Exploris School’s new downtown campus derailed by a disagreement and now a lawsuit
A roughly $65 million state-of-the-art building that would provide a home for The Exploris School along with seven stories of office space was expected to be built in downtown Raleigh in 2017.
The sleek 10-story building, called the Gateway Center, was slated to be “energy positive” — it would produce its own energy and have energy to spare. The environmentally sensitive building was designed by SfL+A Architects, a firm with offices in Raleigh and Fayetteville. It was to be built by Metcon, a Robeson County-based construction firm.
Three years later, the building has yet to break ground and its plans remain up in the air as the Raleigh-based K-8 charter school is now at legal odds with the principals of SfL+A and Metcon, the developers of the building.
The project started with positive energy. Exploris, an award-winning school focused on STEM and project-based learning that has divided its students between two downtown campuses on Hillsborough Street and a cluster of portable classrooms off of New Bern Avenue, needed a new home. With its emphasis on “global education” and the environment, its board wanted a green building with a prominent downtown presence.
In 2015, they formed an alliance with SfL+A and Metcon and together paid $4.4 million to Duke Energy for 5.9 acres of land on Kindley Street behind the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Construction was to begin in 2017 and be completed by the end of 2018 while Exploris worked to raise $1 million for the project.
Problems began, the developers say, as they tried to secure construction financing: No investors were willing to put money into a commercial office building that would also house an elementary and middle school.
But Exploris says the developers reneged on their original agreement. Their partners, they say, tried to change the project and force them to accept a smaller, separate building on the site not included in the agreement.
“What they basically said was that nobody wanted to invest and nobody would finance it with the school and that the return would not be great enough,” said Bill Brian, an attorney for Exploris, in an interview.
“We’ve seen very little evidence of that, number one. Number two, it really doesn’t matter. Because that isn’t the deal they entered into.... If they wanted to create a contingency like that, they could have done that.”
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Exploris filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court naming the LLCs affiliated with Aaron Thomas of Metcon and Robert Ferris of SfL+A as defendants. The court ordered the case to mediation, where it now stands.
The developers are still trying to seek a solution to the dispute and contend that they were not legally bound to the original plans, according to Jonathan Charleston, their attorney.
“At the request of The Exploris School, our clients invested millions to purchase and develop the site and build a new facility for The Exploris School,” said Charleston in a statement. “Unfortunately, lenders were not interested in financing a commercial office building that included a charter school, as originally envisioned.”
Exploris was meant to occupy about 55,000 square feet in three of the building’s 10 stories with up to 18 classrooms and additional classrooms for art and music, special education and a multi-use space, The N&O reported in 2017.
The school’s complaint
According to the complaint filed by Exploris, the school and the developers agreed to a lease that obligated the developers to construct the building.
They “suddenly notified” Exploris in 2019 that they would not be able to develop the site according to the lease terms, Exploris’ complaint says. Exploris says the developers have been marketing the property to investors, but without the school as a part of the project.
“While our clients believe that there are no other obligations owed to The Exploris School regarding construction of the project, they continue to pursue viable solutions including building a stand-alone facility on the site, which The Exploris School rejected,” Charleston said.
Part of the original agreement included constructing additional buildings on the site that Exploris would have earned a 15% capital gain on, the school’s lawsuit says. In all, its attorneys say damages the school has incurred total $10 million.
Up until the pending litigation, school attorney Bill Brian said, communication between Exploris and the developers has been sparse and their arguments haven’t been clear.
Exploris in limbo
Meanwhile, middle school Exploris students have been stuck in limbo in temporary quarters in downtown Raleigh and elementary school students in portables. The school has had to forgo programs and initiatives that had been planned to take place in a new building.
“There’s several pieces to this that is very frustrating to parents, teachers, students and we’re looking for a permanent home,” said Theo Kingsberry, the Exploris board chair, in an interview. “It’s just disheartening because the students are paying the price.”
Owen Von Weihe, a recent eighth grade graduate of Exploris, lamented not being able to finish his studies in the new building he’d heard about for years.
“When we were at the start of 7th grade we thought we were going to move into the school, but then we heard it might happen in the middle of 7th grade,” Owen said in a text message. “I think the whole class knew by January 2019 that we were going to stay at that school until we finished Middle School at Exploris. I am also very disappointed with this out come. We were excited to move and ready to be that green school we are.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Exploris School’s new downtown campus derailed by a disagreement and now a lawsuit."
