$20M Empire Hotel project in downtown Salisbury will create apartments, commercial space

A few Salisbury residents were convinced that Billy Hughes planned to renovate the historic Empire Hotel in downtown a year before Hughes had committed to the project.

Months ago, Ed Clement, a 90-plus-year-old resident who’s active in the preservation community, greeted Hughes, founding principal of Historic Preservation Partners, with a handshake and a presumption that he was in town to sign the papers.