Carolina First Center

[orulz]

Read the article from the Citizen-Times.

There's been a new proposal for downtown Asheville at the corner of College and Woodfin St (where the new roundabout is.) The developer says it will go as high as 10 stories, depending on how many clients can be found. The aim is to consolidate many county operations from across the region into a central location on City-County Plaza. This will fit right in heightwise with the county courthouse and City Hall, which are just on the other side of College. I'm not sure what I think of the design just yet; my initial impression tells me that it will look odd standing by itself but if more buildings of similar scale get built on the same block then it'll look alright.

But to be perfectly honest, the design doesn't matter so much, as long as they're building something there! There's way too many crappy parking lots in that part of downtown that need to be built over. Right now, downtown is completely uninviting once you venture east of Spruce St, and something of this scale is needed to generate more interest in the east side of downtown.

In my ideal world, they would tear down the health services building (two stories tall, wiiide, and with a huge parking lot), and extend Spruce and Walnut St all the way through to Woodfin, breaking up up this "superblock."

[Dale]

I like it. And now for the question I ask about every year: when is BB&T going to at least reclad that butt-ugly tower of theirs ?

[A2]

I think this would be a great addition to the Asheville skyline.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

great news for Asheville.

[krazeeboi]

Cool building.

[Beany]

Great addition for Asheville.

[Miesian Corners]

LOVE IT! Now why can't we get something like that in Charlotte? Oh I forgot, not enough red brick.

[archiham04]

It's not online yet, but this morning's print edition of the paper announced a 103 unit apartment and retail development on north lexington between Hiawasee and 240:

Two buildings, three stories tall, plaza, 22k-24k retail, 103 apartments (mixed market and below market rate), two levels of underground parking

All the hippies are screaming gentrification.

[orulz]

It's not online yet, but this morning's print edition of the paper announced a 103 unit apartment and retail development on north lexington between Hiawasee and 240:

Two buildings, three stories tall, plaza, 22k-24k retail, 103 apartments (mixed market and below market rate), two levels of underground parking

All the hippies are screaming gentrification.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Below-market housing downtown, and they're screaming gentrification? blah. The hippies (nimbys?) need to shut up. Do they want that spot to stay a parking lot forever?

Anyway, I'd be interested in seeing more information about that as soon as it's online. I know the lot well, but to be honest I'm a bit disappointed that it isn't a bit taller. (four stories? five?) At the very least, I was hoping for two floors of retail, one fronting on N. Lexington, and the other on Hiawassee (the change in elevaton is great enough so that it'd probably work.

The whole Rankin/Hiawassee area could be so much nicer than it is... for starters I think that Rankin Avenue could work as another woonerf like Wall Street. It's not the most accessible location downtown, and there's a large parking deck right on it, but ..... wait, that sounds just like Wall Street! There are quite a few parking lots (next to Salvation Army, or in front of the power substation) that need to be built up first, though. Death to all off-street surface parking downtown!

[ChadKRagland]

This is a great building. I am excited to see some of the new developments for Asheville. Is there any place I could go to see all of them?

I am in Orlando, but used to live in Asheville, curious to see whats new!

[DigitalSky]

yeah a great addition for Asheville, looks awesome

[urbanesq]

I like the modern look of it. Not 100% certain about the location, but looks like this should be a neat addition to what is becoming (I think) one of the most people-friendly downtowns in NC.

[rusthebuss]

that would be a nice addition to any skyline.

[RiverwoodCLT]

that would be a nice addition to any skyline.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Looks nice go Asheville B)

[cinco]

i think the design works perfect for asheville. very exciting. i hope people of this state realize what a gem of a city asheville is. i will live there @ some point in my life.

i would love to see DT asheville with more residential...it is such a pedestrian friendly ville. henry miller wrote that the mountains of NC seem very asiatic, and that asheville was like the city pagan - the capital of burma. i don't even know the history of pagan, burma...but i thought it sounded spot on.

[rooster8]

I googled this project and learned that the Buncombe County Commissioners adopted a resolution of intent at their March 21 meeting to lease the property to the developers of this project.

Maybe we'll see some more movement on this project soon.

[rooster8]

While walking around Saturday night I noticed a rezoning notice directly in front of the large parking lot that is part of this parcel (not the building location). From what I could gather it was some sort of rezoning request for the parking deck. I didn't see any mention of this building. I also couldn't read the meeting time as the sheet had been rained on and was smeared.

[orulz]

This deck is supposed to be a joint city/county project, for the health services building, the new building at the corner of College & Oak, as well as the general public. I think I saw that it will be 7 stories tall. It's supposed to be in the Health Services parking lot, but I don't know exactly where in the parking lot it will go. Hopefully it won't take up a lot of streetfront space along College or Oak.

[hauntedheadnc]

Bad news regarding this project, I think... I was reviewing site plans for the new 7-story parking garage due to rise on the health department parking lot, and it shows a massing block depicting this building in situ -- only about five or six stories shorter.

[orulz]

Bad news regarding this project, I think... I was reviewing site plans for the new 7-story parking garage due to rise on the health department parking lot, and it shows a massing block depicting this building in situ -- only about five or six stories shorter.

[hauntedheadnc]

I get the city E-News, which emails me a city government news roundup every week or so. The parking deck was in there along with the redevelopment of McCormick Heights and the Pioneer Building.

[orulz]

Looks like you're right. This project has taken a turn for the worse:

. Level II review for the project identified as 200 College Street Office Building, located on Woodfin and College Streets. The request is for new construction of a 4-story office building with a drive-thru bank. The owner is Northwest Property Group and the contact is Gerald Green. The property is identified in the Buncombe County tax records as PIN 9649.19-51-1253.

Planner coordinating review

[rooster8]

How sad. I was really excited about this building when it was first announced. There is a small Bank of America branch right down the street from this spot with a drive-thru. I wonder if they're wanting to move or if this is a totally different bank.

Too bad the developers didn't change gears to include residential when the office seemingly fell apart.

EDIT: This Mountain Xpress article from 2005 mentions a drive thru, so I guess it has been planned from the beginning.

[Lootles]

How sad. I was really excited about this building when it was first announced. There is a small Bank of America branch right down the street from this spot with a drive-thru. I wonder if they're wanting to move or if this is a totally different bank.

Too bad the developers didn't change gears to include residential when the office seemingly fell apart.

EDIT: This Mountain Xpress article from 2005 mentions a drive thru, so I guess it has been planned from the beginning.

[orulz]

If Buncombe isn't going to lease space here, then, pray tell, where are the jobs that would have gone here, going to go? Out in the 'burbs? That negates all the synergy and efficiency of locating so many major county and city office facilities proximate to each other.

In principle, the county does support the idea that downtown Asheville should continue to be the beating heart of Buncombe, but they've always been reluctant to commit any funds toward that end.

Thinking back, was it DSS offices that were slated to move there? If so they may have determined that the current location, across the street from the bus center, allows them to serve their clientel better.