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As posted on Citizen Times – Click to read the original post.

ASHEVILLE — Maybe the recession really is over.

The Haywood Park Hotel, one of Asheville’s more prominent hotels and a cornerstone of the mid-1980s downtown renaissance, is getting a new restaurant and has seen a bump in retail leasing on its interior atrium space.

Owner Tony Fraga, who bought the Haywood Park property in June 2007 for $18.5 million and initially had plans to erect two new skyscrapers nearby, said he’s optimistic about the future.

“(The economy) can improve, but it’s like everything else — we’re slowly gaining our way out of the recession,” Fraga said. “The hotel is doing a lot better than it was last year, but not as good as it was in 2007.”

Nearly all the retail space in the property is leased, except for a couple of spots in the hotel atrium, including one where Souper Sandwich closed in 2007 after a 13-year run. The Haywood Park property includes the 33-suite hotel, the Haywood Atrium, an interior parking garage and a building and parking lot on Page Avenue.

Out front, the hotel’s premium dining spot, on the corner of Haywood Street and Battery Park, has been vacant since the Flying Frog Café closed in January after 15 years. Owner and executive chef Vijay Shastri said previously the sagging economy took a toll on his restaurant, which served an eclectic mix of French, Cajun and Indian food.

‘Epicenter of downtown’

But the spot was simply too high-profile to stand empty long.

“It’s the epicenter of downtown,” said Bryan Kimmett, who with his wife, Annie, plans to open a casual European-style café upstairs called Restaurant Solace. They’ll use the downstairs for a little more upscale restaurant.

Bryan Kimmett said both restaurants should open in May, with the upstairs coming online about a week before the downstairs spot. Each restaurant will have a seating capacity of 125, and between them they’ll employ 40-50 people.

“We’ve been inundated with applications for management staff and wait staff,” Bryan Kimmett said.

Kimmett, who’s been serving “comfort food with a 2000s twist” since the early 1990s, has been at the Swag restaurant at Smoky Mountain Resort in Waynesville the past three years. He’s sold on downtown Asheville and thinks his new restaurants will make it because of the offerings and price points.

pstairs, he’ll offer “small plates,” similar to tapas, at prices ranging from $4-$16 for artisan sandwiches and other fare. The downstairs cuisine will be pricier, with some entrees in the $12-$14 range and the most expensive topping out at $32.

The Kimmetts will bake their own bread and pastries, and they’ll use as much locally farmed food as possible. He’s confident that locals will respond to the formula.

“We’ll be here for the tourists as well, but we want to be good for the local economy,” Kimmett said. “I think if people know they’re supporting the local economy and they know where the product’s coming from, they respond to that. My wife and I are very confident and assured that once people experience it, they’ll continue to come.”

Working with Fraga, the Kimmetts put the lease deal together in two weeks.

Bryan Kimmett didn’t discuss its details but said he was impressed with Fraga’s commitment to the property.

“He definitely wants to upgrade the hotel,” Kimmett said. Kimmett also declined to say how much he was spending on renovating the Flying Frog space.

An Asheville icon

While many Asheville residents and visitors know it only as the Haywood Park Hotel, the building has a long and iconic history in Asheville.

In 1923, Bon Marche department store moved into the new building.

Ivey’s, another well-known department store, took over the building in 1937, staying until 1976. It was one of the last downtown stores to close after Asheville Mall opened in 1972.

The hotel opened in 1986, one of the first signs of revitalization in a downtown that was mostly vacant.

Before the economy crashed in 2007, Fraga had plans for a 25-story hotel on Page Avenue, a 23-story condominium building on Haywood Street, 130,000 square feet of office and retail space, and 506 parking spaces.

He dropped those plans in November 2008, citing the economy and the city’s cumbersome development review process.

Since then, Fraga has concentrated on upgrading all the rooms, including repainting and installing flat-screen televisions. The fitness center has been renovated, and work is under way on the lobby area.

Occupancy of the office space on the second and third floors of the atrium stands “in the 90s,” percentage-wise, according to Fraga’s development company, the FIRC Group, which has its offices in the Haywood Park building.

FIRC noted that The Watchmaker’s Shop, Featherheads Emporium and the Spice & Tea Exchange recently leased space, and the Chocolate Fetish shop expanded.

Also, new tenants have absorbed more than 9,000 square feet of office space.

“Things are trending up, which is great news for our tenants and the downtown community,” said Wes Reinhardt, vice president of marketing for FIRC.

As posted on Citizen Times – Click to read the original post.

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