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North Carolina Biotech Research Campus


orulz

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I do hope that he will build his project into the street grid and make it walkable rather than doing some "creative" street layouts found in most "new urban" developments that look pretty on a map but just end up being confusing. So far everyone's been so tight-lipped about the specifics that I don't know what to expect.

Anyway, there's a chance that it will fail and a chance that it will fly; I hope it flies rather than fails. This is in an urban enough, attractive enough area close enough to a major city that I can see it becoming quite attractive to professional types.

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There is a redevelopment project taking place on the former Burlington Mills complex in downtown Mooresville. This mill closed several years back and left a huge empty factory near the center of town. Fortunately for this area, Lowes Home Improvement stores moved its HQ to a new campus just a few miles down Hwy 115 from this place. The former Burlingtion mills site is being redeveloped into a kind of business condo place for businesses that serve Lowes. It is also surrounded by gridded streets and as a bonus, a stop on the Charlotte North commuter rail line may be located within walking distance of the place.

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is there another city in the us that has actually reinvented itself to this degree? 160 acres in the middle of a downtown within a large metro is pretty rare.

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For one, Atlantic Station is similar in size (138 acres) and is certainly in a very urban location within Atlanta. But in comparison with the rest midtown and downtown, Atlantic Station is small. The Pillowtex plant is overwhelmingly huge compared to downtown Kannapolis, which makes this project, comparably, much larger.

If Murdock pulls this off right, his development will become Kannapolis. I don't know of any precedents but I'm sure it's happened somewhere.

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I live about 15 mins from this area. Tons of the mill homes have been fixed up over the years. Though the homes are small they are very charming. Theres an old movie house called The Gem that shows first run movies for 3$ I think. Its a very walkable area in and around the pillowtex site. I cant wait to hear and hopefully see some renderings of the proposals.

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I wonder whether the all-girls science high school will be private or public, and whether it will be a boarding school or not. Does the state run any single-gender schools? NCSSM is a state-run boarding school, but it's co-ed. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to build a high school with such a focused mission and then only open it up to kids who can be dropped off there every morning. So, I predict we'll see some dorms among the residential buildings there.

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The site is only 260 something acres. That makes it 5 times smaller than NCSU's Centennial Campus, same size as NCSU's biomed campus (260 acres) and smaller than Carolina North at UNC (300+ acres). Also I didn't realize Murdoch was 82. They are going to have to build up if they want to cram a decent amount of research space along with residential and retail on this plot.

The school will probably be some type of magnet school like the one on Centennial Campus.

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The site is only 260 something acres. That makes it 5 times smaller than NCSU's Centennial Campus, same size as NCSU's biomed campus (260 acres) and smaller than Carolina North at UNC (300+ acres). Also I didn't realize Murdoch was 82. They are going to have to build up if they want to cram a decent amount of research space along with residential and retail on this plot.

The school will probably be some type of magnet school like the one on Centennial Campus.

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Here are the specifics

Murdock's project manager for the campus, Lynne Scott Safrit, provided some details:

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This will be more than just a state or National draw. It will be a world draw for Bio-tech firms and jobs, making NC the HUB for Biotech in the US.

Here is a qoute direct from the Observor and Murdock:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/12615293.htm

"The project is called the North Carolina Research Campus, and Murdock promises it will be "huge. It's past most people's imagination. In fact, it's almost past my own imagination."

His vision calls for thousands of high-tech, high-paying jobs clustered around a world-class research center and tied in to state universities, Dole and outside researchers.

My thoughts:

IMO, there will be a domino effect of jobs, construction, and firm relocations, the likes of something North Carolinians have never seen.

Murdock has the dough and he has the dream. Now with plans in place Kannapolis will become more than just a suburb of CLT. It will become a common city with people in the Biotech community.

A2

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Nothing says this is a cutting edge research center like 19th century architecture......the paper actually refers to it as "regency" style....

Anyway, maybe this will prompt the state/Cabarrus Co. to consider a commuter rail line from Uptown to Naptown.

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i haven't read all the stories in detail, but i thought that much of the mill would remain, but the aerial rendering seems like most of the old mill will be torn out.  Have they said yet how much will be kept?

159372962024.jpg

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As far as I've heard, all of the mill - 100% - will be demolished. The only building that will remain will be the old williamsburg-style headquarters, which I've heard will become Kannapolis's town hall.

Ever seen the mills? These aren't your average 1-or-2 story turn-of-the-century mills with lots of big windows and an understated elegance. These were enormous, unadorned brick boxes with only a few small windows and precious few architectural details whatsoever. No matter how you slice it, these buildings would not make for a good adaptive reuse project. The best we can hope for is that they'll reuse some of the bricks from the old mill.

Neat rendering - looks dense, urban, and gridded. I'm eager to hear more about the specifics. Being the transit geek that I am, I'm also caught wondering whether Murdock won't call for public transit between Charlotte and Kannapolis (perhaps express buses, but hopefully commuter trains :silly:)

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Nothing says this is a cutting edge research center like 19th century architecture......the paper actually refers to it as "regency" style....

Anyway, maybe this will prompt the state/Cabarrus Co.  to consider a commuter rail line from Uptown to Naptown.

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Why exactly would commuter rail be needed? The jobs will be in K-town.

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Because people could theoretically live in UC, Uptown, possibly Fort Mill and Rock Thrill......not to mention the visitors flying in to Douglas from true urbanized tech cores like San Fran, and Boston who might prefer not having a car.......also, UNCC professors/students could make the trip should they chose.........plus there is obvious demand for commuters traveling to the Center City and UC from Concord, and Naptown.......I just think this could be impetus for the new line.

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Why exactly would commuter rail be needed?  The jobs will be in K-town.

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Precisely. So the people who work in Kannapolis, but don't live there, can get there. I don't see a lot of (any?) parking lots or parking decks in that rendering...

Obviously the goal would be to get as many people to live nearby as possible, but there are some folks who won't be able to live without their McMansions. Depending on how the project turns out, people who don't work there might want to live there, too.

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I'm finally finding out about this project for myself. I, like a few others, assumed the mill structures would be renovated - but I understand now that they were of no value. That is indeed a shame.

But if above image is the plan for it - wow, that looks like it's straight out of a new urbanist guide for development. Essentially looks like a TOD.

But again - the big story really isn't this development itself, but of the biotech research center. Which makes me curious what the build out plans are, what goes first - housing / retail or the research center.

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the recently built passenger train station is right across the street from this, so it seems like it will be an eventuality to have some sort of commuter rail.

does anyone know (orulz) if the SEHSR will have a schedule that could accommodate commuters? it seems that once HSR improvements are made on that corridor, that timing some trains to be acceptable to commuters would be a good move.

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What are we talking about here.  300 jobs?, 1000 jobs?  There is no way a commuter rail system could be built that would effectively support this few people.  Would it be run in the opposite commuting direction away from Charlotte?  It doesn't make sense to me.

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I am thinking more along the lines of 3000-5000 jobs over the next decade. That figure might be modest though with further development likely aloing the periphery of the mass development.

This is the kind of development that will spur more development around the county and the outskirts of CLT.

THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Probably one of the largest annoucements to hit the Charlotte Region since the announcement of J&W IMO.

A2

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