"Midtown" Raleigh

[ncwebguy]

Umstead extends this line of demarcation northwest toward the airport. The industrial area between Lake Wheeler and South Saunders (minus the rennovated mill and a few houses in the west part of Caraleigh) could extend it southeast/east, following 40/440 to Rock Quarry Road.

Being near 40 and the airport was the draw for the arena/stadium, museum of art, etc. A lot of the state of NC facilities on Blue Ridge are there because the land was cheap. Its current form is due to the state not caring at all about how their facilities intergrate with their surroundings. The Blue Ridge corridor in particular has been a large part of the "midtown arc" boundary. "Life" starts around Rex and Duraleigh/Edwards Mill and continues north and northeast from there.

The "river's" main crossing is 440, though the shortest crossing is through the NC State campus, with Gorman being the only four lane north-south road in the area until Dawson/South Saunders, few two lane connectors (Dan Allen, Pullen, Ashe, Boylan), and no obvious places to put another one.

Cary, and specifically Crossroads is the retail node for the population south of the line, while Crabtree/Glenwood, North Hills/Six Forks/Wake Forest is the node for residents to the north. This leaves downtown with nothing, but there was little population there to support. There is a third node in Garner and a fourth building up near business 64/540 but they are not close either.

With the cost of land at a premium, and the difficulty to find larger parcels, downtown will have a difficult time getting as much retail support as the other clusters. Seaboard is nice, but is a scaled down version. A north hills-like multi-story center could work, but where to put it? Maybe the Capitol corridor from Peace to Wake Forest, but that area has been desolate for decades with no signs of that changing, other than the bonded warehouse space.

[Jones_]

Umstead extends this line of demarcation northwest toward the airport. The industrial area between Lake Wheeler and South Saunders (minus the rennovated mill and a few houses in the west part of Caraleigh) could extend it southeast/east, following 40/440 to Rock Quarry Road.

Being near 40 and the airport was the draw for the arena/stadium, museum of art, etc. A lot of the state of NC facilities on Blue Ridge are there because the land was cheap. Its current form is due to the state not caring at all about how their facilities intergrate with their surroundings. The Blue Ridge corridor in particular has been a large part of the "midtown arc" boundary. "Life" starts around Rex and Duraleigh/Edwards Mill and continues north and northeast from there.

The "river's" main crossing is 440, though the shortest crossing is through the NC State campus, with Gorman being the only four lane north-south road in the area until Dawson/South Saunders, few two lane connectors (Dan Allen, Pullen, Ashe, Boylan), and no obvious places to put another one.

Cary, and specifically Crossroads is the retail node for the population south of the line, while Crabtree/Glenwood, North Hills/Six Forks/Wake Forest is the node for residents to the north. This leaves downtown with nothing, but there was little population there to support. There is a third node in Garner and a fourth building up near business 64/540 but they are not close either.

With the cost of land at a premium, and the difficulty to find larger parcels, downtown will have a difficult time getting as much retail support as the other clusters. Seaboard is nice, but is a scaled down version. A north hills-like multi-story center could work, but where to put it? Maybe the Capitol corridor from Peace to Wake Forest, but that area has been desolate for decades with no signs of that changing, other than the bonded warehouse space.

hmm, interesting point about retail support nodes. Off topic now I suppose, but there is still a nice chunk of land south of Peace between West and Captial Blvd norht of West condos....with the car washes, old SE Camera and McCallums flowers etc.....a Coker style development could be nicely crammed in there maybe with a light at the Peace/Capital exit with a realigned Harrington...the topo is nice for showing itself off to south bound Capital and it would stamp Peace as quite a retail corridor with Seaboard and [farther away] Cameron Village(Clark Ave) along there too. Its maybe upwards of 8 acres in there?

[ncwebguy]

There is some county offices on Capitol and Harrington and the State board of elections is somewhere in there too. If all that was in play, and the city moved its solid waste center out of the current facilities north of Peace, I could see that area becoming "midtown" with Cameron Village part of that designation, since it really isn't downtown. The Crabtree to Highwoods arc could be "uptown". I could live with that.

Coker did 510, so he is familiar with the area, and there won't be any neighborhoods to complain. Except Glenwood-Brooklyn and the condo tower dwellers. I hope they would see how development in that area would be more of a positive than a negative.

[RALNATIVE]

I heard someone mention this before, but as I was leaving Mura at North Hills tonight from dinner, I saw the first issue of the Midtown Magazine on a stand near the entrance to the underground parking garage. It has an interesting article in it about Kane and the history of NH. Looks like this publication will come out every 2 months.

The website is www.midtownmag.com but for some reason it is not available at the moment.

[Subway Scoundrel]

I think much of the swath was established by the growth of the 50s/60s. Use to be west Raleigh was the outskirts of the city so it had much government land. I also think that the area around the rock quarry is a natural barrier. It is almost un buildable and without the developers building roads and connecting neighborhoods, it did not get the normal BS development. I also think all the other governmental sites like NCSU and the prison create borders.

I remember in middle school how people who lived near the fairgrounds (now I did not live far from there) were almost in the country and considered rural for the most part.

I do agree with the Cary line/border and Raleigh would put items out on the edge of the city that needed to be cheaper or needed more room. I think this is why the real growth happened to the right of the swath all the way over to Capital Blvd.

[ChiefJoJo]

As I said in the NHE topic, the N&O has started a Midtown section. FYI.

[Gard]

The empty space left by Harris Teeter when they moved across the street at North Hills is finally being filled, granted by a current in the shopping center. Total Wine is moving into the old space, will double the size of their store to 14,000 sq. ft.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2011/02/total-wine-to-expand-at-north-hills.html

[miamiblue]

The empty space left by Harris Teeter when they moved across the street at North Hills is finally being filled, granted by a current in the shopping center. Total Wine is moving into the old space, will double the size of their store to 14,000 sq. ft.

http://www.bizjourna...orth-hills.html

The article also mentions that Main & Taylor Shoe Salon will move from Cameron Village to a space next to the new Total Wine location. That makes two recent exits from Cameron Village since Victoria's Secret recently vacated their space in CV.

[NCMike1981]

Here are some shots from around the "midtown" area. To start this is the Borders that is going out of business (may be out of business at this point) at Six Forks and Wake Forest. I am interested to see what takes it's place:

Here is the Kroger/Radio Shack/Post Office located next door:

Here we have the North Hills JCPenney:

This is the old Harris Teeter, soon to be a relocated Total Wine & More:

[DigitalSky]

Thanks for the photo tour!