Much of the River Arts District looks shattered, but many buildings can be salvaged, property owners, engineer say

by JOHN BOYLE and STARR SARIEGO

Sagging rooflines and toppled cinder block walls are the order of the day in the River Arts District right now, but a development team that owns 11 buildings in the district says nearly all of their buildings are salvageable.

Standing near what was the Marquee art space, a 50,000-square-foot cinder block and concrete building that is now missing large parts of the exterior walls on either end, Chris Eller, a member of the partnership group that owns the building, said without hesitation that it’s salvageable.

“For sure,” said Eller, a civil engineer and owner of Civil Design Concepts, an engineering firm in Asheville. “It’s probably my best structurally sound building. We spent a lot of time engineering that  — we actually poured solid concrete in every steel beam, every four feet, all the way along these walls. That’s the reason it’s still standing, and the reason plēb (Urban Winery) is not still standing.”

The raging French Broad River literally wiped the winery building, which Eller’s partnership group also owned, off its concrete slab Sept. 27. The partnership, Foundation Studios, has three managing members — Eller, Eddie Dewey and Brent Starck.

The water was so high in the River Arts District that two railroad ties washed into the nearly 18-foot high rafters of Marquee, where they remained Tuesday. Eller said they had workers open up the Marquee building Monday to allow the artists to come and salvage what they could.

Their engineering team checked for any structural integrity issues, with safety front of mind, and shored up the building where needed. For example, they’ve installed hydraulic jacks on the building’s corners, he said.

Not far from Marquee, a worker was pushing debris from what was plēb into a disposal pile. Formerly located at 289 Lyman St, all that remains of plēb, also owned by Foundation Studios, is the concrete slab.

But in the surrounding area, all of the other 10 buildings the partnership group owns can be repaired, despite sometimes uneven roof lines and missing cinder blocks. The buildings are off of Foundy Street, near Lyman Street.

The same holds true for Summit Coffee building, now missing the wall facing 12 Bones. The damage looks worse than it is, Eller said, noting the interior steel framework remained intact.

Dewey said they’re looking into financing packaging for renovation work, and that likely would include flood insurance, FEMA disaster relief, possibly Small Business Administration loans and other grants or philanthropic donations. They’d also like to see the City of Asheville step up with some help.

The whole idea, Dewey said, is to rebuild so the RAD’s artists can return. He realizes the story of the landlords’ woes is not as sympathetic to some as the artists and restaurant owners’ plights.

“But the reality is, these tenants were paying 25, 50 percent of market rents, and we were able to do that because we bought with value,” Dewey said, referring to the older, somewhat rundown buildings the RAD was known for. “We passed that value forward to these tenants.”

What they don’t want to do is rebuild at such a high expense level that rents have to go up precipitously.

“We’re committed to rebuilding, but we need some help,” Dewey said Tuesday, shortly after the administrator of the Small Business Administration visited the RAD. “And the community is here. The tenants are here. We’re here, but we’re gonna need some help from the federal government to make it, to resurrect this.”

Asheville Watchdog submitted several questions about rebuilding in the River Arts District to the City of Asheville but did not hear back by publication time. In the aftermath of Helene, the city is requiring all media questions to go through the Joint Information Center.

Why rebuild in flood-prone area?

Some may question the wisdom of rebuilding in the flood-prone area, but Dewey and other property owners pointed out that the River Arts District, once Asheville’s gritty industrial and warehouse district, is now a “cultural arts destination for Asheville.” The area, which follows the river from Amboy Road to the north of I-240, saw a boom over the past 20 years with an influx of artists’ studios, restaurants and bars, and more recently apartments.

“I think it’s vital, personally, and without it, folks are gonna move somewhere else,” Dewey said, referring to the artists.

Closer to the French Broad River, on Lyman Street, the mammoth Riverview Station building, also home to artists and craft workers, flooded up to the second floor. Artists and others were there Tuesday cleaning out debris and items they could salvage.

Owner Helaine Greene said she didn’t have the answers right now on how Riverview Station would proceed. She was not keen on taking on any SBA loans, though.

“I’m 72 years old, you know. I’m an old lady,” Greene said. “It’s taken me 30 years to build a beautiful community. That was a dream. It was absolutely a dream, and they all dreamed with me. We dreamed together. And it was gorgeous, just gorgeous And so I don’t know — I don’t have 30 more years to do this. I don’t.”

