East Asheville Ramada Inn Developer Vows Progress Despite Ongoing Delays

Callum Davidson, director of acquisitions for Los Angeles-based Friendship for Affordable Housing, stood by the 113-unit conversion project at the former Ramada Inn on River Ford Parkway this week, telling reporters and neighbors the development remains active despite a jarring sequence of administrative actions that cast fresh doubt on the long-troubled site.

Buncombe County filed a complaint in Superior Court seeking back taxes from Friendship for Affordable Housing, initiating a foreclosure process on March 31. The county suspended that action shortly after filing it, then voluntarily dismissed the complaint on April 2. Davidson called the episode a "misunderstanding" and said all taxes have since been paid.

The city had initially pursued a project at the Ramada in 2021, before assigning its contract to LA-based for-profit developer Shangri-La Industries. After months of delays, that project fell apart when Shangri-La was foreclosed on in early 2024. Friendship for Affordable Housing stepped in with a new proposal that summer, and Asheville City Council approved the remixed plan in September 2024. The company closed on the River Ford Parkway property in December 2024.

Friendship markets the property as "Residences at River Ford," a 113-unit motel conversion for which the company is the owner, developer and asset manager. Beverly-Grant is the general contractor. Once the project breaks ground, Davidson projected eight to 12 months for construction.

"It was great for me to have a second chance to bring this project to life. It means a lot to me, for sure, and now we are obviously very heavily invested, myself and the team, in getting it done," Davidson said.

The county's brief tax enforcement action, coming just four months after Friendship closed on the property, renewed scrutiny of a site that has generated community anxiety since 2021. For East Asheville neighbors who watched Shangri-La lose the Ramada to foreclosure while local contractor Beverly-Grant won a default judgment against that developer for nearly $400,000 in unpaid work, the speed with which Buncombe County filed and then dropped its complaint offered little reassurance.

The plan calls for 50 units dedicated to veterans through the HUD-VASH program in partnership with the Charles George VA Medical Center, with the remaining units designated as income-restricted affordable housing. Permitting, utility coordination and financing remain unresolved before ground can be broken. With Beverly-Grant named as general contractor and Davidson projecting a construction window of eight to 12 months once work begins, the timeline to occupancy depends almost entirely on how quickly those outstanding processes move. The River Ford Parkway property has sat vacant and deteriorating for years; whether Friendship for Affordable Housing can convert administrative momentum into actual construction will determine whether East Asheville finally sees the redevelopment its neighbors have been waiting on since the Ramada closed its doors.