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.

by Leo Suarez

RalCon Vacation

It seems news is a little slow and I’ve become a bit lazy. My Miami trip last weekend has thrown off my blogging rotation and I’m busy this week. So I’m taking a short vacation but expect some better stuff next week, including another walking tour update and I’m taking ‘Project Skyline’ in a new direction. I’ll leave just these news shorts for you to investigate on your own.

  • RBC Plaza seems to have slowed down. It looks like they are currently working on the transition floor and condo floors will soon start to take shape.
  • More work continues on the parking deck and the block that will contain the yet unveiled ‘The Edison’ project. Check the webcam.
  • The Mint looks close to completion and according to their website will open next month.
  • The Veteran’s Day Parade is this Saturday.

I was down in Miami last weekend to visit family and I went to the NC State vs. Miami game. It was the second to last game for Miami to play in the legendary Orange Bowl. Having grown up a Miami fan, but now a pack fan, this is my small tribute to a stadium that I have been to since I was a kid. Check out this wide shot from my seat; it probably won’t be there anymore next year.

by Leo Suarez

Updated Astronaut View Includes Raleigh

This may not be news to some but it was to me. Google Earth has updated its images and Raleigh looks very close to its present state. With this update, you can see practically every project that is currently under construction. The parking lot that will be taken over by The Hue still exists so we do know the images are a couple months old.

Of course, I’m only referring to the free version that is available and have no experience with the priced versions. Downtown Raleigh still has no 3D buildings in Google Earth. However, a majority of the buildings on NC State’s campus do. I’m curious to know how that worked out?

by Leo Suarez

Study on Retail Variety Downtown

WRAL had an article over the weekend about the need for a more diverse retail market downtown and how $32 million is lost to businesses outside the area. Here is the video ran during their broadcast.

I think the study is pretty legitimate and does show a slight problem in the downtown retail market. I have confidence in the Downtown Raleigh Alliance that they will address these issues and try to help drop this number. I think it will naturally take care of itself with the rise in office and big rise in residential numbers.

We really need to look at the big picture here; that there is a small urban seedling, slowly growing amongst a forest of sub-urban communities. This urban lifestyle is starting to get everyone’s attention and there is a significant amount of people that are either scared of it, too lazy to enjoy it, or simply just do not understand how to handle it. I’ve met numerous people that prefer to stay away from downtown because of the area’s supposed ‘problems’ but no area in Raleigh is perfect and we all live we some ‘problems’ in our area, just depends on who you ask I guess.

Let’s take Mr. Nesrallah, the owner of America’s Pita Grill, quoted right in the WRAL article. For the record, APG is a good place, I’ve eaten there before and the two guys working there are nice and pretty laid back. He is quoted as have racked up $365 in parking tickets. I’m sorry Mr. Nesrallah but I’m going to have to call you out. I see you every morning parking right in front of APG and your car is there all day. OF COURSE YOU ARE GOING TO GET PARKING TICKETS!!!! Please, take a look around and notice that your business is located in a parking deck. If you get a $12 parking ticket every weekday, that’s about $240 a month. The Alexander square deck has monthly parking spaces for $120, but if you wait until 9:00 pm, you can leave the deck for free. Too late for you? The Moore Square deck, one block away, has spots for as low as $45 a month or you can wait until 7:00 pm and leave without paying a penny to park downtown. Downtown does not owe you a VIP spot right in front of the shop when 5 and 7 story parking decks are practically on top of you.

I’ve met people that hate downtown, some for good reasons others for ignorant reasons, but if you are reading this post, I may be able to assume you support our downtown or are at least interested. I always hear the same complaints; 1) There is nowhere to park 2) Nothing is open 3) There are too many vagrants 4) There is too much crime. Downtown does not need to change, Raleigh residents need to grow up and learn that 1) there IS parking, just not right in front of the building 2) there ARE places open and as downtown grows there will be more options 3) there are just as many vagrants as any other city, we are not an exception, and if you have some street smarts you will know what to do 4) downtown, statistically, is one of the safest places in the city, believe it.

This is all occurring because Raleigh’s growth but I believe things will get better and people will eventually learn and support our downtown. If you think I’m crazy then fine, I respect everyone’s opinion. Just be proud of the city you live in and know that downtown is the area most looked at by visitors.