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Downtown Greensboro Developments


cityboi

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Ganache is closing its bakery and cafe after a 9 year run on N. Elm Street. Ive never been there, but it sounds like it was anchor for downtown.

http://www.news-reco...n#nrcRgn_PgBody

There is a reason that place is closing.. they always seemed to mess up basic simple stuff when I ordered cakes and what not.

After giving out 50 dollars worth of credit to hundreds people for messed up orders for the past 2-3 years, they probably started feeling the money crunch to keep the doors open. Oh yeah and the Grill that they had open was pretty bad too. Service was unbearably slow and the food was mediocre.

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Riva's is closing. Fox8 says its the 3rd restaurant closure in weeks. Are summers typically slow/bad periods for downtown GSO? Im assuming since all the surrounding students left for summer break, businesses suffer?

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-downtown-greensboro-loses-third-restaurant-since-june-20110722,0,3276577.story

The economy is in part to blame but also its the high lease rates in downtown Greensboro. Vintage in Southside closed in June and I heard the lease rate in the Hobbs Building in Southside is ridiculous. Its the reason they still haven't found a tenant for the second floors. The building opened in 2005 and has never had a tenant on that second floor. The interesting thing is that when one restaurant closes down, another seem to open somewhere downtown shortly after.

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flash mobs are making downtown unsafe. Young teens are using facebook to organize mobs and randomly beat people up downtown particularly in center-city park. The mobs have vandalized property and a 58 year man was punched in the back of the head and knocked down and the teens proceeded to kick him over and over. There were over a hundred teens involved. These mobs have struck every weekend this month beating up people randomly and Greensboro Police is having a difficult time handling this because there are so many teens in these mobs. I wonder if this is a back lash from the downtown curfew the city put in place? These kind of flash mobs are typical in cities like Chicago or Cleveland and now its happening in Greensboro. Much of this could be prevented if Greensboro PD used an electronic investigation unit to see when and where these teens plan to strike.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/article/184488/1/Downtown-Greensboro-Flash-Mob-Beating-Investigated-By-Police

Edited by cityboi
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For those of us who love and live in downtown Greensboro, and have worked so hard on the success of downtown, this is very sad! This group of thugs are nothing more that a bunch of looser, social misfits that are destroying our downtown. Their mission in life is to hang out downtown and wait for something "exciting" to happen. When they get bored, why not just beat up a few people for kicks? This has to be delt with quickly or we can kiss a progressive downtown Greensboro goodbye. People will totally quit coming downtown. I don't know the situations in other cities like Raleigh or Charlotte. Have these cities had problems of this nature in the past? If so, we need to learn how they delt with it! I know that Glenwood South in downtown Raleigh has been very successful. It is painful to work so hard to develop and redevelop our inner city to improve the quality of life for our citizens only to have these uneducated, lowlife scum destroy it! Yes, the police need to step up, but there is only so much they can do in a mob situation short of pulling their guns and using them.

Edited by luvdowntowngso
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You typically see things like this during the summer months when kids aren't in school and are bored. Downtown Greenville, SC had an issue, not with flash mobs, but with kids congregating downtown and starting trouble a few years ago and in response city leaders implemented a curfew. It seems to be pretty effective.

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The problem is that Greensboro enacted a downtown curfew in January but these teens are still coming downtown. Law enforcement is the real issue. Greensboro needs to see what Greenville is doing to enforce curfews.

The Greenville story/video is dated two years ago (September 1, 2009.) What has happened there since then?

Richmond experienced a similar situation at the First Friday Art Walks in the Downtown Gallery District in June and July of 2011. The event normally attracts about 4,000 art lovers to dozens of sites in a four-block radius, but this June and July over 2,000 youngsters in flash-mob mode and uninterested in art added to the jammed streets resulting in some disorder. This coming Friday, planners are organizing youth-oriented activities on a lot in Center City about six blocks east of the gallery district on Broad Street. It will be interesting to see if the move eases tensions.

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  • 1 month later...

