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Glenwood Towers


dmccall

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I heard the lease on Glenwood expires at the end of 2007. An abundance of speculation surrounds the possibilities here. Everything from a condo tower to a hotel is being mentioned. I even heard of rumor of a New Year's Eve implosion.

The prospect of a hotel is exciting. If I were visiting Raleigh, that's definitely where I'd like to stay. While a Ritz Carlton, Intercontinental, or something nice would do well, I wouldn't be too upset to even see a Hamption Inn/Hilton Garden there, either. I stayed in the new Hampton diagonally across from the new arena downtown last year and was impressed. Other than the small towels, I wouldn't have known it any different than a Marriott. Hilton is definitely shifting the Hampton brand upward.

I guess we'll know what the Reynolds are proposing by then.....won't we? :D

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Ohh that would be awesome freakin news. I've always hated that that building was in such a prime location and the people there don't really enjoy the area like some others could. Same with Sir Walter Raleigh -- not that I want to kick out all the old people mind you...its just SUCH a great location.

It is one of the most prominent buildings in Glenwood South -- so lets hope, if its replaced, that it is replaced with something equally as prominent.

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That's a pretty significant building, and while it doesn't exactly complete the urban environment on Glenwood South, it really fills out the skyline around Glenwood & Peace. I agree with MR-2: if the city decides to sell, hopefully they'll sneak in a clause that guarantees the construction of something new if the building comes down.

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What a depressing building! I hope they start over with something better. Keep us posted!

This thing is kind of an eyesore. I think with some work they could renovate it into a great mixed-use building.

Or just blow it to hell. :)

I wonder if they blow it up what it'll do for those who live at the Paramount - great view of the demo or will they make you evacuate?

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This thing is kind of an eyesore. I think with some work they could renovate it into a great mixed-use building.

Or just blow it to hell. :)

I wonder if they blow it up what it'll do for those who live at the Paramount - great view of the demo or will they make you evacuate?

I am getting worn out with news of implosions/demolitions. Is Raleigh turning into another Charlotte? Seems like if it is a conversion, a facelift is in order and infill the ground level *that is the parking lot" with shops, restaruants, offices...something.

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I am getting worn out with news of implosions/demolitions. Is Raleigh turning into another Charlotte? Seems like if it is a conversion, a facelift is in order and infill the ground level *that is the parking lot" with shops, restaruants, offices...something.

You won't see me crying. Glenwood Towers was functional but is one cold, stark hulking mass.

But really, we've had two implosions in the last 16 years. Is that too many? Not in my book, so long as Audio Buys is still there. :)

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With Capitol Park and the new Chavis Heights having senior centers, RHA should look at decommissining this property. If they make it a hotel, where will visitors park? The 510 deck? Street parking? If they took down that stone church (with the roof visible in the picture earlier in this thread), they could put a deck between the towers and Tucker and have ground floor retail along Tucker and Glenwood. It is too big to be just a hotel or just condos, but a mix could work. A mid-range hotel on the lower floors or one tower, and condos above/other tower. With a few additions outside and some reworking inside, it could fit in nicely with the rest of the neighborhood.

Or they could have an impressive demolition, unless there's asbesos involved. It would never happen, but giving 3 or 4 lucky contest winners rocket launchers to take out the supports would be pretty cool... Starting over means they could daylight the creek and maybe build around that, but I doubt that'll happen.

There are three former/current audio stores in Raleigh that could go down in flames -- the one in Five Points in front of Bloomsbury Bistro and Eckards, the one across from Char Grill on Hillsborough, and the dull building facing Hillsborough, West and Edenton.

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I am pretty sure it is owned and operated by the Raleigh Housing Authority. With the old BTI building at North Hills and the Hudson both being stripped to their girders, I bet such a project is well within the reach of many developers including local ones. The Raleigh Housing Authority is looking at vacating the Sir Walter by moving most of thos residents to a Shaw campus facility and then using proceeds from A Sir Walter sale to build more housing elsewhere. The money made off Glenwood Towers could build twice as many units say near Raleigh Blvd and and Rock Quarry where there is both shopping and medical services close by, or maybe near Duke Raleigh on Wake Forest Rd....

