Hillsborough Street - NCSU Area developments

[Justin6882]

They've also begun putting up the brick facade on the aloft.

[Green_man]

Hillsborough Lofts are working on the 2nd floor.

 

Grading started for the 105 Friendly Dr apartment building

 

1301 Hillsborough: topped out/ framed out/ exterior finishes remain.  work in progress at ground floor storefronts.

 

Stanhope:  very close to complete.  apparently all student housing except for 2 units are leased starting in August?

 

Aloft:  planned completion August

 

And now renderings released:  Studio 1912 at the northeast corner of the bell tower roundabout.  4 floors of apartments above ground floor parking and small retail space along Hillsborough.  http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/real-estate/2015/07/developers-aloft-hotel-hillsborough-st-raleigh.html

 

Also, rendering for 105 Friendly Drive:

 

[Jones_]

Yeah I see the Stanhope sidewalk is open again, which in my mind sort of makes the project complete...from a streetscape perspective anyway. Any idea what retail could be going in beyond the CVS?

 

As an aside, I wish downtown had another spoke like this radiating from downtown that extended the urban nature outward. Glenwood kind of does this and New Bern is a spoke, but mostly residential. Oh well, I suppose I'll enjoy the one spoke we have...

[Justin6882]

Other than CVS and the relocation of IHOP, I'm not sure what's going in the retail. Looking forward to finding out though!

[Spatula]

Yeah I see the Stanhope sidewalk is open again, which in my mind sort of makes the project complete...from a streetscape perspective anyway. Any idea what retail could be going in beyond the CVS?

 

As an aside, I wish downtown had another spoke like this radiating from downtown that extended the urban nature outward. Glenwood kind of does this and New Bern is a spoke, but mostly residential. Oh well, I suppose I'll enjoy the one spoke we have...

 

In the long (long) term I could see a spoke following Person street northwards up to Wake Forest/Capital Boulevard up to Atlantic perhaps.

 

Hillsborough is also getting a secondary spoke branching off from it along Oberlin, past Cameron Village. The gaps in that are quickly closing.

Edited July 8, 2015 by Spatula

[Jones_]

In the long (long) term I could see a spoke following Person street northwards up to Wake Forest/Capital Boulevard up to Atlantic perhaps.

 

Hillsborough is also getting a secondary spoke branching off from it along Oberlin, past Cameron Village. The gaps in that are quickly closing.

 I guess I should put this in the north Person thread, but I think Wake Forest Road, starting where it connects to Person and Delway should be collapsed to a single travel lane with medians like Clark has (pretty with crepe myrtles), turning lanes (so the single travel lane works better) and bike lanes all the way out to the Greyhound station. With almost no traffic signals from the Capital interchange to Peace St, the traffic should flow just fine along this strip. Maybe even take the lane diet north across the Atlantic bridge which is extremely dangerous fro bikers and has no sidewalk....

[Spatula]

Bike lanes, better sidewalks, and traffic calming in general are needed, all throughout Raleigh inside the beltline.

[InitialD]

[citiboi27610]

Wake Forest Road could definitely provide another urban spoke radiating from Downtown. NCSU provides a strong anchor for Hillsborough Street and this is where it might have a leg up on some of the other streets. It was also one of the first to be developed outside of the original downtown grid, maintaining a much more urban character almost all the way to the beltline. In comparison, New Bern and Glenwood Avenues bleed into a more suburb arrangement much quicker.

Wake Forest Road between Person Street and Atlantic Avenue has a lot going for it. As someone mentioned above, a road diet could provide bike lanes that cold connect downtown to the park planned along Capital Blvd and on to the Crabtree Creek Greenway. Other streets are pretty well connected with modest lots that help make the neighborhood walkable. The intersection with Brookside and surrounding property could be reconfigured and redeveloped to create a node for the neighborhood that takes advantage of its location between downtown and midtown along transit routes.

I look forward to seeing what the development activity along Hillsborough will mean for that corridor in the future, particularly further West, as well as corridors like Wake Forest Road, New Bern Avenue, and Glenwood Avenue.

 

[Jones_]

2811 Hillsborough (Dan Allen corner) looks to be done and filling up based on the giant Don't Tread on Me flag in one of the windows. That might be my favorite new building mostly because it turned a fast food building into an urban configuration. It's certainly a lot nicer on foot in that stretch now....i'm still holding out hope that Zaxbys will bite the dust in time as well...the building at least...maybe move the actual business over to another space if they make enough money to afford a higher rent...

The Aloft will be an active spot too with Jubala and Gonza. Considering that Sadlacks is doing well in its new incarnation as Berkley (Berkalacks I call it), I think everything turned out fine overall. NC State's "front door" may be turning into one of the best in the nation I'm thinking....anyone have any thoughts or input on that at all? Anyone been in the new Student Union...man its amazing. 

