Mecklenburg County’s outside attorney sent a blistering letter to Peebles Corp. in late April, rejecting the developer’s request for a one-year extension to demolish the old Board of Education building in Second Ward.
The letter said Peebles’ claims of unknown asbestos in the building as a reason for the delay are "meritless."
The county’s response marks a new contentious turn in its nine-year relationship with Peebles, which was selected by Mecklenburg commissioners in 2016 to build Brooklyn Village, a $700 million mixed-use project with apartments, stores and offices.
Miami Beach-based Peebles is contractually obligated to demolish the old education building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard by July 28. That’s one milestone toward building the second phase of Brooklyn Village. Nothing has been built in the first phase.
In an April letter to Mecklenburg County, Peebles said the discovery of asbestos in the building qualifies as force majeure — a legal term for an unforeseen event that makes it impossible for one party to meet obligations.
In an April 30 response obtained by WFAE, the county’s outside law firm, Womble Bond Dickinson, rejected that claim.
It wrote: “Any delays that BKV (Brooklyn Village developer) is alleging to result from its discovery of the asbestos have clearly been caused by BKV’s own lack of normal industry-standard precautions and its election not to exercise industry standard efforts.”
The firm continued: “In reality, this is merely a continuation of BKV’s ongoing attempts to avoid performing the demolition and removal work it agreed to perform. Clearly, BKV did not proceed diligently because it has been hoping it could evade its obligations.”
Mecklenburg County’s response also suggested that its nine-year partnership with Peebles could be coming to an end. Missing the July 28 deadline would constitute a default, the letter said —meaning the county could try to cut ties.
The presence of asbestos in the building is not a surprise. The Charlotte Observer, for instance, reported that county officials discovered the toxic substance there in a 2010 article.
The county selected Peebles to develop Brooklyn Village in 2016, but nothing has been built.
The developer told Mecklenburg commissioners last fall that market conditions made it impossible to build the first phase of the project — a roughly 500-unit apartment complex with market-rate and subsidized affordable housing.
Pebbles planned to build a smaller complex with all affordable units, but the city of Charlotte said it couldn’t provide $13.5 million from its Housing Trust Fund due to concerns about the project’s viability.
