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Soleil Center I & II at Crabtree

durham_rtp

By durham_rtp
in The NC Triangle

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JTsaysToYou Whistle-Stop

JTsaysToYou

Posted
Posted

I said "Half of everybody on this forum doesn't care about urbanity or history, but height :P "

Thanks for letting me know what I think !! Can you also pay my power, heat and drinking bill while you are at it?

thanks for the generalization of the forum Jtsaystoyou.

Ummm

it was a joke

...

...

...

hence the :P face......

but i guess you didnt think it was funny.

sorry.

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jlblaes Whistle-Stop

jlblaes

Posted
Posted

Unless I missed something, that whole area has been fenced off ever since they imploded the old hotel? :huh:

HI,

I drive by this location nearly every work day. I noticed the fence this past week or so. I find it interesting that the fence covers an area not much larger than the footprint of the old hotel. The fence has barbbed wire and looks pretty solid. I am pretty sure that the proposed tower will not be located directly over and in the exact angle/placement as the old hotel.

With all of this in mind as well as the fact that not a single condo has been sold and only a few deposits are in, I am thinking that this fence is not because of some impending work but rather to keep the site secure.

JB

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DwnTwnRaleighGuy Hamlet

DwnTwnRaleighGuy

Posted
Posted

I noticed this morning on my to work that the construction area was fenced off. I hope they will be starting real soon.

Me again, I believe that after looking at said fence that it is the same fence. However, they have added the black tarp like fabric to the fence. At least it is a step in the right direction? :blink:

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sax184 Hamlet

sax184

Posted
Posted

It's too early to go into full victory dance mode, but for now, I'm going to assume that they haven't been able to pre-sell the percentage of units needed to break ground that limits their risk enough to go forward. Let's hope the pattern holds and this bad idea goes under.

The housing market is softening, and this suburban crudscape-scraper is having to market its poor location against reasonably nice buildings in downtown Raleigh that have a real urban neighborhood surrounding them, and new high-end buildings already under construction. Would-be Soleil buyers have more leverage in the two primary areas that offer competing living situations for Soleil.

I've said it before, and will say it again- if you can afford to live at Soleil, you can afford to live downtown in a luxury condo with real urban amenities and walking access to quality restaurants, Glenwood South, BTI Center, live music clubs, etc. You can also afford a massive McMansion in the burbs with all the high-end fixtures you can stuff into 4500 square feet, and your pool is private, not shared. You can tour either of these other types of properties right now, and Soleil remains on the web and in drawings.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I think the developers have no idea what they're trying to sell. They're probably AMAZED that they haven't sold more units.

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Spatula Whistle-Stop

Spatula

Posted
Posted

While I can appreciate the aversion to a suburban skyscraper, Raliegh loses its most distinctive skyscraper, IMO, if it doesn't get built. I think it's a hell of a design.

I don't like the design, but maybe I'm a tasteless baffoon. The base section is a sloppy mix of glass and aluminum roofing, not befitting of the tower it's attached to.

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ncwebguy Burg

ncwebguy

Posted
Posted

There are plenty of places this could work well downtown, but I doubt they would be able to get the land to do it on as cheaply as they did at the current location.

The three area that spring to mind for me are West at North, Lincoln Theater/Pope House, and McDowell/Davie (either the Northwest or Southeast blocks). These three places offer "in the grid" locations and the accompying parking decks, height and density are not out of place. Those top floor condos could go for 2 million+ *easily*, and the Westin and other ground floor retail would be close enough to draw a large amount of convention center traffic.

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DickyWalia Crossroads

DickyWalia

Posted
Posted

Update on Soleil Center Project.

Despite all the negative talk, the Project is moving along just fine. We are still scheduled for a late 2008/early 2009 opening.

Because of the iconic design and specialty curtain wall system, we have had to jump through many hoops before the structural engineers could sign off on the core design of the building. It took us an extra 6 months to conduct various geo-seismic studies. The quality of bed rock was not the same everywhere on the foot print of the building. As a result we had to test drill every column location. Good news is that we have very good data to move forward with the design. We have also just completed the wind tunnel studies required for a high rise structure like ours. Since the building twist and turns at every angle you can imagine the complexity in the structural design process. There were only a couple of Companies capable of engineering and installing the unique curtain wall system designed for the tower. These companies had no capacity for new work until 2007-2008. We have now secured commitment from the leading company in the US for our job and the process is well under way.

We have also finished the value engineering process. We had an option to lower the height of the tower but chose not do so. The room count of the hotel has increased from 264 to 290. We have 49 condos. Floors 39 thru 42 have one condo unit per floor. Floors 30 thru 38 have two condos per floor. Floors 21 thru 29 have three units per floor. The Pool and the Reebok Fitness center are on the 18th and 19th floor, and the Heavenly Spa is on the 8th floor. During our value engineering phase we were also able to add more meeting and breakout space for the conference center.

We have over 200 wait listed reservations for 49 units. Unfortunately we cannot advertise their names. Most of our prospects are highly placed individuals and very successful professionals. Although it is true that the housing market has softened, but the Carolinas are still doing well. Our project in particular has no competition in it's class. What we are offering is a lifestyle not just another Condo - Home? We have appointed YSU homes to market our Residences. We are spending in excess of $500,000 to construct the state of the art Sales and Marketing office. Our Sales Center is scheduled to open in early February.

Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm for our project. We could have chosen to build two brick buildings and laughed all the way to our bank, instead we chose to create a green, eco friendly, iconic structure for our great city. We are setting tone for a new era of development that is respectful of the mother nature.

DICKY S. WALIA

PRINCIPAL

SOLEIL GROUP

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ChiefJoJo Town

ChiefJoJo

Posted
Posted

Mr Walia, while Soleil Center has been a controversial topic on the board, we really appreciate your comments here and look forward to hearing more about this project in the near future. I can't think of many (any?) developers who have posted directly about their projects here on UP-Triangle. Thanks for taking the time to post. :thumbsup:

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RALBOI Whistle-Stop

RALBOI

Posted
Posted
Mr Walia, while Soleil Center has been a controversial topic on the board, we really appreciate your comments here and look forward to hearing more about this project in the near future. I can't think of many (any?) developers who have posted directly about their projects here on UP-Triangle. Thanks for taking the time to post. :thumbsup:
You guys can thank me later, I asked him to make a brief statement about the project, to stop all the rumors. :yahoo:
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DickyWalia Crossroads

DickyWalia

Posted
Posted

Mr. Walia, are there any concerns about the impact flooding could cause? As I'm sure you're aware, the Crabtree Valley area is subject to frequent flooding.

The new design and development guidelines call for all new structures developed to be at least 15 feet above grade. This means that no habitable structures can be built at grade. In our case we have small arrival lobbies at grade to greet arriving guests and residents, further even structured parking begins at level 2 (21 feet above grade). The Guests and Residents then transfer to our high speed shuttle elevators to get to the Sky Lobby - Sky Bar - Roof Terrace Gardens and Signature Restaurant. Further our design calls for the building pad to be further elevated by at least 5 feet.

There are many other steps that are being taken by the authorities to mitigate such flooding. One of the studies being looked into is the temporary diverting of flood waters to the empty rock quarry. There are some federal grants also available to fund this. The situation at Glenwood and Crabtree is further complicated by an aging design of how the flood waters are diverted back to the creek. Soleil Group, the local businesses including the mall have funded a study to resolve this issue. Our consultants and engineers have developed a plan that will greatly reduce flooding in this corridor. It remains to be seen if the City will step in and make the necessary improvements, if not then the local businesses will have to pony up the funds.

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