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River Place Condominiums


richyb83

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There are more non-luxury options in and around downtown...Riverview, River Palms, Inn on the Lake, as well as the future Brownstones on Laurel, the Kress, Levy & Welch bldg; some around Third Street and Shaw Center. And a few down south in BeauregardTown. Hopefully more on the way too:thumbsup:

Are Riverview and River Palms currently occupied? It looks like they are renovating over there. I can't tell but either way those two residential buildings are ugly and outdated and hopefully can be replaced by something a little nicer [not necessarily luxury].

It would be cool to see that area around N Third st vacated by all the industrial businesses and made way for affordable [but classy] apartments/townhomes. Throw in a corner grocery, a few small restaurants like Jambalaya Shop or Poor Boy Lloyd's, and few other amenities [think Desoto Park] that could be utilized by residents and nearby state employees, and I think that area north of capitol lake could really meet its potential. As it stands right now the NW corner of DT is useless accept for the land it provides manufacturers/warehousers, who really make no contributions to downtown's urban renassaince.

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Yeah bluff, I believe they are both currently occupied. You are right they seemed outdated to me too. I have not looked inside of them; but how much can you do with an old hotel by convetring them into apartments?? Seems like that the rooms would be too small to me.

I like your idea for N Third Street. It would take some serious work. Grocery and other amenities would be a nice fit. Would brownstones work??DeSoto Park would be great; will the R.R. Company compromise something with the state? Has that been put on hold?? Will people want to live that close to Exxon and those other industries north of downtown??

What about the old 9-story Insurance bldg. that was demolished on the edge of SpanishTown near the Capitol?? They need to redevelop that site too.

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There is some living downtown. Still lacking a 24 hour drug store, in Spanish Town there is the capital corner. When I lived in Lakeshore Place that was the spot to get some quick food and coffee.

The N. Third Street area can use a plan too, since it's industrial already, they can take those warehouses and make industrial urban living. I know it's close to the chemical plants, hopefully young singles who work in them will want to live close to it.

I don't know what's going on with the RR Company and Desoto Park. They cleared the trees years ago, but it's still just there, no more development.

Other than let's see what happens.

SimCity IV was my game last summer, the ex and I played it constantly, I used a few tweaks and codes to make the cities grow hyper fast, eventually they had too much going on and the game would crash when we tried to play.

Now about back to RiverPlace, since this thread was hijacked by me. Any news on what is going with it?

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I understand the whole concept of basic living, but I am also a big supporter of high rises, whether it is residential, commercial, or retail. Personally I think that any high rises that are built downtown should be of mixed use. Until today I had no idea that there were warehouses North of the Capital. That's quite interesting. I had always wondered why BR didn't have some kind of "warehouse district". I would be totally in favor of lofts/condos in a converted warehouse.

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Inn on the Lake? There's a new one? I thought that had been imploded in the early 1990's. Maybe there is a new building with this name? The old hotel on the lake which had that name also had many others (White House Inn, Governor's Inn, Safari Hotel, Lakeshore Statler Hilton etc.). The hotel had a great location, but always seemed to have a star-crossed history. I thought something new had been built there- possibly an office building? Facing north, this would have been on the left side of Capitol Lake. Forgive my confusion here.

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I'm sorry Tom for the confusion, I'm to blame. The complex I was refering to is now called Lake Towers. It's the lake near I-110 near the Governor's Mansion. It's on the opposite (south-side) of the lake. The term "Towers" is used loosely...is it 5 or 6 stories??

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Richard Preis never gave me an actual date....he said for the skeptics that have stuck a fork in the this project..." Those are the same ones that bet against me at Howell Place, they lost and the same will happen here, book it"!

The man at the hospitality center on Third Street said 100% WILL HAPPEN! He assured me "by November you will see tower cranes over there" "definite"; "sure thing",etc. 30-stories!!!

Here is the Third Street Hospitality Center "Alive & Well"!!! :thumbsup:

71107029qj6.jpg

I am still hoping before then, I thought for sure RiverPlace would break-ground by Labor Day weekend??? Lots and lots of moving parts :dontknow: As long as it finally happens in 07', and IT WILL, I'll be satisfied. In the meantime I will enjoy the tower cranes over in the southern CBD with II City Plaza and New Courthouse.

I am waiting to post the reply from this mornings Advocate(still not on their website); to my question about the old Advocate site.

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Richard Preis never gave me an actual date....he said for the skeptics that have stuck a fork in the this project..." Those are the same ones that bet against me at Howell Place, they lost and the same will happen here, book it"!

The man at the hospitality center on Third Street said 100% WILL HAPPEN! He assured me "by November you will see tower cranes over there" "definite"; "sure thing",etc. 30-stories!!!

