Moore Square East apartment project

[ncwebguy]

Gordon Smith, who owns/operates the Exploris complex -- the museum, IMAX theater, middle school and Long View Center is the primary, I think. There may be other partners, but I don't know.

The only reference I found on Google was in a document for the five year anniversary of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance.

[urbanesq]

Gordon Smith, who owns/operates the Exploris complex -- the museum, IMAX theater, middle school and Long View Center is the primary, I think. There may be other partners, but I don't know.

The only reference I found on Google was in a document for the five year anniversary of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance.

[ncwebguy]

Driving by there this morning, I noticed that some of the foundation of one of the houses -- the blue one on the SE corner of Hargett and Bloodworth -- had holes created in it. It looks like they're getting ready to move it to get the land ready for the potential apartment project.

They also have taken down a few trees on the block in recent weeks.

I don't know if there are any formal plans for the apartments, but it is a good sign that the block is being prepared.

[ChiefJoJo]

Is this the location? I wonder if he plans to redevelop the entire block? To do 170 apartments and still keep costs down (1-4 stories = wood framing = cheap), you'd think he will use the whole block.

[Jones_]

Driving by there this morning, I noticed that some of the foundation of one of the houses -- the blue one on the SE corner of Hargett and Bloodworth -- had holes created in it. It looks like they're getting ready to move it to get the land ready for the potential apartment project.

They also have taken down a few trees on the block in recent weeks.

I don't know if there are any formal plans for the apartments, but it is a good sign that the block is being prepared.

[ncwebguy]

That link is the block in question. The house on the SW Hargett/Bloodworth corner had beams under it this morning, and the house next to it in the Google picture on Hargett was torn down months ago.

It makes sense to go denser on this block, since Wintershaven (three story senior citizens housing that forms the backwards L at Hargett/East) and Winters place (mix of offices near Martin/East and three stories of apartments next to the Chavis greenway) are on the block to its east.

The greenway is a buffer between downtown and the single family home neighborhood. Though there are apartments on both sides of Davie east of Chaivs (Eastwood Court, operated by the Raleigh Housing Authority).

I don't know how much money can be made there, but anything that will add density to downtown without going too tall is ok by me. And the houses will fill in some "gaps" on empty lots a few blocks to the east. The sale of those hosues should more than pay for their move, leaving the block a blank slate.

[Jones_]

That link is the block in question. The house on the SW Hargett/Bloodworth corner had beams under it this morning, and the house next to it in the Google picture on Hargett was torn down months ago.

It makes sense to go denser on this block, since Wintershaven (three story senior citizens housing that forms the backwards L at Hargett/East) and Winters place (mix of offices near Martin/East and three stories of apartments next to the Chavis greenway) are on the block to its east.

The greenway is a buffer between downtown and the single family home neighborhood. Though there are apartments on both sides of Davie east of Chaivs (Eastwood Court, operated by the Raleigh Housing Authority).

I don't know how much money can be made there, but anything that will add density to downtown without going too tall is ok by me. And the houses will fill in some "gaps" on empty lots a few blocks to the east. The sale of those hosues should more than pay for their move, leaving the block a blank slate.

[ChiefJoJo]

At the site of the future Gordon Smith Moore Square East apartment project taken today from Martin and Bloodworth St:

Obviously you can see the homes being moved from the left of the picture--I assume that's is where the apartment site will go.

[ncwebguy]

The apartment site is (I think) the *whole* block.

The yellow one story in the middle of that picture used to front either Bloodworth or East. The two story blue house on the far left side of the picture behind the utility poles is one of the older ones, up on beams. I would think they would make the moves over the weekend, but all of the houses were still on that site this morning.

The four houses on Martin were built around five years ago. It seems the two on the east end of the Martin front are being lived in or used as offices for the moving company. They will probably go last.

The apartments might be built in phases, starting on the east or north side of the block and then working around. That is where the majority of the work has been done so far. A lot of interior trees have been taken down, but it is good to see the ones on Bloodworth (including the big one in the upper left corner of the picture) still standing.

