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.

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.