EDENTON — In a scene reminiscent of colonial times, about 40 Edenton residents gathered on the green at the historic 1767 Chowan County Courthouse last week to question how their local government plans to respond to a developer's request to start renovations at the long-vacant Hinton Hotel property.
Outer Banks based-SAGA Construction and Development has applied for a major special use permit from the town of Edenton to begin renovations on the Hotel Hinton property on East King Street. According to its plans, SAGA wants to convert the former hotel into hotel suites, short-term rentals, and long-term/extended-stay units. In addition, the revamped building would include two commercial spaces.
Edenton Town Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on SAGA's request at a meeting Monday night.
In advance of the hearing, Lori Dablow, a long-time advocate for forcing action on the Hotel Hinton's renovation, organized a citizens meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 20, to address merchants and citizens' concerns about SAGA's plans.
“A lot of people in the community have got questions about the status of a major special use permit application that SAGA has submitted to our town government," she said. "The town is in the process of reviewing that right now. This is an opportunity for the community to be heard and for the town council and the mayor to hear those" concerns.
Dablow told the crowd she's concerned that several items seem to be missing from SAGA's application for the Hotel Hinton project. She said the developer has not submitted a statement about asbestos removal from the building, traffic concerns, or how parking would be arranged. She also noted that SAGA has said it will acquire financing for the renovation project after the town approves the special major permit, something she believed to be irregular.
More than a half-dozen other residents commented on the Hotel Hinton project at the meeting, making it plain that trust between citizens and the developer have evaporated over the past decade. The Hotel Hinton has languished for almost 10 years while SAGA has struggled to get financing and historic renovation tax credits to get the renovation project started.
At the same time, most of the speakers at the Aug. 20 outdoor meeting expressed relief that SAGA appears close to taking action on the long-delayed Hotel Hinton project. They called on town officials to demand SAGA follow specific steps and timelines from this point forward.
Mayor Hackney High attended the meeting but said he was limited in what he could say given Edenton Town Council was scheduled to hear SAGA's formal request for the special permit on Aug. 26.
“Given the amount of publicity and public interest that the Hotel Hinton project has garnered, I felt it was important that I be here tonight, although in a much more limited role than maybe we wish otherwise," High said. "Town Council thought the same, and we’ve got a number of town council members here tonight. … We have to be very careful to act under certain legal constraints."
The mayor said town officials would avoid commenting on the hotel project during the meeting and could not answer questions about it for fear of triggering charges they had either taken testimony or conferred about SAGA's permit request outside of an official meeting. He said town officials would take questions and note them as concerns without answering them for those reasons.
SAGA purchased the Hotel Hinton property from Preservation North Carolina in a lengthy process that began in 2014 and ended in 2015, promising to renovate the structure, which had been a Chowan County office building, back into a hotel. SAGA purchased the building from Preservation NC, which had bought it from Chowan County, for $262,238 with the provision that construction should start within three years.
SAGA's delays in starting the renovation project spurred local citizens to rally in 2023 to protest the building’s deteriorating condition. Vandals have broken windows, drug activity has been observed inside the vacant building, and criminal activity has risen along the King Street area.
In July 2023, power was restored to the building, a security fence was installed, and broken windows were boarded up. Still, the fire suppression system wasn't restored to the building, creating what critics say is a danger for the 1767 Courthouse, which sits a few feet from the building.
In early 2024, SAGA was cited for code violations on the building, and the company responded with promises to clean up and repair the vacant structure.
In July, SAGA asked for a major special use permit spelling out new plans to renovate the structure without some of the more costly features it had initially proposed, like a roof-top restaurant and more extensive exterior beautification. The building, the company said, would become a hotel offering a mix of short-term and longer-term, extended-stay rooms along with some commercial space.
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