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| Elks Building following stablization by Empire Properties |
The Elks’ Temple building was built in 1908 for the Elks Lodge during one of New Bern’s greatest boom periods. The first floor housed a department store, the second, third and fourth professional offices and the fifth was the Elks reception room and Lodge. Over the post WWII years, the advent of the automobile led to the exodus to the suburbs and growth and development followed. In the mid 1980’s, lack of income to maintain the building and dwindling Lodge memberships led to their decision to sell the building.
In 1987, architect, Earl Applegate purchased the 30,000 square foot building with the intent to rehabilitate the five floors and sell them individually as condominium units. Over the next ten years when this strategy didn’t work, the gradual deterioration led to the city’s intervention through an ordinance “demolition by neglect”. When the repairs required by the City were not made by the owner, the architect was required to negotiate with several developers who were interested in purchasing the building.
In October 2007, Greg Hatem, owner of Empire Properties in Raleigh, purchased the property for $1million after the contract to purchase it by Conrad Properties, St. Louis, MO fell through. In 2008, initial steps taken including ridding it of asbestos, clearing out the debris, draining the water out of the basement, gutting the interior and stabilizing the exterior of the building and its windows which took four or five months at a cost of $500,000+.
Plans to move forward with the multi-million dollar renovation were stymied in 2009-2010, like many other construction projects across the nation, with the economic downturn. Last fall, at the request of Empire Properties, a Swiss Bear ad hoc committee met with representatives of the banking, development and investment community to see if a strategy could be developed to help move the project forward.
The challenge, this and other development projects are facing in this economy, is to acquire construction financing from a financial institution who, in addition to their normal credit underwriting and due diligence, require pre-conditions to be met before making a formal loan commitment which may include leases for a minimum of a full-floor for a term of no fewer than five years plus another sources of funding to cover the tax credit equity funding. Until the economy and current lending conditions improve, the project is on hold. This project, like many others over the past 30 years, will be completed at some point in time.
In the meantime, we appreciate Greg Hatem and Empire Properties for the time and money his firm has invested in the purchase and stabilization of the building. The rehabilitation of New Bern’s tallest and most prominent commercial will move forward when it is financially feasible.
Susan Moffat Thomas
Executive Director
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| Architectural details on the 5th story |
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| Prior to major street scape improvements and placement of utilities underground |
Beautiful building! I admire it every time we come to town. We have high hopes to relocate to New Bern in the next year. I always picture a community owned food co-op with a small cafe/bakery area on the main floor. The bakery could be in the basement! Upstairs are the offices and other floors holistic practitioners or whomever. Why you ask? It will be the only thing I really miss in the area we will be leaving. I see how our co-op is such a main hub of our small town and again cannot imagine not having this incredible resource in my community.
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