Progress in Downtown W-S

[twincity]

I thought this would be a good time to do an update since so many projects are finally being implemented. i took these photos over the Thanksgiving weekend, so i didnt have time to cover all the projects. hopefully i can get photograph those during my christmas break.

same ole skyline pic:

i guess ill start off in the ptrp area. ive been asking this question on another forum for about 6 months now. What is going on here. This is the former camel city dry cleaners site and its in the central district of PTRP. will this be new resaerch space?

thats the site on the left on 4th st:

Piedmont Leaf Lofts - 33 units:

The Gallery in the Goler Depot - 70 units? the empy lots on the right will be replaved with Goler Manor - 79 units 6 storys.

excuse the distortion. this neighborhood is going to have the best view.

someone on another forum said that this will be the site for the commuter rail station to serve downtown.

same line going north through PTRP and Goler.

a glimpse of the twincity quarter. again, i didnt have time to really photograph all the dowtown projects. shah is doing it up for these hotels/restauraunts. even though the 2 are open, there is still plenty construction going on. the Benton Convention Cenetr is just now starting its exterior facelift. the Starbucks on 5th is looking excellent and it think it should be open by the end of the year. no word on The Grille yet.

Nissen Apartment ads on the base:

The Mellow Mushroom...very modern exterior, flawless interior, very different in design from the other Mellow Mushrooms in NC. i predict that this will be the highlight of 4th street.

Traders' Row...cant wait to see those street level sports news casts:

A dismantled church on cherry st.

No more surface lots...this lot is being dug for the church's expansion. its a little bittersweet seeing a prime lot not being used for a high-rise, but for a low rise single-use building. i guess any building is better than a slab of ashpalt. depending on the size, it could add needed density in that area.

construction in the Historic district of Holly Ave.

We need more units in Holly Village. Greensboro is so lucky to have a neighborhood full of these live-work units.

a bad picture of the six fifty four holly ridge development...9 victorian style multi-family homes:

Finally, the first phase of Westend Village:

4th and broad and the Towns:

Next time ill get more of Twincity quarter, the Gateway, Happy Hill (which is really progressing) and the new restaurants in downtown.

[Hotlanta]

Actually the Starbucks is already open. I rode my bike by there and I saw them mixing up coffee and a guy using the Wi-Fi. WS Prime is also open, I went in there and it is REALLY nice including the totally renovated Adams Mark to the Marriott. Nice job shah!

[DCB]

Great pictures, Twincity. It's great to see all this development going on in DT WS. The Peidmont Leaf Lofts are looking great. It's almost looking like a new building.

I've also heard about the possibility of using eminent domain to claim the old Union Station back for commuter rail service, but I don't know how likely that is to happen.

[twincity]

o ok i didnt know the starbucks was already open. what about The Grille?

[yadkinv]

Great pictures - and it's great to see some actual action! The church expansion is not bad, I don't think. True, it uses prime land, but it provide a sense of propriety, and is almost soothing in a dense urban setting, and further just contributes to increasing the density once other higrises are required in the area.

Speaking of Starbucks, this instance is a peculiar one. By that, I mean normally Starbucks usually heralds a pending arrival at the website by listing the unopened store with a huge coming soon sign next to it. That never appeared with the downtown Starbucks in W-S. Further, the Winston-Salem Journal announced the Starbucks downtown was open more than a month ago, that is, in early or mid-October, and still there is no listing of its existence at the Starbucks website??? I made so bold as to inquire with them by email, and after about three days they thanked me, and indicated "they would look into the matter." That was about two weeks ago??? By the way, a slightly strange occurence involving the Harper Commons one happened as well. It was announced at the website as coming soon, but then disappared from the site for months until it reappeared long after it had opened?

[intcvlcphlga]

Nice pics! Another great pic to get would be the Nissen Building at night. They're lighting the top of it now, so it looks great. I was in town over Thanksgiving as well and noticed that there's a roof top pool on the Nissen Bldg. That has to be a first for Winston and Triad, I guess. And, they did a great job of restoring the base of the building back to the original, pre-First Union base.

Do you know what the status on units in the Goler project is? Have they sold out or are they nearly sold out? I went to look at the Piedmont Leaf Lofts and over a year ago and they only had one or two units left. The one I saw was a "townhouse" unit - basically a duplex on the 5th and 6th floor facing South with the upper floor being housed in the mansard roof with the heavy timber structure exposed.

The pics of the old RJR factories look great too. I really hope they preserve them and re-use them in some kind of mixed-use manner. I aslo think they need to preserve and re-use the infrastructure that supported the tobacco and textile industry in that end of town - ie. the Bailey Power Plant, the smokestacks, bridges linking the factories, etc. Winston-Salem only needs to look as far as Durham's ATC complex, the Shockoe Bottom District of Richmond, TriBeCa, DUMBO, Red Hook, etc in New York and the forthcoming SteelStax project in Bethlehem, PA for inspiration and more importantly to realize that saving and re-using the industrial fabric in a variety of uses is synchronous with urban and economic development rather than antithetical to it.

[twincity]

im not too sure about the gallery project in Goler. you might want to check out www.thegalleryliving.com to see if u can get more info. they have a questionaire for interested parties on that site and plus they will give you some kind of preview after everything is submitted.

One of my best friends is head of Metropolitan Drywall...the same company who did the interior of the Dell plant...and he said that The Gallery and Goler Manor should be under construction around the same time (early next year). right now GolerCDC and HAWS are showing info and renderings of the new 6 story structure to local residents. Both projects are up for bids right now. and i think a new apartment building on MLK and Patterson is unofficially proposed. i know it was vaguely mentioned in a few city council meetings a few weeks ago.

a lot of the old factories will be renovated for research space. however, Bad news on the Bailey power plant. if im not mistakes, ReynoldsAmerican donated the land to Ideallance so it can be demolished. I also wish it could stay just to remind the city of its past.

[intcvlcphlga]

im not too sure about the gallery project in Goler. you might want to check out www.thegalleryliving.com to see if u can get more info. they have a questionaire for interested parties on that site and plus they will give you some kind of preview after everything is submitted.

One of my best friends is head of Metropolitan Drywall...the same company who did the interior of the Dell plant...and he said that The Gallery and Goler Manor should be under construction around the same time (early next year). right now GolerCDC and HAWS are showing info and renderings of the new 6 story structure to local residents. Both projects are up for bids right now. and i think a new apartment building on MLK and Patterson is unofficially proposed. i know it was vaguely mentioned in a few city council meetings a few weeks ago.

a lot of the old factories will be renovated for research space. however, Bad news on the Bailey power plant. if im not mistakes, ReynoldsAmerican donated the land to Ideallance so it can be demolished. I also wish it could stay just to remind the city of its past.

Perhaps we should email Bill Dean and propose that they hold off on the demolition given that most of the development of PTRP is on the southern end and there are plenty of infill sites at this point in that general area + the old bus station site. It doesn't make sense to put resources into tearing down any of the old RJR facilities right now. Furthermore, Bill Dean is from Huntsville, AL and might not have the appreciation for RJR's importance to the history of the city...I just think it would be criminal to tear down any of that area given what Durham, Richmond, et al have been able to do with their industrial districts.

[cityboi]

Thanks for the great photos twin city:) those live-work units look great. I like the way they were constructed on the hill.