The final retail space in City Plaza has been filled. The very small space in the Bank of America building facing City Plaza is home to Crema. Crema’s main shop is located on the 100 block of Fayetteville Street so this small outpost is for more convenient coffee trips. Being located right next to the ice skating rink, it’s set up in a great location during this cold winter.
What stands to be a great example of smarter development for downtown Raleigh, the still to come The L Building has been on hold for almost two years now. This office over retail project has suffered the same financial difficulties that other canceled or on hold projects have faced.
The L building, in its current plan, will wrap the Wake County parking deck that sits on McDowell Street, shown in the picture above. The deck, built to support the new county Justice Center now under construction, is open and currently in use. While the publicly funded parking deck happened, The L site now lays empty and the developer continues to ask for more extensions to get the books straightened out.
The L, if built, will hide the parking deck along McDowell and Davie Streets but for now we have a rather large gray wall. For almost two years, this wall has been naked but that should change soon.
The latest extension, until May 2013, was approved by the Wake County Board of Commissioners in their December 6th, 2010 meeting with certain conditions. Looking at the meeting minutes, here are some of the more interesting of those conditions:
To the best of my online search abilities, the banner discussion has not made it to the city yet. The relationship with the city and Empire properties is a solid one so there is a good chance it will be approved by them as well. Below is a rendering of the parking deck with the proposed banners.
Expect the naked wall to be covered up in time for Spring this year.
Over the past few weeks, reports of a Hampton Inn Hotel have been reported for Glenwood South. For those that have been following real close for awhile, this is actually nothing terribly new. However, the talk of the hotel comes up again because of a site plan submitted to the city for approval. Download the site plan below or continue reading for some initial thoughts and impressions.
Hampton Inn Glenwood South site plan (pdf)
The Location
The hotel will be placed on the northeast corner of Glenwood Avenue and Johnson Street, or in place of the white brick building shown below. We will lose a few one and two story warehouses with little architectural contribution. The added density will make the Johnson/Glenwood intersection the most urban on Glenwood South.
Visitors leaving the hotel are in a great location to experience downtown Raleigh. With the name being “Glenwood South Hampton Inn”, visitors will expect something from the lineup down the street. Thankfully, within a few blocks there are quite a few options for eating and drinking. To move beyond Glenwood South, one can walk half a block to the deserted R-Line stop on West Street or take the one block scenic route to the R-Line stop on Tucker Street.
The Building
Looking at the simple renderings, the building is nothing to get excited about. A brick box with big letters will sit on the site and try to blend in. Below, I have partial images of the south facing side and the west facing side, respectively. Click on them for a larger, fuller image.
The hotel is in the shape of an L, shown on the map in the site plan. The rear of the building will face the railroad tracks so visitors may have a nice surprise at night. The lobby of the hotel actually faces Johnson street with a curved brick paver for dropping off and picking people up. Facing Glenwood Avenue will be a retail space.
Looking at the plans for the ground floor, there are some amenities that stick out. It looks like there will be a pool and a space adjacent to it; most likely for a gym. The retail space is the entire west facing section, from corner to corner, with a door in the center facing Glenwood Avenue and not on the corner. The service entrance will be down Johnson Street at the end of the building closest to the railroad tracks.
Sidewalks and Streetscapes
According to the site plan, Johnson Street and Glenwood Avenue will get wider sidewalks then currently in place. Brick and concrete will be added from the building to the edge of the curb. Street trees will also be added to both streets with grated wells over the roots.
Currently on Johnson Street there are four power poles next to where the Hampton Inn will go. The site plan shows the outermost poles remaining but the inner two being removed for the brick paver and entry canopy. I’m not quite sure if that means we will see buried power lines entirely or not.
New streetlights and a bike rack will also be installed on Johnson Street.
Extra Thoughts
There’s a nice mural along Johnson Street that will be lost with the building’s demolition. It’s not enough reason to hold up the project by any means but I appreciate that kind of street art and do not want to see clean boxes replace real character in Glenwood South.