A new 192-unit apartment complex is being proposed for downtown Greensboro. The apartment complex, which will be called “Greenway at Fisher Park Apartments”, will be located on the former North State Chevy property (on the other side of Smith St from the ballpark). The complex will be located on the edge of the downtown greenway and near a section of Battleground which will be closed to make way for a small park or plaza. The complex will also be near the planned downtown grocery store. It looks like we are seeing a spike in rental construction downtown. CityView apartments, which opened in December of 2007 is currently expanding with a new 4-story 80-unit building.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2011/09/30/apartments-planned-for-north-state.html

BTW the planned downtown grocery store could be open by spring

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-downtown-greensboro-grocery-store-could-open-in-spring-20110929,0,720627.story

Edited by cityboi
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A new 192-unit apartment complex is being proposed for downtown Greensboro. The apartment complex, which will be called “Greenway at Fisher Park Apartments”, will be located on the former North State Chevy property (on the other side of Smith St from the ballpark). The complex will be located on the edge of the downtown greenway and near a section of Battleground which will be closed to make way for a small park or plaza. The complex will also be near the planned downtown grocery store. It looks like we are seeing a spike in rental construction downtown. CityView apartments, which opened in December of 2007 is currently expanding with a new 4-story 80-unit building. http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2011/09/30/apartments-planned-for-north-state.html BTW the planned downtown grocery store could be open by spring http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-downtown-greensboro-grocery-store-could-open-in-spring-20110929,0,720627.story

After seeing construction begin on an 80-unit apartment expansion at CitView, its clear there is a demand for apartments. I hope this project happens too. The odds are that it will happen. Apartments are not as risky is condos particularly in hard economic times when people aren't looking to buy. I'm one of those people. I chose to rent instead of buying because of uncertainty in the economy.

Edited by cityboi
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I don't know, but looking at the city's plan review site online it shows that the project has passed the 75% threshold on the Downtown Design Overlay and thus should be at least decently designed. I'm also somewhat encouraged since the developers of the site have decent experience downtown, owning the Kress Building, the Meyer Building and the Federal Exchange building. There's really nothing so far to suggest that it will be any different from CityView (which wouldn't be bad in my opinion), but we'll really have to wait and see the final plans to be sure.

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I don't know, but looking at the city's plan review site online it shows that the project has passed the 75% threshold on the Downtown Design Overlay and thus should be at least decently designed. I'm also somewhat encouraged since the developers of the site have decent experience downtown, owning the Kress Building, the Meyer Building and the Federal Exchange building. There's really nothing so far to suggest that it will be any different from CityView (which wouldn't be bad in my opinion), but we'll really have to wait and see the final plans to be sure.

I agree. The diagram in the News & Record is preliminary and we should wait and see what the final layout and design will look like. It appears these apartments will have the same amenities as CityView.

Edited by cityboi
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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow, that's a pretty big influx of new downtown businesses within a relatively short period of time. Great news!

I have a lot of faith in downtown. When some establishments close, others open in their place. What's surprising is the number of businesses opening at one time. Banks are lending more and its a small sign the economy is beginning to grow. Its great that all these new establishments wont be restaurants and nightclubs. While those are great, Downtown needs more community based retail and small businesses.

Edited by cityboi
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Plans to convert the 9 story Southeastern building into a mixed-use project are back on track. The Southeastern Building was Greensboro's first skyscraper and the plans include 51 apartments, office, retail and a 3 story nightclub.

http://www.bizjourna...-of-retail.html

The_old_Southeastern_building.jpeg

Edited by cityboi
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This is wonderful news about the Southeastern building. The building is a historic gem in our downtown district. With the apartment market strong, and the desire to live downtown, the building should be a rental hot spot. Good luck to these developers who have tried so hard to get financing over the past several years!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very interesting DCB. I see one of the commenters started giving us insight on this mystery infill project. Then suddenly the comments sectioned closed.....ummmm

The development company is Weaver Investment Company which specializes in building apartments and hotels. The project could be an expansion of the Greensboro Loft Apartments nearby. Weaver Investment Company developed that property in the late 1980s by converting historic buildings into an apartment complex. But I always thought that the 15-story Guilford Building would be a natural extension of the Greensboro Lofts Apartments and originally it was a part of the plan. I doubt this new building would be a hotel considering that the proposed Wyndham hotel down the street is still on the back burner. But I am interested in how tall this new building would be. I would expect it to be a mixed-use project with street level retail or restaurant on the ground level.

I would also like to see the lot (which faces Davie St) behind the Guilford Building developed. Its across the street from the depot.

Edited by cityboi
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