[ChiefJoJo]

Wow, G Smith is moving all of those homes? Where? It is promising to see some progress on this project, considering the level of need I see in the marketplace for reasonably affordable apartments in or near DTR. Right now, it pretty much Capital Apts and a few other small spaces. Tucker will help the west side, but the Moore Square are I think is a slightly different submarket which could appeal to ArtSpace folks, or maybe state or city workers. with wood-frame construction and lower land values on the east side, I thinkthis project has good promise for affordability.

[ncwebguy]

I think acquiring 220 South East street on Feb 8th of this year was the last piece of the block Wood Pile needed. $160k for a run down house is a bit much, but was necessary to get the whole block. It was around that time when the trees started coming down and the houses started getting prepped for transport.

Four of the houses are going to the sites I listed above in post #24 I think.

Searching Wake County's site again turned up:

423 Watson Street

408 South Bloodworth

418 South Bloodworth

320 East Davie

543 East Cabarrus 11/9/2006, $30,000

1105 East Martin 5/9/2006, $107,000

Most of these lots are vacant and only a few blocks from the block in question...

(EDIT) I hope these will be affordable apartments, but who knows? The Martin Street houses were rumored to be built to house teachers learning at Exploris and/or teaching at Exploris Middle School. A couple of the East Street houses were rented to Peace College students for a while, as a Peace College security car would drive by once in a while. Building apartments will add more units than the dozen or so existing houses the block, and one bedroom apartments are an easier sell than living with strangers in a house. Mixing teachers with city/state/artspace/other downtown workers in that area could be interesting.

If the Raleigh Rescue Mission moves to their land on the SE corner of New Bern and Swain, there could be an even greater connection to Exploris, Longview, and Moore Square.

Why the N&O hasn't picked up on this story, I have no idea. They reported on the speculated apartment complex a while ago without any plans submitted, etc.

[ncwebguy]

My house is near the location of where one of the houses on the apartment block will be moved to. They poured a concrete footing last week.

A tree in front of the house next to it (one of the city's rennovations, still for sale?) had a "cutting this tree down" yellow piece of paper stuck to it a few days ago. It said "moving house" was the only explanation for the tree removal, but I only read it after all the limbs had been cut off. Ugh!

This morning they were taking down the rest of the tree. Some parts of it were dying/dead, but the tree seemed pretty healthy overall.

I guess the move might happen soon, but have not heard anything yet.

[ncwebguy]

I didn't make it to the Cardinal Club presentation because I had a show right on my front step.

They finally moved two of the houses from the apartment block to empty lots in the neighborhood. They were pulled down Hargett -- an older house was moved to the 600 block of Hargett and the other (built a a few years ago) was moved to the 300 block of Swain Street. Despite what the article says, Smith/Woodpile own the whole block.

My house was ground zero for the watching party of the first house. The only warning I received was a "we're cutting your power off on May 5th from 8-5 for 'maintenance'" from Progress Energy and "POLICE - No Parking" signs on Hargett a couple of days before. There was no "Don't expect to get out of your driveway till 2 pm, and it will be tricky even then" warnings.

I have 30 seconds of video of the house making the turn into the lot that I hope to post to You Tube soon.

The article says the other six houses will be moved next weekend, but that is the first I've heard of it. Maybe they will go down Martin Street. I would watch but I have some big plans of my own which will probably keep me from going to the 21st century city series on Thursday

[Jones_]

I didn't make it to the Cardinal Club presentation because I had a show right on my front step.

They finally moved two of the houses from the apartment block to empty lots in the neighborhood. They were pulled down Hargett -- an older house was moved to the 600 block of Hargett and the other (built a a few years ago) was moved to the 300 block of Swain Street. Despite what the article says, Smith/Woodpile own the whole block.

My house was ground zero for the watching party of the first house. The only warning I received was a "we're cutting your power off on May 5th from 8-5 for 'maintenance'" from Progress Energy and "POLICE - No Parking" signs on Hargett a couple of days before. There was no "Don't expect to get out of your driveway till 2 pm, and it will be tricky even then" warnings.

I have 30 seconds of video of the house making the turn into the lot that I hope to post to You Tube soon.

The article says the other six houses will be moved next weekend, but that is the first I've heard of it. Maybe they will go down Martin Street. I would watch but I have some big plans of my own which will probably keep me from going to the 21st century city series on Thursday

[ncwebguy]

Would that involve getting hitched maybe?

