Year / 2007

by Leo Suarez

CON-struction and D-struction

The early winter sunsets are really cutting into my weekday opportunities to go out and take pictures of things downtown. I really think pictures help to add more to the story but we’ve all got a life and a job to do. Anyway, today I have more quick news regarding construction downtown that may be worthy of a short golf clap.

  • Ann-Cabell Baum Anderson sends out a status e-mail about the West @ North tower in Glenwood South every now and then. I’m still waiting for some news on the retail going in on the bottom floor. Her recent update:

Exciting news… We are approaching topping-out!
The roof-level is being poured this week!
Also, large windows are being installed on the 5th through 7th floors and the exterior sheathing is now up to the 10th floor! Interior framing is up to the 8th floor and exterior framing is up to the 12th floor! West is well underway!

  • I jumped the gun too early this week and talked about 301 Hillsborough coming down. I thought it would be a slow process and parts of it would still stand for a month, maybe two but I was wrong. Half the building is gone and if this rate stays steady, the building will be leveled probably by the end of the day. Might be safe to assume all the debris will be hauled out before the end of the year. Enjoy your temporary new view, Dawson residents!
  • Big slabs of concrete are being brought to the site of the future “The Edison” project. Right now the parking deck for the block and RBC Plaza is being put together. Reminds me of how they put the 222 Glenwood deck together, like a Lego set, and if similar this thing will sneak up on you. Check the webcam for updates on that and RBC Plaza, which is now building the condo floors.

by Leo Suarez

Wednesday News Quickies

Here are a couple of news updates related to downtown. Click the links and catch up on the buzz.

  • NBC17 reports that the shaky housing market across the country may be affecting some of downtown’s projects. While this could be true, Raleigh Planning Director Mitchell Silver sounds confident and the article states that “Realtors say the only slowdown so far is people delaying their move to the Triangle because houses out of state are tougher to sell.”

There are more than two dozen condominium and mixed use developments planned in downtown. They include more than 1,000 condominiums along with apartments and townhouses. Housing is the key to downtown’s redevelopment and so far the nationwide slowdown hasn’t hit.

“We believe that projects with their funding in place months ago are doing fine,” Silver said. “More recent projects arehaving to adjust their financing and plans but all indications are projects are moving forward.”

Realtors say the good news for downtown Raleigh is the Triangle’s economy remains strong, the area is attractive and the living is still reasonable.

  • Nana’s Chophouse is no more and has quickly turned around and become The Pit. There is a great article at New Raleigh [UPDATE: Broken link] about the new restaurant in the warehouse district. For any BBQ lovers out there, it is a must read.
  • WRAL reports that a naming deal for the new Convention Center is in the works. Read the article.

“We have an offer,” convention center director Roger Krupa said.

…………..

Krupa said he expects a deal to be finalized within 90 days.

…………..

Fewer than 10 convention centers in cities nationwide have corporate naming deals, ranging from $250,000 to $850,000 a year. Carrow predicted Raleigh’s deal would fall somewhere in the middle of that range.

by Leo Suarez

David Allen Building In Glenwood South

I was doing some Downtown Raleigh internet digging and stumbled upon this little gem on the Glenwood Agency’s website. The so called ‘David Allen Building’ is described as:

The site currently has three buildings on it. One building will be renovated for offices, the adjacent warehouse will be replaced with a 4-story structure with retail on the lower floors and 3 condos on the top, and the third building is a 1930s warehouse that will be renovated into a restaurant with roof-top dining. Residents will have the luxury of walking to nightlife, dining, and shopping on Glenwood South. The redevelopment project is expected to take a year to complete.

It is great that some of the buildings there will be renovated as opposed to being demolished. The description however does not quite match up to the rendering of the new “4-story structure”. Unless I am looking at the picture wrong, I see a couple more then 4 floors.

Below is the map for the area and the three buildings the description refers to. Anyway, this is just another development to tack on to the long list of projects going on downtown and RalCon will post any updates that may come up in the future.

View Larger Map

by Leo Suarez

Picture of the Week


Here is how large objects such as cars and boats are loaded into the new convention center. This block has a large ramp that goes down into this opening under McDowell St. and under the convention center. There are no plans for the block shown as of yet. It is my understanding that this block is to remain an open space and will be saved for any future expansion.

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Walking Tour (part 5)

The walking tour continues in the Blount St. area around the future Blount Street Commons. BSC may cause some of these houses to move so the walking tour will have to be updated later. Actually, I think the walking tour needs major work with more interactive features online, history, and lots of pictures/media. (RalCon idea?????) This is the second to last set of pictures so we’re nearing the end. Enjoy!

41. Merrimon House/Wynne Hall (1876)

42. Peace College Main Building (c. 1860)

43. Dr. Hubert Benbury Haywood House (1916)

44. Leonidas L. Polk House (1881)

45. Gray-Fish-Richardson House (1881)

46. Capehart House (1898)

47. Lee House (1899)

48. Murphey School (1916)

49. Tucker House (1915)

50. Hawkins-Hartness House (c. 1882)

by Leo Suarez

BSC Rollin’ Along

Blount Street Commons is moving forward and WRAL has some of it covered.

The Blount Street Commons project is designed to revitalize the neighborhood bounded by Peace Street on the north, Lane Street on the south, Wilmington Street on the west and Person Street on the east.

The 21-acre project, being conducted in four phases over the next three years, involves moving eight Victorian houses to make room for 495 condominiums, townhouses, row houses and carriage houses. The existing houses will be shifted to lots in the neighborhood now occupied by parking.

21 acres is very significant. I think this area will be a sleeper ‘hot spot’ for downtown. It may not have flashy skyscrapers but will have a good community type feel. Somehow, I hope it adds some life to the dead government district directly west of it. Click here for previous posts about the project.

(still trying to get WRAL video embed to work here)

by Leo Suarez

Old Reliable Run

Downtown was taken over yesterday by the 24th annual Old Reliable Run. Read about it here in the N&O.

The Old Reliable Run was more of a family affair than ever this year.

More than 2,300 runners lined up for four different races Sunday in downtown Raleigh for the 24th annual run and fundraiser for Triangle United Way.

They chose from a 10K, a 5K, and two pint-sized races geared for children — a 1-mile race for older kids and a 100-yard sprint for younger ones.

I was not able to attend because of other plans, but from what I saw; Nash square seemed to be full of people. It is not a big problem just yet but I happened to be driving back into downtown during the event. There were many officers re-directing traffic back out of downtown, unnecessarily blocking streets that the race does not involve. There were no labeled detours. Traffic southbound on capital blvd. should have been re-directed to Salisbury St. One cop told me that there is no way I could get to Fayetteville St. while this event was going on. Turned out he was wrong because I found a way to get to the Alexander Square parking deck going down Blount St. and turning on Hargett St. With rising downtown traffic and growth in population, the city must learn to handle these downtown events better.