Hillsborough Street - NCSU Area developments

[paletexan]

Chipotle Mexican Grill at 2316 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, will open first week of September. Another non pizza joint!!

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/08/1326136/restaurantnews.html

[orulz]

Stanhope Center becomes Valentine Commons. Some higher res versions of the renderings we've all seen. I thought the parking deck was supposed to be screened with townhomes, but the renderings certainly don't show that.

Also, the 3-to-5 story office building where Cantina, Katmandu, The Brewery, etc. are is planned to be will include a flagship store for Kerr Drugs. It requires parking, and the developers want a drive-thru, which I hope gets turned down flat.

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

Stanhope Center becomes Valentine Commons. Some higher res versions of the renderings we've all seen. I thought the parking deck was supposed to be screened with townhomes, but the renderings certainly don't show that.

Also, the 3-to-5 story office building where Cantina, Katmandu, The Brewery, etc. are is planned to be will include a flagship store for Kerr Drugs. It requires parking, and the developers want a drive-thru, which I hope gets turned down flat.

Quick question....what and why are hoping will be turned down flat?????

[orulz]

Quick question....what and why are hoping will be turned down flat?????

A drive through prescription pickup window, which has no business getting built on Hillsborough Street. We should be reducing the number of drive-throuhgs, not increasing it.

[Jones_]

I vote that Valentine has his name banned all over town. My personal distaste for his tear down of over half of the Stanhope neighborhood aside, I am ok with the little bungalow at Friendly being taken down provided we get a nice Franklin Street style building....high quality, mixed use, parking around back and minimal, and no drive through. If there is one, it should be completely contained behind the building and exit onto Friendly. Thinking down the road so to speak, a flagship store of high quality would bookend the stretch down to Lulu nicely, which is near where the next Hillsborough improvement phase goes to. As part of that whole build out, Would like to see Farmhouse pizza's house moved and kept if possible since that particular style is getting much rarer in Raleigh and the row of brick storefronts containing PB's getting a major facelift. I know we are talking different owners so its all fantasy....

Hillsborough Street is such an important street the City should really take Valentine to task on any bait and switch....

[Jones_]

So much for that idea. The old Farmhouse Pizza, Cantina...whatever you remember it by...is coming down today....

[DPK]

Hillsborough Street is such an important street the City should really take Valentine to task on any bait and switch....

I keep having this gut feeling that Valentine is going to throw something up here that is totally unexpected. There's so little good documentation on this project that it wouldn't surprise me. Sure there's some site plans here/there, but at this point I think we're going to get this cheap amalgamation of them all that under-utilizes the site and does not really give full consideration to pedestrian use.

If anyone can point me to the actual current site plan or rendering for this mess I'd love it.

[orulz]

The best renderings I've seen for Valentine Commons are on its facebook page. Not sure if that is 100% current, though; I think these renderings were created before Capstone was even involved in the project. There was word that the parking deck would be screened with townhomes, but that's not shown here, either. Also, No rendering for the Kerr Drug flagship store building that I've seen, yet.

[Jones_]

The sudden name change (seemed sudden) smacks of megalomania. I know there are tons of things named after people, but usually someone else is naming it for you, not you doing it yourself. Actions speak louder than words, and my 20 years on Hillsborough Street have witnessed no action on his part to be even neutral on.

[Justin6882]

Info on the hotel NC State is having built... http://www.wral.com/...story/10033064/

[Jones_]

I wonder if this means the whole block of buildings, including Sadlacks, is toast?

[orulz]

Could be. Or the developers could try to leave Sadlack's and just redevelop the Schoolkids/Bell Tower Mart building and the parking lot behind Sadlack's. The decision is up to them.

The RFP also included the parking lot next to Locopops facing the roundabout but the developer doesn't know what they want to do with that yet.

