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Hospitality House advances
Planning board approves rezoning request for 24-room guest house
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Published: January 9, 2009
The Hospital Hospitality House of Winston-Salem is a step closer to building a guest house for families of hospital patients.
The City-County Planning Board approved a rezoning request yesterday that will allow the house. The request now goes to the Winston-Salem City Council.
The nonprofit organization wants to build the house on a portion of 16.3 acres at the western end of Hospice Lane near the Hospice & Palliative Care Center.
Kimel Park Properties, based in Lexington, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte want the property rezoned from residential and general-business district to corporate-park office district and limited office district.
Kimel Park Properties would develop the land and its parent company Carolina Investment Properties would build the house.
Robert Team Jr., the president of Carolina Investment Properties, said in an interview that he expects the rest of the land to be used for a medical-services building. "Either a physician's office or something else in support of the hospitality house or Hospice or something like that," is likely to go there, he said.
Even with the recession, organizers of the campaign to raise money for the guest house are still confident of reaching the goal of $6 million.
So far, Hospital Hospitality House has raised $2.8 million for the Josh and Marie Reynolds Hospital Guest House, which will be a place for out-of-town families of adult patients to stay for free or at a low cost while their loved ones are hospitalized or in Hospice care.
Preliminary plans are to build a 24-room building on 6.4 acres.
The guest house will also available for some patients, including cancer and transplant patients who are in the area for prolonged outpatient treatments.
"We obviously have work to do, and we have another year according to our current timetable to raise these funds," Beth Baldwin, a co-chairwoman of the Hospital Hospitality House, said in an interview.
"We're going to work as hard as we possibly can and approach as many businesses as we possibly can."
The Hospital Hospitality House is reaching out to local companies as well as businesses outside Forsyth County for donations and pledges.
It is also interested in companies that have foundations and money set aside for community outreach.
"Corporations have been very receptive to this idea because they know we're going to be helping their employees and customers," Baldwin said.
She said she is encouraged by the support that the project has received from a broad range of entities, including churches, companies, civic organizations, foundations and individuals.
"It's definitely a collaborative project," Baldwin said.
For example, the Richard J. Reynolds III and Marie M. Reynolds Foundation awarded the Hospital Hospitality House a $1 million grant.
The house's board of directors includes officials from N.C. Baptist Hospitals and Forsyth Medical Center, and both hospitals have established a combined $500,000 endowment for the house and start-up operations.
In the Winston-Salem area, Baldwin said, a few local churches currently make lodging available for families, and there is a Ronald McDonald House for families with children.
But the area needs a place in the middle for adults, especially since Winston-Salem has two major medical centers, she said.
"There are eight other houses in North Carolina and we really need one here," she said.
Organizers of the guest house say they hope to meet with architects soon to finalize a design for the house and build it in 2010.
In other business, the planning board:
□ Agreed to have the owners of Waughtown Automotive withdraw a petition to rezone 1.6 acres at the corner of Waughtown and Norton streets from pedestrian business district to highway business district. Patti and Neal Chambers of Kernersville want to expand their business, primarily for U-Haul outdoor display. The board asked that the Chambers resubmit a petition in 60 days with a revised list of uses and meet with the Waughtown Business Association, which opposes more automobile service, sales and related businesses in the Waughtown area.
□ Approved a petition by Alma F. Bedsaul Heirs and Stratford Burke Mill LLC to rezone 2.32 acres on the north side of Burke Mill Road, east of Stratford Road, from residential to pedestrian business district.
■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.
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