Here is the Third Street Hospitality Center "Alive & Well"!!! :thumbsup:

71107029qj6.jpg

I am still hoping before then, I thought for sure RiverPlace would break-ground by Labor Day weekend??? Lots and lots of moving parts :dontknow: As long as it finally happens in 07', and IT WILL, I'll be satisfied. In the meantime I will enjoy the tower cranes over in the southern CBD with II City Plaza and New Courthouse.

I am waiting to post the reply from this mornings Advocate(still not on their website); to my question about the old Advocate site.

Thats is good to hear!

I really want to see this project happen above all others!

I agree, i am glad that city plaza and the courthouse are going up in the meantime.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It took nearly a month for The Advocate to reply to my question in Friday mornings Metro section......here it is.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Q: Has a groundbreaking date been set yet for the RiverPlace Condominium tower? I realize the hurricanes and increasing construction cost are the reason for the delays.

A: Originally proposed in 2001, developer Richard Preis has been forced to delay the start of RiverPlace Condominiums several times over the years for redesigns of the $50 million downtown high-rise building.

Since Hurricane Katrina, Preis has said that sharp increases in the price of building materials, especially concrete and steel, have forced even more delays.

Preis sent a letter to investors in October, thanking them for their patience and projecting that work would begin by early 2007, although he cautioned that he would wait until all the plans were finalized.

In response to this question, Preis said the latest delays were caused by yet another round of redesigns.

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Yeah Yeah Yeah, we have heard all of this before. I'll believe this project is a "big time go" when I see cranes or some kind of activity going on on the site, besides it being used for a storage for another development elsewhere downtown. Sorry to sound so harsh but we have heard all of this for years. All of this "redesign" has me a bit worried on just how big the final plan is going to be. If they are working on floorplans then they must have a design. They really need to release a drawing of what the new design is for the building.

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They are not going to build on that site as long as it is a lay down yard for Womack (the company working on the nearby Cress building).

Maybe that's changed. I don't think it's going to happen.

I agree. I'm so glad when we moved here we didn't buy into one of those condos like we wanted to. I would have been quite annoyed having to wait this long and still nothing.

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I still think it's going to happen, but I don't think it will be as big or nice as the original.

I agree dan, I have serious doubts it will be as tall as the orginal plan. I just hope whatever it ends up being it will be tall enough to make some kind of impact on our poor skyline. I'd be somewhat happy with 20-25 stories. At least that would stick out a bit. We still need some kind of "filler" buildings to go into that area to bulk it up.

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One needle thin tower for an entire block is kind of a waste of space anyways. They might as well leave part of it up for development if they wanted to keep it tall.

Height isn't everything, and certainly doesn't automatically lend itself to quality. The Chase building is tall and it's hideous.

I'd rather see more like the two proposed towers on the Advocate site than one thin but tall condo. Then again, I guess the views from those condos will be better.

There is more demand for loft spaces on the northeastern edge of downtown near Spanish town...right near where those 4 story brownstones are going up. The closer to spanishtown the easier sell it is, in my opinion. The western edge along the river is still relatively quiet as far as residential. The pioneer residential development wasn't going to be a massive eye catching tower, and we all knew that.

What I am worried about now is that more development around the Shaw Center and what not will take away from RiverPlace's market share. That's business. They offer better quality and better prices (and better timeframe), then they get the sale.

I think Pries needs to consider a mid rise hotel for the site to be a sister building to his condominium building.

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At 30-stories, River Place will still be an eye-catching tower IMO.

If I'm not mistaken there will still be a narrow tract of empty land on the Laurel Street side. The Thirsty Tiger/ The Village restuarant will fit perfectly along the side entrance to RiverPlace.

You are right cajun height is not everything; the two Advocate proposed towers will look better than the original one taller tower plan. I think a new landmark mixed-use high-rise skyscraper would look best along the Fourth Street corridor; between One American Place and Chase Towers. I can dream I guess.

Some older folks would probably like to see the State Capitol remain BR's tallest...but there is the Capitol grounds that serves as a buffer-zone; so a new landmark skyscaper would not block the view very much.

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1115437609_40a34cef6e_o.jpg

Wouldn't it be neat to have a complex like this? Like cajun mentioned, the smaller tower could be a hotel. This is the River House Condominiums in Grand Rapids. The taller tawer is being built now, the smaller one had already existed there for a few years.

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YES! That would be really nice if they did something like that! Maybe the next block (between RiverPlace & Hilton Capitol Center) Hartley & Vey can finally decide to do something like that??? As of now it's probably the largest surface parking lot in downtown covering that entire block. The 26-story Laurel Plaza failed to get off the ground on that site in 1999.

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I tried to pull up the riverplace site on microsoft maps. It's pretty cool, you can zoom in really close with the bird's eye view (I actually found my car). It's fairly recent, too. The Advocate site is cleared...so it can't be more than 4 months old.

I don't see the site being used as a lay down yard. I'll be downtown tommorow to do title work. I'll be sure to pass by.

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