DT Raleigh Chatter for January 27th, 2012
Pic of the Week
The Walk Raleigh project is brought to you by the good folks at CityFabric. Their latest tweet is interesting, with an equivalent Facebook post mentioning more permanent signs.
New Talks of Salisbury Street Hotel, Wants Inn On The Convention Center Action
Hotel space seems to be a lacking resource for downtown Raleigh but reading through the city’s Budget and Economic Development (BED) Committee agenda yesterday shows more rooms may be on the horizon. Longtime readers will remember The Lafayette project proposed for what is called “Site 4″, the parcel of land along Salisbury Street that butts up against the Performing Arts Deck. That project is officially out the door and the city is ready for new blood to come into town.
Looking through the agenda, City Manager Russell Allen sent a letter to the BED committee to suggest they consider Request For Proposals (RFP) of the site. He mentions multiple requests have come in from interested parties. He includes a copy of one such letter of interest, copied again by me and pasted below:
October 27, 2011
Mr. J Russell Allen
City Manager
City of Raleigh
P.O. Box 590
Raleigh, NC 27602Dear Mr Allen:
Summit Hospitality Group, Ltd. would like to engage with the City of Raleigh in the appropriate process to acquire the three parcels of city property on South Salisbury Street at its intersection with Lenoir and South Streets. I believe this is generally referred to by the city as their “Site 4″.
The intent for the property would be the development of an upscale mixed use property, the largest tenant being a MArriott extended stay hotel. The hotel would be similar in scope and scale to a similar property located on Mint Street in Charlotte, NC. For purposes of illustration, I have enclosed photos simulating the hotel situation on the Raleigh site as well as photos of the Charlotte hotel.
We have a verbal approval for a Residence Inn by Marriott franchise and tentative financing from local conventional sources contingent on the strength of a market study by a nationally recognized form. As soon as we could enter into a Letter of Intent or Memorandum of Understanding with the city, we are poised to immediately contract for the market study and begin the design phase for the presentation to the city.
Regards,
R. Doyle Parrish
President
The attached pictures are shown in this blog post. Here’s a Google Streetview link to the hotel in Charlotte. I’ll emphasize that the pictures here are not final and no designs exist at all. This is just a model, made up for visualization.
The Raleigh Convention Center needs more of this in order to host some of the much larger conventions that it can handle but are not getting because of lack of hotel rooms. Skyline fans may be disappointed as a building of this scale is nothing to cheer about.
For me, it’s a great project really. The building should make a great compliment to the Performing Arts deck, helping make use of the extreme oversupply of parking that we have in downtown Raleigh. Also, while not unique in character, the urban form is a fine addition to the sidewalks of Salisbury Street. If you take our Marriott hotel on Fayetteville Street for example, the street trees, tables, and chairs are inviting. I see people sitting and relaxing there on many occasions.
The location of this hotel is also primo. It’s easy to get in and out of downtown by car and visitors can experience the Fayetteville Street/City Plaza area with much ease.
We’ll stay tuned for updates.
Participate In The EV Station Mapping Project, Make Volts and Leafs Happy
Electric vehicles (EV) are SO hot right now and believe it or not, Raleigh is making room for what could be the future technology of personal automobiles. While I do not own an EV, not yet anyway, I’ve taken a great interest in this alternative form of “car fuel” and have been watching the city and private businesses cater to these new cars. If you’ve been reading the blog for a bit, you may remember my attempts at mapping all the charging stations. Today, I want to introduce the next step of this project and this time, readers can participate.
The EV mapping project gets it’s own page. (ev.dtraleigh.com) This new site attempts to be the one stop for gathering information about places to charge up in and around Raleigh. You can use this site to do a couple of things:
- See a map of all known public charging stations.
- Seen a station around town? Contribute the information to the ongoing discussion.
- Download an up-to-date inventory of the stations that have been found.
The point of this project is to open it up to the community. I’ve started it with a core list of stations and for it to be really complete, I need readers to participate by adding information. If you’ve spotted a way for EV’s to charge up in Raleigh, add it to the thread and that information will work its way to the map and spreadsheet.
To keep the added information correct, you can also up-vote and down-vote others’ contributions. Accurate information should be up-voted in order to show that you agree with it. This is a crowdsourcing tool so any little bit of information helps.
Slowly throughout the year, the EV Mapping page will change and be upgraded, hopefully looking better and consist of much more data. I also have a very beta Android app built that I’m not ready to release with this information in it. The idea is to help EV drivers find stations and plan their days around them.
Enjoy!
Hop over to
Raleigh EV Charging Station Central
DT Raleigh Chatter for January 20th, 2012
Winter 2012 Restaurant Roundup
We’re about two weeks into the year now and if you’ve fallen of the “lose weight” resolution train, eats in downtown Raleigh won’t judge. Last fall, we ran through a few new openings. For winter, work continues on some establishments but there are still a few new places for you to explore.
Tyler’s Taproom is probably the biggest recent opening with their Seaboard Station location finally serving brews and food. It was first mentioned on this blog back in June, 2008 so the opening is very much welcomed by Tyler’s fans. If you’ve been to the other locations around the Triangle, you know what to expect here. The large space and outdoor patio should be popular with families and larger parties.
Other downtown Raleigh restaurant happenings:
- The Indian restaurant in Glenwood South, Blue Mango, continues to take shape. My last “window peek” witnessed a finished, modern looking bar, a few scattered tables, and painted walls. A stone host stand was being built in front of the doors so with a little floor work it looks like they could throw a few tables out, stock the bar, and open for business within the next few months. They are also now hiring.
- The London Bridge Pub has now opened on Hargett Street.
- The first ever tenants of the RBC tower are still working behind the shades. Zinda continues it’s work on Fayetteville Street while construction work is clearly visible on the upcoming restaurant Oro along the windows of Martin Street. Oro’s website claims a Spring 2012 opening.
- The pavilion space in City Plaza formerly occupied by Krispy Kreme has a coming soon sign. Fire Wok will set up shop there and a posted menu shows sushi, hibachi, and Chinese eating options.
Weekend Reel: 2012 Visit Raleigh Video
What do you think of Visit Raleigh‘s new video? It’s much better than the much older “Shine, Raleigh, Shine.” video that came out years ago but I don’t know if these guys were a part of that one also.
DT Raleigh Chatter for January 13th, 2011 I Get Lost In Downtown Part 2
Here’s another round of people getting lost in downtown Raleigh. Like I mentioned in the first edition, navigating the grid of streets isn’t difficult but I’ll cut people some slack if it’s your first time visiting.
