previous sale price is listed in 2007 as $2,450,000.

The Windsor Hotel at 34/36 Broadway has a long history and was sold for $885,000. At the height of the market in 2007, the building went for $2,300,000.”

Today, the Asheville-Citizen Times reports that “a major restaurant group” is considering the first floor of the S&W, which most recently housed an independent steak house:

“Negotiations are under way to lease first-floor space in the S&W to an unidentified ‘major restaurant owner,’ said Michael Krieger, who is a principal in the companies along with his brother, Richard.

The two will complete seven unfinished condominiums in the upper floors of the building at 56 Patton Ave. and then either sell or lease them, he said.

‘We just believe in the Asheville market. We think it’s a good market,’ said Michael Krieger, who is based in Miami Beach, Fla. ‘We see no reason that it’s not going to continue to grow.'”