One thing I really like about the plan is how parking will be handled. No new parking deck will be built and spaces will be shared with the 510 Glenwood deck. This is a more efficient use of space and easily lowers the cost to the builder. Bravo!
Regardless of a rather unattractive building, we should only wish it success. A hotel breaking ground in Glenwood South shows the momentum that the entertainment district has and if the 126 rooms inside can stay full then someone new will come in and raise the bar sometime down the road. More hotel rooms are needed in downtown and they will help us land larger events at the convention center, which drives more business.
2010 did not have a lot of new construction taking place so the development fanboys might be disappointed. 2011 may surprise us, or it may not. Either way, let’s go into the new year with a list of what action there is to follow.
AIANC Center for Architecture and Design
Rendering of the new AIANC Headquarters
Groundbreaking, shown above, has already occurred for the Center for Architecture and Design. This building from the American Institute of Architects North Carolina Chapter will incorporate many sustainable design features and will seek a LEED Platinum level certification, the highest such level.
The building should be finished late this year. To see and read more about the building:
– Update page for the AIANC Center for Architecture and Design
– In North Carolina, a Gutsy Move : Huffingtonpost.com
Contemporary Art Museum
The Contemporary Art Musem (CAM) will be open on April 30th, 2011. This project has seen steady work throughout 2010 and will finally be finished in a few months.
Justice Center
The massive Wake County Justice Center with its triple crane action has been discussed a lot on this site. We will see work taking place here all year. Completion is planned for the summer of 2013.
Project website
Green Square
Just like the Justice Center, Green Square has also been under construction all of last year and will continue through 2011. A combination of offices and the Nature Research Center will most likely open in 2012.
Green Square website [Update: Broken link]
Snow Market by dtraleigh, on Flickr
Now that the year is almost over, it is time to look forward. 2010 may have been a year in planning for downtown Raleigh so maybe we will see some of that planning be carried out in 2011. Borrowing a little from last year’s list, here is the 2011 wishlist of things that could actually happen in a year’s time.
Bookstore
For the long time readers, a bookstore has been mentioned quite a few times on this blog. Currently, downtown Raleigh has the express library on Fayetteville Street. But with limited hours and a small selection, it is more of a pickup spot for requested books then an actual library.
A bookstore with a unique offering of new works and perhaps monthly used book sales would be ideal. Maybe it could start off as a small thing inside the next coffee shop that opens up.
More Hours
By wishing for more hours, I mean that I wish for places to stay open later and open earlier. I want downtown to continue to push toward serving all of us for 24 hours of the day. I’d like to see typical lunch-only places to start staying open for dinner and weekday only places start catering to the weekend crowds.
A huge change in hours, I feel, should come from the more corporate businesses. Those limited hours and closings during major events hurt downtown’s image. Places like CVS, Chick Fil A, and Quizno’s being closed on the weekends are not helping to serve those that are in the area on the weekends. When people see that CVS is closed at 2 PM on a Saturday, that brings about a negative viewpoint on downtown Raleigh and less towards the CVS itself. This needs to slowly change.
Counter Service Food
Downtown Raleigh’s variety of restaurants is what makes it a destination. They also make it expensive for nearby residents to eat out many times. For me, it would be nice to head out and have several food options where I could eat for under seven or eight dollars. Some simple counter service food places with decent hours would really get locals walking around the streets more often. I’m not trying to take away from the great restaurants but sometimes, I just want a coke and good sandwich for dinner.
Food Markets
The chicken and egg saga with the downtown grocery store creeps back every now and then. Grocery stores say there needs to be a certain amount of people for them to set up shop. On the other hand, a lot of people claim that one of the reasons for not moving into downtown is because of its lack of a grocery store. So how do you crack this?