[DanRNC]

If the group from Chapel Hill wins, expect suburban style apartments that will probably take 5 years to build. Look at their portfolio-pretty scary.

[Jones_]

I suppose this should be cross posted to the Glenwood thread....

[Green_man]

Old Hot Box Pizza building was torn down today.

[Jones_]

What was going there again? Another FMW gig I suppose....?

[Green_man]

Old Hot Box Pizza building was torn down today.

Awhile back I seem to remember it being rezoned for a 4 or 5 floor, 16 unit apartment bldg (max # units without having to provide parking).  But then at the same time, there was a rendering up in their window showing 2 floors added on top of the existing building but setback from the street side with a large 2nd floor patio (similar to the look of Taverna Agora).  But those 2 are quite different proposals.  Sooooo, short answer, haven't heard any specifics whats actually going there.

[RALNATIVE]

The downtown Aloft is now open: 

http://www.thealoftraleigh.com/

[orulz]

What was going there again? Another FMW gig I suppose....?

Not developed by FMW but it is designed by New City.

 

[Jones_]

Not developed by FMW but it is designed by New City.

 

Oh, well, that's pretty good. Better than what was there, and appears to be keeping the retail space to boot. Is that 5 stories I'm seeing?

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

This design reminds me a lot of the old building that sits between the round Holiday Inn and The Second Empire restaurant on Hillsboro st except that this design is taller. But still lacking in design features IMHO.

[orulz]

Up on the city's web page is a rezoning request for 3101~3107 Hillsborough Street. This is the Carolina Equipment Company building, more recently known as Lulu. This seems not to be just a request to rezone the existing uses into a new UDO classification; they have requested 5-story neighborhood mixed use with urban limited frontage. Note that the request does not include the Fincastle apartments at the corner of Rosemary and Hillsborough, though it does include some empty lots between Fincastle and the big radio antenna.

The request makes several references to a parking deck and residential buildings, mentioning that "substantially all" of the parking on site will be structured, and screened on three sides by heated building space.

I find it difficult to believe that they would tear down the Carolina Equipment/Lulu building after renovating it so recently, so I would guess this is mostly a plan to redevelop the Lulu parking lots into a parking deck and residential space, and if that is the case and with the given provisions, I would say they can't go wrong.

[Green_man]

As long as they don't tear down the Lulu building.  I think it would also be very neighborly if they tapered the building down to 2 or 3 floors along the rosemary elevation and would probably go a long way toward curbing potential neighborhood opposition.

[Justin6882]

Say it ain't so! Plans are being submitted for a rezoning of the Lulu headquarters on Hillsborough Street (warehouse with the tractor on top) to make way for another 700+ beds for student housing. At what point is the market saturated? I would really hate to lose that building and the iconic tractor. I didn't even realize they were entertaining bids.

[Green_man]

Man.  I had assumed that the building would stay and only the parking area would be redeveloped.  That's a huge bummer.  I hope there is some middle ground to keep the existing warehouse and incorporate it into the new project.

Also, Raleigh needs to get rid of this dumb sign ordinance if its causing a stink about these historic signs.  I believe it started with the awful neon sign at Glenwood and Peace, and they decided to make it a city-wide rule for some reason.  So strange that a historic and unique tractor sign is not compliant, but gigantic neon Target, Walmart, etc. signs are okay?  Give me a break.

[Jones_]

NC Equipment Company is such a beautiful building to me. It should be loft apartments or condos, with the hardwood floors, huge windows and structural brick walls. Raleigh has oh so few of these types of buildings. My guess is the sign gets saved in any case...perhaps even incorporated into the new apartment building like so much of a slap in the face to the original building. Part of the article really gets my goat....this area is already accepting of student housing blah blah....no. This is not true. It was forced on the area by a vampire of a ghetto lord (Valentine) and a capable developer (Kane...not so much his fault though). 

NC State is getting exactly what it wanted...a bland, predictable Hillsborough St. This Indy article really sums it up. Whats next? Fincastle apartments? Cup of Joe? Mitches?  I hope the CAC rips them a new one, and the planning commission and council all tell this developer to go to hell. Make a dollar at the expense of someone else's character. 

[Green_man]

Also, I wish there were more mid-scale apartment buildings and all these apartment buildings didn't have to take up a whole city block.  Like if instead, they just built a four story all brick apartment building on the ~1/2 acre grass plot on Rosemary St.  And maybe another on the 2/3 acre that Subconcious sits on.  Stuff to blend in with the Wilmont and similar to Cameron Court.