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I am pretty sure it is owned and operated by the Raleigh Housing Authority. With the old BTI building at North Hills and the Hudson both being stripped to their girders, I bet such a project is well within the reach of many developers including local ones. The Raleigh Housing Authority is looking at vacating the Sir Walter by moving most of thos residents to a Shaw campus facility and then using proceeds from A Sir Walter sale to build more housing elsewhere. The money made off Glenwood Towers could build twice as many units say near Raleigh Blvd and and Rock Quarry where there is both shopping and medical services close by, or maybe near Duke Raleigh on Wake Forest Rd....

Man, the idea of a revived Sir Walter makes me salivate. :shades:

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The Raleigh Housing Authority is looking at vacating the Sir Walter by moving most of thos residents to a Shaw campus facility and then using proceeds from A Sir Walter sale to build more housing elsewhere.

Sir Walter Apartments is a federally-subsidized, privately-owned apartment development. RHA doesn't own it.

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I think some of the you guys miss the point on moral social relations. There are a large number of empty and dilapidated lots downtown. What's with the obsession of kicking the less fortunate out? Why can't a mixture of people enjoy DT life?

My uncle lives there. He's been living there for 20 years and loves it! More importantly it's his home. I mean who are we to say, who should be where?

Time naturally fosters the change of things, but this is just being greedy.

We have plenty of room for growth.

Batteries not Included!!!!! :D

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My uncle lives there. He's been living there for 20 years and loves it! More importantly it's his home. I mean who are we to say, who should be where?

I know you love your uncle and I'm sure he's lovable, but we are the public, the ones funding his shelter. If he wants to stay in the area, he can go take out a speculative loan just like I had to to live in my house. Otherwise, I'd like my taxes back. (it IS public housing, afterall)

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I think some of the you guys miss the point on moral social relations. There are a large number of empty and dilapidated lots downtown. What's with the obsession of kicking the less fortunate out? Why can't a mixture of people enjoy DT life?

My uncle lives there. He's been living there for 20 years and loves it! More importantly it's his home. I mean who are we to say, who should be where?

Time naturally fosters the change of things, but this is just being greedy.

We have plenty of room for growth.

Batteries not Included!!!!! :D

This is where I tend to agree for several reasons. First, a city is made up of people all ages and backgrounds, not just people who eat out at expensive bars and drink a couple of nights a week.

I hear this "low-income" talk and then I look at myself. I am fairly highly paid individual who is "early middle-age", a constant saver, several retirement plans with successful parents with things to leave behind, and will flat-out own my house in 10 years or less. I am starting to see what it will take to retire and when and if I get out of the rat-race early (60 years old or less). And it is scary and I could see myself, even with all that, living in a home like this.

With the loss of pension plans/pay you till you die, your life after retirement will be financed by your 401K and other savings. (this is where you go online and look at your current 401K amount ("Oh Sh** !!!!"). Even as a constant "saver" at a good salary, the latter years can be tough. There are so many variables that can wipe your bank account clean before you even start to retire.

The people in these homes could be anyone or anyone of us. I bet we would be surprised at the life's these people have led and that they are much like our own. See yourself in 50 years saying.... "And then some whipper-snapper comes along and wants to build a "bar and hotel" where my home is !!!!!"

To be honest, with life expectancies, health costs, inflation, loss of SS and Medicare and others, in my older years, I hope I can go out and sit out on a park bench, say hello to the pretty woman and watch the traffic, instead of being pushed out to some home in a empty field.

Take another look at your 401K and plan your life till age 85 or beyond. Are you ready !!!!!

That being said, a big-arse hotel with ground floor retail that hooks in the Raleigh office supply project would be nice.

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With the upcoming baby boomer market becoming elderly, we already are going to have a shortage for such facilities in the next 10 to 20 years the way we have a school shortage right now for their kids. But for the elderly, cramming 20 of them into a trailer is not going to be an option. Florida won't be able to take them all.

