The State of Fayetteville Street

Inspired by the popular post “The State of Glenwood South”, I decided to hit Fayetteville St. and break down “North Carolina’s Main Street”. With the weather warming up, there has been more activity on the sidewalks and restaurants are serving it up outside. Also, I’ve noticed a jump in nightlife and weekend activity this year as compared to last. There is still a bit of a problem; a significant amount of places are not supporting downtown traffic at night and the weekend hours. Here is a block by block summary.

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100 Block

The 100 block of Fayetteville St. offers a random assortment of shops for pedestrians. You can park here, get your eyes checked, plan a trip to that exotic country you’ve always wanted to go to, and all with a coffee in hand. The work week keeps this block alive, with lunch traffic and the Alexander Square parking deck full to the brim.

But when rush hour traffic dies down, this block mostly closes shop. Crema is a great place to for some food and coffee with the best hours here, open everyday. Café Carolina and America’s Pita Grille have yet to experiment with night and weekend hours. The Justice Building, Court of Appeals building, and Wachovia tower eat up a lot of space too, offering nothing to those walking by.

This block needs work.

200 Block

We are now getting into the meat of Fayetteville St and its 200 block is shaping into something really exciting. So far The Big Easy, The Mint, and Port City Java are open close to everyday. If you still have not been to the Raleigh City Museum, take the time and get out there. There is plenty of room for more and there are two renovation projects currently underway.

CVS still does not have a clue what is going on and has the worst hours. I have really noticed a significant amount of people that walk up to the door and are surprised that it is closed on the weekends (no, 9-1 on Saturday does not count). No kidding, I e-mailed them about this location’s hours, the downtown growth, and the constant complaints. Here is their response:

Thank you for contacting the CVS/pharmacy website. I am in receipt of your e-mail regarding the store hours at our Raleigh, NC CVS/Pharmacy. I am forwarding your comments to James Barefoot, the District Manager. He will review this with his staff at their next meeting.

We appreciate the time you have taken to share your comments with us.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Azevedo

CVS/pharmacy
Customer Relations

This was three months ago and I see no changes. Come on CVS, get with the times.

This block is improving and showing growth.

300 Block

The 300 block is the tallest block in Raleigh all thanks to RBC Plaza. This building offers a lot of ground floor retail space and will hopefully be occupied when the building switches on later this year.

The 300 block is also the brightest block with the ABC news station on the ground floor of The Hudson. Sono and Yancy’s also add to the activity inside.

The weekday work crowd will always own this block because on the opposite side of the street, the courthouse and post office are buzzing during the work week only. On nights and weekends, you get a one-sided view with lights and activity on one side and closed up buildings on the other.

This block has shown the most growth.

400 Block

Right now, Fayetteville St. ends here as we wait for the Marriott Hotel to open and then it will continue to Lenoir St. This block supplies a lot of visitor traffic from the Sheraton. Chick Fil A offers weekday lunch and the Sheraton also has a restaurant and bar inside.

City Plaza will hopefully save this block from being voted most boring block in downtown. The barber and flower shop are in a very small building on prime land. I would not be surprised if this small parcel along with some of Progress Energy’s land behind it is razed for something tall but that is just my prediction.

Besides the NC Opera Company moving here, there has been little change. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens throughout the year.

This block has shown no real change.

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So there it is, covered fully from end to end. To sum it up shortly, I think the government buildings are an obstacle to downtown growth and pedestrian activity. Still, Fayetteville St. is growing, slowly, and going through a painful process to get away from the 9-5, Monday to Friday scene that it has become so accustomed to for over 30 years.

Pic of the Week [UPDATE: 11:45 PM]

Is it..an arrow?….a white tree?….or does it open at night to let the aliens fly in? You decide.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&s=AARTsJqzARj-Z8VnW5pkPMLMmZbqrJcYpw&ll=35.778002,-78.637945&spn=0.000762,0.001046&z=19&output=embed&w=390&h=350]

[UPDATE: 11:45 PM]
So I post this article and then check up on my blog reader to catch up on things. Turns out Goodnight, Raleigh has the same picture (at night of course) so this must be a hot topic. Make sure and jump over to John’s photo blog (phlog?) to see this and more excellent pics at night. Is the goodafternoonraleigh.com domain available?

Spring Deadline For Solas

Spring is here and we should all have our eyes on Solas. The three story restaurant/entertainment building was reported back in February of 2007 as having a spring 2008 opening. Progress has been steady over the past year and I’m looking forward to this one.

Use your downtown connoisseur skills to imagine the view from the top. You should get a wide view of Glenwood and be able to look over The Creamery across the street. I think the nightlife will eat this up. However, if I’m looking at this right, the core of the downtown buildings along Fayetteville St. will be southeast. If you look southeast from the top floor, you will get a nice view of a gray, brick wall. Did not think that one through did we now?


Thank you Solas for not putting up a boring wall. This one is subtle and not as bland as other walls around DT.

National Art Interiors Moving [UPDATE 4-7-08]

I heard this rumor and walked by this weekend to see if it was true. National Art Interiors will be moving from their location at 530 Hillsborough St. Unfortunately I could not go in and ask for more details; I was there on Sunday and they were closed. If any news pops up about a new tenant for this prime location, I’ll update this post.

[UPDATE 4-7-08]
In case you were wondering where the new location will be:

Triangle Segway Opens Up

I recently threw up a post about a segway shop opening in downtown. After hearing that Triangle Segway had opened their doors I went over to their shop in City Market to see these two-wheeled gizmos in action. Owners Todd and Sandy moved to Raleigh from California and have brought something new to our list of downtown entertainment options. I want to thank them for letting me ride one around. I had never ridden one before but I picked up on it easily and within minutes was doing figure eights in the store.

Segways are the perfect way to explore downtown. You miss a lot when inside a car or bus and walking can get time consuming, plus only the most hardcore walkers could pull off seeing it all in one day. These actually make the ridiculous walking tour doable, which took me four or five walking trips to get all of the pictures. With a segway, I could have knocked it out in an afternoon.

I’m rounding up a crew to go out and do the tour so I’ll post my experience afterwards. If anyone has done it, please comment. Leading the tour is a local resident with, how Sandy put it, “an encyclopedia of knowledge” about the area. If you are in City Market just stop in and give it a try. It will win you over like it did me. Oh right, they also sell these things too. The details:

Tour highlights: Fayetteville St., State Capitol, Governor’s Mansion, Oakwood and Mordecai.
Hours: Tues-Sun 11am and 2pm. Reservations Required.
Price: 2 hour tour for $55 a person

Triangle Segway
327 Blake St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
919-828-1988
www.trianglesegway.com

Credit Slowing The Raleigh Skyline


The Hillsborough site remains the same since January

I wanted to highlight this interesting article in the Triangle Business Journal that gives you an idea of the problems that the lagging developments in Raleigh are facing. Some are related to downtown.

“It’s just a lousy environment,” says Reynolds, who along with his father, Ted, is trying to finalize an agreement to buy the rest of the city-owned property on which The Hillsborough tower would rise at the corner of Hillsborough and Dawson streets.

Via TBJ

Not all new developments are affected however.


Full speed ahead; double cranin-it at The Hue