[dth]

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1400946/

Whoever writes copy for WRAL nailed it with that headline, please pardon the appropriation. I don't know the story behind this beyond what was reported. The house they show in the video looks pretty big for what they describe as a blue collar neighborhood. I'm sure there are some heavy opinions on this, and perhaps it should not be regarded as something fun to do, but if I had time this weekend I would make the rare trip to Raleigh to gawk at this spectacle.

[Jones_]

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1400946/

Whoever writes copy for WRAL nailed it with that headline, please pardon the appropriation. I don't know the story behind this beyond what was reported. The house they show in the video looks pretty big for what they describe as a blue collar neighborhood. I'm sure there are some heavy opinions on this, and perhaps it should not be regarded as something fun to do, but if I had time this weekend I would make the rare trip to Raleigh to gawk at this spectacle.

[DanRNC]

This should probably go into the Moore Square apartments post. Where are these houses being moved to?

[ncwebguy]

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1400946/

Whoever writes copy for WRAL nailed it with that headline, please pardon the appropriation. I don't know the story behind this beyond what was reported. The house they show in the video looks pretty big for what they describe as a blue collar neighborhood. I'm sure there are some heavy opinions on this, and perhaps it should not be regarded as something fun to do, but if I had time this weekend I would make the rare trip to Raleigh to gawk at this spectacle.

[Jones_]

Last weekend's two house moves were pretty cool... I could only imagine what *eight* houses will be like!

Of the eight houses, two or three are one story/blue collar, four are newish (2000 or so) two story starter homes around 1200 sq ft (the ones in ChiefJoJo's picture), and one is old and big.

They are being moved to scatterd plots -- the six listed a few posts ago, 818 East Martin and 513 S Bloodworth.

The two houses moved last weekend went to 610 East Hargett and 309 South Swain.

I know the East Davie site has a cement foundation poured, but I don't know about the rest. If I wasn't busy, I'd be watching!

[dth]

This is the non-blue, non-new house I also mentioned in dth's thread

It was very nicely rehabbed (on the outside at least) in 1999.

[OldeEast]

Last weekend's two house moves were pretty cool... I could only imagine what *eight* houses will be like!

Of the eight houses, two or three are one story/blue collar, four are newish (2000 or so) two story starter homes around 1200 sq ft (the ones in ChiefJoJo's picture), and one is old and big.

They are being moved to scatterd plots -- the six listed a few posts ago, 818 East Martin and 513 S Bloodworth.

The two houses moved last weekend went to 610 East Hargett and 309 South Swain.

I know the East Davie site has a cement foundation poured, but I don't know about the rest. If I wasn't busy, I'd be watching!

[ncwebguy]

A lot of the houses ended up being moved to the lot west of Carlton Place. I hope this is temporary, as that block is better suited for multi-story construction and "step up" toward the Fayetville Street spine. The houses may have been moved to get them off the land, since it appears they did some grading once the houses were moved.

The "tan" house was moved to 610 East Hargett. The blue house on the corner of Hargett and Bloodworth was moved to Cabarrus Street I think.

One "new" house still stands on Martin (it appears to be occupied), and the one story long/extended blue house on East was being demoed yesterday and today. There are a lot of large trees still standing, mostly on the edges/sidewalks. I hope they are incoprorated into the plans for the future of the block.

[Jones_]

I (as you might expect) liked that blue house because of the hard to find angular bay window...probably an expensive touch for that part of the city when it was built. It looked poorly maintained though and I suspect that is why it was deep sixed. One of the houses on teh storage lot looks like it is in place to front Davie Street but that could be a by-product of where they sqeezed it for temporary storage.

[ChiefJoJo]

I just walked over to the site and I realized how close it is to being ready for redevelopment. All but the one yellow house on Martin remains, and I assume that will be moved shortly, since there's a large rig parked next to it.

Let's hope the whole time the homes have been moving, "Woodpile" has been designing this structure, so there's little delay in getting it built. It's been 17 months since the announcement, and all the while no apartment stock has been added in the area, except Carlton Place. I hope we see a site plan very soon.