Charlotte City Council approves conversion of motel to studio apartments

CHARLOTTE — A developer has plans to convert the Southern Comfort Inn in west Charlotte to new housing, but the units won’t all be affordable.

The Charlotte City Council signed off on the project Monday night. The developer is planning to convert the motel to up to 125 studio apartments.

Those units won’t be affordable housing.

The developer is committing to 10% of the units at below market rate.

Displacement was a concern for councilmembers.

“That’s the first thing I am picking up on here,” said Councilman Edwin Peacock III, R-District 6.

The ownership of the building is contingent on all residents finding new housing and moving out.

The developer is promising to partner with Crisis Assistance Ministry to relocate all of the existing long-term residents. They will get a minimum of a 90-day notice.

For years, the Southern Comfort Inn has offered families in tough times a place to say.

As Channel 9 has reported, the conditions at the Southern Comfort Inn haven’t always been great. The motel faced closure in 2022 before changing hands.

“Some people don’t understand what you have to go through,” said resident Marlon McJunkins.

McJunkins is formerly homeless and had to stay in a motel like the Southern Comfort Inn. He said places like the inn are lifelines.

“Some people don’t understand,” he said.

The attorney for the developer didn’t have an estimate on how many people are still living at the motel.

The city said it has worked on a housing strategy for these types of projects.

“What we’ve learned going through this process with some of these previous hotel conversions, we’ve worked with some of our housing partners to come up with that displacement strategy,” said Dave Pettine, with the city of Charlotte.

This comes as a new study found that $1,500 a month gets you about 847 square feet of living space in Charlotte.

Charlotte City Councilmember Lawana Slack Mayfield was the only councilmember to vote no but she did not elaborate as to why.

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