If Glenwood Tower was close to a hospital, or even a drug store, it would be more relevant. A half apartment/half hotel or half apartment/half condo project would bring a lot more life into that block and the neighborhood as a whole. Doesn't the Carrige House on St. Marys fill a similar niche as well?

Would the elderly be worse off if they lived in a new building with modern health facilities and a grocery/drug store on ground floor in one of the blocks east of the train tracks? Maybe wrap a parking deck in retail/offices/apartments like 510 Glenwood. The elderly in Carlton Place and Chavis will be close to the Rex Senior center on Davie, and a few blocks from the existing Fayetville Street CVS. How is that being immoral?

There is never any clamor for such facilities near Rex or Duke/Raleigh Community because neighbors don't want poor,old neighbors. They can say who should live where but downtown, which already has more than its fair share, can not? How is that not as greedy if not greedier?

How many senior towers dominate other CBD fringes? Charlotte? Winston Salem? Atlanta? DC?

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I'm starting to wonder about the atmosphere of this forum.

My uncle fought in Vietnam and suffers from flashbacks. Should he just knock down politian's houses for sending him there?

Come on people with some of the snobbery. How about being decent human beings and realize that this isn't some sheltor, that these are people's homes.

There is plenty of land DT. How is an elderly building where people have worked to build this country before our generation, imposing?

Most of the people there love it and snatching them out of there homes where they have lived for many years is wrong.

We must take on a moral and social responsibility in a world that seriously lacks it.

Just think the elders that we are so quick to dismiss, built those historic buildings DT. Apprecitate them and leave them alone.

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I'm starting to wonder about the atmosphere of this forum.
It's interesting how things differ between people who have no personal stake in development matters and those who do. For example, I suspect that each and every one of us would oppose the right proposal in our own neighborhoods, even though we constantly harp on NIMBYs. Perhaps we could all do to walk in other peoples' shoes.

RE Glenwood Towers, I suspect the real issue at hand is this. I don't know what sort of condition they're in structurally; if they're solid, safe, well-maintained, and the facilities have been kept up to date, then you can bet they'll stay just like they are for a long time. On the other hand, they may be nearing the end of their useful life, or badly need a major overhaul. When were they built, anyway? 1960s?

You also have to remember that the owners of regular (market-rate, commercially managed) apartments can refuse renewal of leases and sell their property whenever and for whatever reason they see fit. So, families and other folks get kicked out all the time in the name of development and progress. RHA will obviously be reluctant to sell this facility because its reason for existing is to serve its tenants. So rest assured that some degree of extra consideration beyond "the bottom line" will be given to folks who live there.

We don't need to be in too much of a hurry to take Glenwood Towers down, you're right, but it's not just a matter of filling up each and every vacant lot downtown before even considering sale of Glenwood Towers. These towers sit directly across from 510 and just a block from Peace Street - and that makes the land more valuable than pretty much every one of "those parkign lots" you're talking about.

So, when it's determined that the revenue generated by sale and the increase in tax revenue gained by putting it back on the books will serve the public good better than rehabilitating and maintaining the structures as they are, Glenwood Towers will come down. And when it's time for the towers to come down, there is no chance that RHA would build again on the same block - as unfair as it may seem, public projects are notorious for economizing, and the land is too valuable now. RHA could build more units for the same amount of money by going elsewhere.

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How about being decent human beings and realize that this isn't some sheltor, that these are people's homes.

I deeply appreciate your uncle's service to the USA, (especially in THAT war!). Helping people like him with a disability is the least we can do. However we are talking about public housing. If the people receiving public benefits own their home, they have every right to refuse to move. If they don't own it, they have no right to complain.

This is public housing. We're talking about moving them to a better facility, even; not putting them out on the streets.

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Where is the creek mentioned?

I think that a similar towers on the lots near the the govenor's mansion would work well, or in the blount st project. It would be an improvement on the location as it would be a more neighborhood oriented development. I'm not a senior but I would think they would want to still have the community feeling where they can go for walks and stuff, away from the main corridors of downtow.

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