Council debates town support, forgivable loan for redevelopment at 104–106 East Carolina

Crewe officials described town assistance already provided to a private developer renovating the former PG Tropical building at 104–106 East Carolina and debated whether the town should provide additional reimbursements or a forgivable façade loan ahead of a DHCD grant cycle. The town manager said the developer has incurred repeated, unexpected costs during remediation and the town has already provided dumpsters, gravel and partial reimbursements from the demolition/building fund.

“I called to order the September 9th 2024 regular meeting…” the manager began when introducing agenda business, later noting that “we've assisted him in in several ways” and that total costs the town has covered to date are “somewhere between 20 to 25,000.” Council discussed treating a short-term payment as a forgivable loan to be reimbursed if a future DHCD façade grant is awarded; staff said DHCD grant timing likely delays any federal/state funds until mid–late 2025 or 2026. One council member warned about precedent: “I just think that this might start a precedent that we don't really want to be a precedent,” arguing that town funds should be routed through the EDA and constrained by program criteria.

Council members also identified programmatic guardrails: staff proposed requiring a minimum private investment threshold (for example, a $100,000 property investment to qualify for a full $30,000 grant) and suggested using the EDA to administer future façade incentives. The manager noted the current demolition/building line item holds roughly $115,000 but cautioned about spending the line item early in the fiscal year. Council did not commit to immediate additional reimbursements pending confirmation that a reimbursement-from-future-grant approach would be allowable under DHCD rules.