I’m adding food markets to the wishlist because I would like to see more stores selling food and drink that people can take with them. Convenience stores like Taz’s is a start but slowly, the options need to expand outside of beer and wine. A deli could sell meats and breads as well as their typical lunch menu. The Downtown Farmer’s Market should expand and try to serve more people at more times of the day.
Little things like this create the culture of buying foods in different places many times during the week, which is much more urban then stocking up on groceries from a big box in a shopping center. Downtown doesn’t need a grocery store at all, it needs lots of little markets.
Mass Transit Plan
November 2011 could be the year that we’ll all see the 1/2 cent sales tax increase on the ballot. This tax would fund transit improvements if voters approve of it. To sell that tax increase, there had better be a well researched, well documented transit plan for the city over the next twenty years. With a weak plan, it’s possible the vote will be turned down and then transit funding will be killed for many more years. I’m hoping transit planners in the area can deliver, next year, a plan that is well thought out to every last detail.
Snow In Urban NC by dtraleigh, on Flickr
The Middle City by dtraleigh, on Flickr
Was 2010 good for you too? This was actually a pretty productive year from a planning point of view. There were a few major projects being planned that we all should follow over the next few years where it will really start to get interesting. From the street though, changes to downtown Raleigh in 2010 were small, but the details count too. First, let’s start off by re-visiting the 2010 wishlist posted a year ago and see how we did. The wishlist is made up of things that could only happen in a year’s time. That list consisted of:
No bookstores have opened this year which will probably keep this on the wishlist. There were some good comments in this post about your third place where people were in support of a bookstore in the downtown core. No doubt, opening a bookstore in this digital age would be tough but it’s not impossible. The case for one will only get stronger once more residents move here.
Raleigh Wide Open 5 did its thing this year but in my opinion, the Hillsborough Street’s renovation was something larger to celebrate during a year where downtown had little major projects finishing up. Either way, Hillsborough Street got its own party so no one was left out.
Bus shelters are sprouting up around the city, some in downtown too. Certain R-Line stops are getting shelters, showing the city’s commitment to this key service. A big THANK YOU goes out for this one!
More jobs? Honestly, to cover this topic, we could commit an entire post to this but I won’t. Office space did not increase in 2010 so I can’t imagine there were any major jumps in the amount of workers. The number of shops and restaurants though may tell the real story, and so can headlines. From the Triangle Business Journal:
The retail scene is still fragile in downtown. In 2010, the staple White Rabbit, closed its doors after 22 years of doing business here. It’s sad to see them go. On an up note, however, Raleigh Denim moved their shop to and created a store on West Martin Street. Raleigh Denim has received some national and local attention and is an immensely unique thing for downtown Raleigh. Glenwood South saw some changes but is still level from where it is was a year ago with places like Runway and Ripple City adding something different to the handful of art galleries on the strip.
2010 Highlights
The most talked about news topic in 2010 around Raleigh has to be the Wake County School board drama. This blog does not cover that so we will NOT get into it. Downtown connoisseurs such as yourselves were all talking about public safety buildings and fast trains.
The Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center was a hot topic in 2010. On the table was a 17-story $210+ million building to house a bunch of public safety departments across the street from Nash Square next to city hall. The decision was right down the middle and construction hasn’t started. Currently, the project seems to be on the shelf and an unstable economy will probably keep it there. Revisit the Public Safety Center articles on RalCon.
The study for the Southeast High Speed Rail project is chugging along and this year, there were lots of talks about how these trains would come through downtown. The tricky part was that in order to accommodate these trains, streets could not cross the tracks; they had to be closed. North Carolina received lots of stimulus money for trains this year but the decision has to be made where to put them, and groups were arguing over the best path for the high speed trains as they come into town from the north. Revisit the high speed train articles on RalCon.
There was a lot going on this year, really there was. There was a lot of planning going on and I’m hoping the next steps are in place to get these great ideas going in order to enhance the city and our way of life. Let’s run through some more events that happened this year:
Light snow over Moore Square on December 4th, 2010, the first snowfall of the season.