Her plan was to have her daughter, Jenny Rawlings, take over the building, but that’s up in the air with the building needing so much work. Riverview Station actually comprises several substantial brick buildings, with most built in 1926, according to county tax records. Sitting on 5.6 acres, the structures have an appraised value of $4.6 million.

“I don’t have answers right now. Honestly, we’re just digging out,” Greene said. “We’re helping people to get their things out. It’s just really, it’s too soon, too early to talk.”

Her son-in-law, Matt Rawlings, is heading up the building cleanup and repair, and he said the building is definitely salvageable, although the first floor in particular took a beating.

“This thing’s built like the proverbial brick shithouse — 17-inch thick walls on the ground floor,” said Rawlings, an independent contractor working for Charlie O’s general contracting.

In the coming days, they’ll be removing all the wet wallboard and wood potentially affected by mold and mildew. One cinder block structure that’s part of the compound is “not structurally sound anymore,” Rawlings said, as it has a large hole in the side.

Rawlings said Tuesday they had not brought in a structural engineer yet, but he’s confident the basic structure of the building remains sound. Any restoration would probably take months at a minimum.

“And who knows what the shape will take, because it may not be suitable for gallery space on the ground floor,” Rawlings said. “But the upstairs has all the studios divided up and just needs new drywall and some antimicrobial spray. And so that’s a lot more manageable than what has to happen on the ground floor.”

Greene said a lot of variables are in play and it’s too early to know what a restoration will look like.

“We’ve just been saying it really depends on what the regulations are going to be, and that depends on the city and FEMA,” Greene said. “We don’t know. We don’t have answers to those questions. It’s very hard.”

Another iconic RAD building, the Cotton Mill Studios building at 122 Riverside Drive, less than a mile from Riverview Station, also sustained major damage. It housed the popular Guitar Bar, artists studios and shops. At 9,316 square feet, the brick structure has an appraised tax value of $1.4 million.

Co-owner Jannette Barrosa said damage will likely easily exceed $500,000. River water reached up to the ceiling of the first floor. She plans to renovate and says nearly all of her tenants are committed to coming back, but Barrosa said it’s all a matter of funding, as no one there had flood insurance.

“It’s pretty much stripped down at this point,” Barrosa said, noting that a huge crew of artists, business owners and volunteers helped strip the waterlogged building to the studs. “So for the last two days, I’ve been sitting at the computer applying for grants.”

Built in 1900, the Cotton Mill Studios building withstood the floods of 1916 and 2004, as well as a fire that destroyed the rest of the structure, which was even older. It boasts 17-inch thick brick walls, and the building’s bones remain strong.

The building was submerged through the first floor, so they’ll have to redo the electrical panel, the heating and air conditioning, four bathrooms and more.

Barrosa noted that her son, Chris Barrosa, also lost his Cuban cuisine food truck, Guajiro, which means “rural farmer” in Spanish and was dedicated to her grandfather, with a caricature of him on the side. Chris Barrosa lost all the food in the truck and in a storage unit, as well as a bar in the building he had just taken over, and three new HVAC units he had installed.

“Seeing your child lose everything has just been the hardest thing of all,” Barrosa said.

The businesses in her building are all independently owned, and Barrosa said she wants to see them come back. She too believes in the mission of the River Arts District.

“The building owners that I’ve spoken to, we are all committed to keeping the character of the area,” Barossa said. “We were fighting against gentrification with all these big condo buildings coming into the district, so I don’t know, maybe this will be a saving grace somehow.”

Will the artists come back?

Robert Nicholas, manager of the Marquee business, said they had over 300 booths in the building, which featured everything from fine art and metal work to vintage clothing and antiques. He would like to see Marquee, which would’ve been celebrating three years in business in December, return to its previous form.

“This was a vessel to do the vision, and so we still have the vision,” Nicholas said Tuesday as he stood inside the darkened building, the swept up remains of ruined artwork in the center of the floor. “I don’t know that people are going to be real excited to come back to a place that just took out their livelihood, but I think that the River Arts District will in some way come back.”

Natalie Laster, who operated a booth in Marquee called Vagabond Trader, selling vintage clothing and antiques, said she “absolutely” would come back.

“I’ve been in business over 25 years, and this is not the first time I’ve had to start over,” Laster said. “I’m an entrepreneur. We’re resilient, you know. So, yeah, we’ll come back for sure.”

She was sympathetic to the artists in the building, though. Laster said a lot of her items can be replaced, but the artists produce one of a kind pieces.

“I know there’s some funding available, but still, it’s just devastating,” Laster said. “And they’re really attached to their art, and it comes from a deep place inside them, and I understand that.”