City Camper Developers Provide Update about What Is Now "A Big Mud Hole"

The company behind the deluxe hotel planned for Brevard told Mayor Maureen Copelof it remains committed to the project, but has "paused" work in the face of rising construction costs.

Planned site of the City Camper hotel on Brevard’s North Broad Street

BREVARD — It’s been the big question in Brevard for months: What’s behind the stalled construction of the deluxe City Camper hotel?

“I’m asked about it almost every day,” Mayor Maureen Copelof said on Thursday. “I walk down the streets and I get asked. I hold a Meet the Mayor, like this morning, and I get asked.”

“I’ve been asked about it almost as much as about the grants for the path at this point,” said City Council member Geraldine Dinkins, referring to the recent awards of federal funds to build the multi-use Ecusta Trail.

“People are very focused on it, especially because nothing’s being done and it’s got this really loud, attention-drawing silt fence around it.”

Plans for the 120-room hotel on North Broad Street, as well as a freestanding spa and restaurant, received approval from the Brevard City Council in June of last year. After extensive clearing and site work, the company behind the project, City Camper LLC, apparently halted construction late last year.

Its leaders had touted the hotel as a future downtown centerpiece, Dinkins said, “and now they are the owners of a big, empty, very muddy dirt lot.”

City Camper Vice President Alan O’Neal did provide at least partial answers to questions about the project in a meeting with Copelof earlier this week, according to a recent post on the city’s Facebook page.

Like so many other public and private projects, the hotel job has been stymied by soaring construction costs.

“Construction crews have completed most of the hotel’s underground stormwater infrastructure and related utility work,” according to the city’s statement, but work has “paused while the developers re-evaluate their design to account for increased building costs.”

There is no firm timeline for resuming construction, the post said, but if this does not happen before the end of September, the company pledged to rebuild the sidewalk on North Broad.

The post also said O’Neal assured Copelof the company remains committed to the project, a message he had relayed in an earlier meeting with city staff, said Planning Director Paul Ray.

“I did ask Alan O’Neal, ‘Is there a chance this project doesn’t happen at all?’ And he said, ‘Oh, no, absolutely not. It’s just a matter of timing and just a matter of positioning.’ ” Ray said. “They are trying to get some of the pricing details more in their favor to get things to pencil out for the project.”

Developers had previously discussed making minor, cost-saving design changes to the project, Ray said earlier, but said last week that they have not submitted revised plans to the city.

Owners of nearby businesses say they still see the project as a boon for downtown and understand the challenges of building in the face of climbing construction costs.

“As a business owner I know we have all struggled with rising costs and I feel that (City Camper developers) are doing their best to move this project forward,” said Lucy Clark, president of the Heart of Brevard nonprofit, who added that she was not speaking for the organization but as owner of the Lucy Clark Gallery and Studio on West Main Street.

“It’s a tough position to be in and I fully support City Camper moving forward.”

Gretchen Hogan, owner of Elements Wellness Spa, across North Broad from the City Camper site, said she knows about rising construction costs as the wife of an architect and developer.

“Unless you actually run a business and have actually done a development, you don’t understand the complexity and the cost of building, which just keeps going up,” she said. “What we could build three years ago costs twice as much today.”

The project could especially benefit her business, drawing guests who would be likely spa customers, she said, while the hotel’s inviting landscaping and meandering walkway on North Broad would increase the now-minimal foot traffic in the area.

“I don’t feel negative about it at all,” Hogan said of the hotel project. “I’m very hopeful and I’m excited to see it happen and I hope it comes to fruition and . . . I think it’s going to be a beautiful addition to downtown Brevard.”

She also understands City Camper’s reluctance to reveal cost-saving measures because these might change as the project progresses. At the same time, she said more updates from the company would be welcome: “I always think communication is so helpful.”

That’s Dinkins main point, she said.

Though she was disappointed with the design and was the only Council member to vote against approving the final plan last June, “I am not a foe of the hotel,” she said, “I have never been against the hotel in that area.”

She also acknowledged that, as a private venture, it is not subject to the same level of scrutiny as a public project. Additionally, City Camper is not receiving any tax incentives to build the project and volunteered to be included in the Heart of Brevard taxing district.

But it is being built on a three-acre parcel the city sold to the developers, led by owner Tye Warren, who touted the role it would play in city life.

“After all the high claims and the robust marketing effort,” Dinkins said, “they are now really hard to pin down to make responses to the public’s curiosity as to what’s happening with the project.”

In February of 2021, shortly after announcing plans for the project, Warren told NewsBeat the hotel would do more than just blend in with the character of the city, it would be “quintessential Brevard.”

The property would be publicly accessible, he said then, and the plans approved the following year call for a total of 1.47 acres of open space, including the walkway. According to the Facebook post, the conditional zoning permit and deed restrictions require the developers “to build a boutique hotel on this site by 2027.”

 “I want it to be something the community celebrates and feels part of and always feels welcome,” Warren said in that first interview. “People coming from the outside want to sit next to someone who is from here and have a conversation about the best hiking trails.”

Neither he nor O’Neal has responded to subsequent requests for comment, though the city’s Facebook post said, “inquiries concerning project updates are best forwarded to the City Camper team.”

Without answers, residents are judging the project by what they see on the site.

And that, said Melissa Gibson, a longtime Brevard resident who works at a nearby business, “is a prime piece of real estate looking horrible.”

She favored building a multi-level parking garage on the site, especially because spaces are being consumed by the ongoing streetscape project on Main Street. 

“Initially there was a lot of activity, they put the fence up and everything,” she said of the City Camper developers, but “now it’s just been sitting there looking like a big mud hole.”

Email: brevardnewsbeat@gmail.com