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301 Hillsborough


Green_man

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6 hours ago, Jones_ said:

They certainly come off as trying very hard to be unoffensive. To anyone. Unoffensive to neighborhoods. To developers. To conservatives. I know they've done a fine job on things like Dix and Union Station. But they aren't pushing hard on Wake County for a solid rail plan for instance. Buses didn't rock the boat too much. They punted on bike share up front (I understand its in the bond plan now). We have some painted bike lanes all over now, but I doubt we'll ever curb separated bike lanes anywhere. Ever. HB2? Silence. I've submitted emails on numerous topics to various council members and never received a response. I know its a pain getting mountains of email with that public email address and all, but Thomas Crowder wrote me back more than once. On a left/right pendulum scale, with 5 pure neutral, 0 pure conservative and 10 pure liberal, Raleigh comes in at about a 6. I also realize the State has damaged the NC brand enough that Raleigh doesn't want to seem unfriendly to developers, but damn, stand for something. 

From time to time, Raleigh's city government has taken a stand and done something audacious. They do generally play it safe though.

It's a tricky minefield because left/right politics don't always predict how a city's voters will react to urban policy. When Chapel Hill tried to pass a transit tax several years ago, I remember hearing all manners of arguments for and against from liberals, socialists, conservatives, libertarians...

"We should have the transit tax because the rail system is a good idea".

"I support mass transit but oppose the transit tax because I hate sales taxes. Why can't we ever have progressive taxes for this stuff, why does it always fall on the poor? If it were added to income taxes I'd like it."

"Trains are a boondoggle. It's a waste of money".

"Trains are a boondoggle, but we need the other transit improvements to help grow business and I doubt they'll really build the trains so I support the tax".

Two left leaning and right leaning views that I've heard. You can tell this was Chapel Hill because the 2nd one was by far the most common anti-transit-tax opinion I encountered.

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I always wondered why the anti transit people decided the word 'boondoggle' was the best word to garner support with. Coupled with the Chaney sneer, it made want to throat punch someone when I heard it. 

But yeah, I hear ya on the left/right stuff. I shouldn't have really coupled politics with urban policy necessarily. Maybe termed it good urban/bad urban. 

Carrboro certainly is a weird mix as you noted. I know some self proclaimed liberals up there who are very conservative in many ways except how they vote. Huge yard and house set way out in a rural subdivision. Huge cars. They don't grow any food at home. Shelter the crap out of their kids. Barely recycle (glass and cans only). Never ride a bike or take transit anywhere. Meadowmont and Southern Village are full of people like that, and I find it very aggravating. Meadowmont has been complaining about the transit stop by their entrance from the beginning...even though that land was set aside for it from the...beginning. 

Back to Raleigh....the most recent wtf for me was the whole article about there not being enough money for sidewalks where they are needed. Sidewalks? Really? This is public safety on top of being a proper-urban-form issue. Find a couple of million dollars for sidewalks already. The Martin Street Dillion office parcels were just vacated. Selling that will provide enough to get pretty far down the side walk list. Stop allowing so much sprawl...it's expensive. Sidewalks, far and police coverage are all more expensive in low density settings. I always thought property taxes based on comps was stupid, and weighting it more on parcel size would alleviate some of the problems with urban areas subsidizing suburban areas. 

 

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not sure if this is what got approved, but found this.

" a 20-story limit, would run along the two blocks west of Fayetteville and along Hillsborough Street west to Boylan Avenue "   a 40story limit along some areas of Fayetteville st.

Also recall developers can go to council on a case by case basis as request higher.  Guess 301 developer is just accepting them limit instead of a long fight over going higher.

Edited by Scotchman
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I will say, kudos to Raleigh for voting to pay its civic employees a wage you can actually survive on. They don't get everything wrong. Hopefully if HB2 gets repealed they can push to raise wages for everyone in the city. Raleigh has always been held back by being in North Carolina, to some extent.

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Definitely a ray of hope on the wages. Getting good people in jobs that go unnoticed, go a long way towards making the City function well for the folks living here and using the services. 

In a rare moment of being pro-height, I think the NW corner of Martin/Salisbury (N&O loading bay corner) is among the top 2 or 3 spots for 40-60 stories. It's close enough to Fayetteville to be part of that assemblage of office space, yet off just enough to allow the spine to ooze out some visually. 

 

14 hours ago, Spatula said:

I will say, kudos to Raleigh for voting to pay its civic employees a wage you can actually survive on. They don't get everything wrong. Hopefully if HB2 gets repealed they can push to raise wages for everyone in the city. Raleigh has always been held back by being in North Carolina, to some extent.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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22 hours ago, Spatula said:

If that hotel section were on top of the office, it would look much better.

But no, let's make everything 20 floors! That's the sacred height!

It would actually make a lot of sense to stack those two and then maybe even flatten the residential some into the hotel footprint, for a better step down towards the west. Also I personally tend to favor shorter residential buildings since I like being part of the street scene from a balcony window and such as opposed to way the hell up in the sky where my city is little more than a painting in the distance. 

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8 hours ago, Trent Y said:

I did hear about that. Figures. Not really sure why a death would signficantly stall a multi million dollar project but this is downtown raleigh. 

...it wasn't just any death.  It was the president of the company.  There's all sorts of scenarios that can occur when something like that happens as ownership and decision making changes hands.

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  • 7 months later...

I suppose there is no way for this to happen, but wouldn't this whole site and project be much better if the two towers were stacked for that elusive 40 story tower but the Hicks mansion left in place and fully restored to function as the leasing and management office for the building? How's that for height+historic preservation compromise? The mansion grounds could even be restored as a dog park for residents. Put the standard grills and stuff in the back and let folks hang out on the rebuilt classical porches while they eat and drink away their weekends....

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well I noticed lights and computers on in the old Hicks Mansion the other day, and today took a closer look...the front door says "Atlas Holdings" on it now. A quick look at the website and Atlas "...is a private equity firm specializing in bankruptcy purchases, restructuring, turnarounds, leveraged ESOP transactions..."

The title of the property is still with 301/Lundy, but I am guessing this suggests they have thrown in the towel here....? Anyone have a better idea of what this might mean? Surely Lundy could have continued to develop this themselves had they wanted to? Atlas doesn't sound like a developer, but rather someone who looks to 'gain efficiencies'...

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