by Leo Suarez

City Plaza seeking approval

The Raleigh City Council is about to meet today. They will discuss various issues around the city, one pertaining to downtown. The design for City Plaza has been sketched out, finalized, and is seeking approval today. The N&O wraps up the agenda.

CITY PLAZA. City Manager Russell Allen is asking the council to approve more than $1 million in funding to complete the design of several projects at the south end of Fayetteville Street, including the City Plaza. City planners have proposed building a $21 million high-tech plaza that could be closed to cars and reconfigured for parades, markets or concerts.

Update coming soon on the outcome.

UPDATE: Nothing was changed in the design but the decision on how to pay for the $21.3 million project was pushed back 2 weeks. Let’s hope this is the last delay so that construction can start and all this is finished by the time the convention center and hotel open up.

by Leo Suarez

Large parking deck upgraded to Massive

About a week ago, the city council amended an agreement between the city of Raleigh, Highwoods Properties and Progress Energy to build a parking deck to support RBC plaza. They also selected Stewart Engineering to be the technical engineering rep for the parking deck. The deck will sit mid-block on Martin St. and will have retail space facing the street. Here is a list of the changes to the agreement.

  • The eight-story parking deck will now have 1,242 instead of 1,050 as originally agreed upon
  • The deck will be built for future abutting developments.
  • Total cost increases from $14.17 million to $20.93 million.
  • The city will own two shelled spaces instead of one, probably for storage purposes.

Why do we care about this?

This is the first development that is moving forward on the PEIII block and future development must work around this huge parking deck. As was posted earlier this week, demolition of the old buildings here has already begun. I hope the rise in the number of spots for the deck is there for whatever is built around it. This will allow more room for developers to work with as they do not have to incorporate parking into their designs.

by Leo Suarez

Where to put the AACC?

On Tuesday May 1st the city council is going to discuss locations for the proposed African American Cultural Consortium. The AACC is meant to add to Raleigh’s cultural destinations as an educational and tourist spot. There are three groups involved in this and they have agreed to come together in this one location. They are the Pope House, the Martin Luther King Resource Center, and the African American Cultural Complex.

In the past, site plans were drawn up for building the consortium around the Pope House. Now, there are plans to put it on the block named “Site 2”. Site 2 is just a parking lot now in front of the Performing Arts Center but future development is planned here. If Site 2 is chosen as the location, then the Pope House will have to be moved here.

The Raleigh Chronicle summarizes the situation pretty well in this article.

location

by Leo Suarez

Historic Raleigh Gets Served

Over the past week, there has been some considerable work going on across the street from the Progress II building, the block we refer to as Progress III. Progress Energy owns the majority of the block and has major plans for this area. Possible plans may include a pair of 30 story towers but no renderings or announcements have been made.

Currently the block is being razed except for the storefronts facing Wilmington St. Most of them are closed and I expect them to be either destroyed or heavily renovated to be incorporated into whatever is built on the land behind the shops.

Witness the destruction for yourself. The map I have used earlier to show the construction on this block has been updated as well.


red – razed area, yellow – construction fences


That building used to have a middle section


Soon will bite the dust


Both those buildings used to connect

by Leo Suarez

West at North gathering

If anyone is interested in the condos being built at West at North, they are having an event soon.

Considering a new condo home at West?

Come get a sneak peek and see progress to date – from 6-8 pm Tuesday, May 8th.
Hors d’oeuvres and beverages provided.

After getting a taste of life at West, feel free to indulge in the energetic life of West’s neighborhood – Glenwood South. And find out personally why West is such a great place to live where you live.

Tuesday May 8
West Sales Center,
413 North Harrington Street, Downtown Raleigh
6-8 pm Social Hour
RSVP: 919-828-0077

All my best,
Ann-Cabell

The sales office is behind the building off of Harrington St.

I was looking into the condos here last summer and I am really curious to find out the current availability. West seemed to be on the expensive side of what is being built downtown. I’m hoping with events like this, they are not desperate to sell units.

Hors d’oeuvres here!

by Leo Suarez

Master list of projects

I’m working on a couple longer posts that highlight some of the projects that are going on around the convention center area. This mainly includes the plans on sites 1-6. Keep checking the site for those entries. They will probably pop up next week after I take some pictures this weekend.

Until then I want to highlight the link below. It is for a webpage on the Raleigh Livable Streets website that has all the public and private projects listed with information on each one. Just glancing at this list will give you an idea of what is going on in the area. Check it out when you have some time to kill.

Livable Streets Public and Private Projects