[orulz]

According to this article NCDOT will be repaving Hillsborough Street from Gorman to Gardner sometime within the next year. This is not the complete reconstruction that the city is studying. They will probably mill and resurface and do no reconstruction on the road bed. Given how deteriorated that part of Hillsborough is, a resurfacing probably won't last more than 4 or 5 years, which is fine by me since hopefully the city will have concrete plans to rebuild by then.

[Jones_]

Pretty sure there is concrete road bed under this stretch. That stuff is a little tough on the bits. I assume the trolley did no go this far down even though the structures down here date from the teens through the 30's? If it did there will be a 5-points situation all over again....

[orulz]

There was some sort of a meeting about repaving or streetscapes or something for Hillsborough Street today. I'm not sure exactly what the topic was. I don't think it was anything like preliminary designs for Gardner to Friendly, more like some sort of interim measures to repave and restripe to all in all make it look a bit better.

Did anybody make it?

[orulz]

This article is a month old but it contains some information I haven't heard about the belltower development.

1. The hotel will be 8 stories with a 2 story parking deck, and retail on the first floor

2. Sadlack's already has their eyes on a different, larger space somewhere else on Hillsborough and the hotel developer is helping to plan their move

3. Schoolkids wants to move somewhere else on Hillsborough as well

4. Construction is planned to begin somewhere around June 2013.

[Jones_]

Part of Sadlacks charm is the patio perched a few feet above the sidewalk just a few feet from the belltower. You can't recreate that. I doubt a new location will do as well. Hopefully turns out better than North Dorm (an old hotel too far set back) and the Brownstone (needlessly askew, poorly addressing the street)

[RaleighRob]

Yeah, hard to re-create the current Sadlack's spot. I kinda wonder where else they could go....you'd have to go pretty far west (or east) to find another similar-sized opening.

[RaleighRob]

This summer, the city is re-doing the lanes on the current 5-lane stretch of Hillsborough Street between Oberlin and Ashe: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/03/20/1948118/raleigh-tries-to-appease-all-sides.html

One lane in each direction, plus keeping the middle turn lane. Bike lanes, and street parking on the eastbound lane. I think it's a good compromise, and it should be relatively easy and low-budget for the city to do.

[DaleCooper]

Seems like a good plan, but it will be interesting to see how the bike lanes are used given that from what I can tell they will exist for a whopping four blocks. Also, I hope they are designed wide enough and given enough clearance from the parking door zone to not be potentially lethal like the temporary ones on Hillsborough in front of NC State.

[Jones_]

The bike lanes will connect to those on the already done portion of hillsboro street from Oberlin to Gardner. Plus Hillsborough from Morgan to St Marys is plenty wide enough for bikes, it just isn't striped. This will be longest stretch of bike friendly pavement in the City.

[DaleCooper]

I am admittedly out of the loop as I've been out of the Triangle for the last two years, but what is the status of the existing bike lanes on Hillsborough? I seem to recall that they were painted officially as a pilot or something to be reevaluated later. I know there was a lot of concern about how narrow and close to the door zone they were, with sharrows being suggested as an alternative. Was it decided to make them permanent?

[orulz]

The segment between Woodburn and Morgan is only being resurfaced and restriped. A more significant reconfiguration and streetscape are still planned, so if whatever they do this time doesn't work out, they can fix it then.

[Green_man]

Regarding the existing "bike lanes" between Enterprise and Gardner... yes, they are still the same temporary, narrow, too-close-to-the-car-door lanes. Every time the scheduled decision time comes up, it is delayed.

[orulz]

There is a plan that was recently submitted to the city by FMW development for what looks like a 4 story, 13 unit apartment building at 2604 Hillsborough Street. This would go between the Hillsborough Building and the Wells Fargo (there is currently a house there that was at one point used by the university and called the "Hillsborough Annex." The plan shows about 1000 square feet of retail along Hillsborough.

This certainly wouldn't be the first place I would have picked for redevelopment along Hillsborough Street nor is it an earth-shatteringly cool design but I'll take it. This is proof that even today developers can still work with small, narrow lots. I just hope that whatever the "exterior cladding C-1" that is shown in the elevations is not just hardie plank.