Cary Towne Center

[Jones_]

I never liked the whole IKEA location strategy anyway. It's the total antithesis of what they are trying to sell you....efficient, creative storage solutions for small spaces....sold from the biggest warehouse/showroom you've ever seen from the farthest edge possible of any metro. 

I think CTC's best strategy will be to go office with a sprinkling of retail at the base of glass office buildings, with a perimeter of apartment buildings ringing it all. Maybe an events plaza like North Hills. It's almost close enough to downtown to draw some energy from there if made walkable enough and connected to its surroundings. 

[KJHburg]

Well to me if IKEA wants these urban format stores the first place they should build one should be in downtown Raleigh and see how it works.  I went a fairly large IKEA store all underground in the heart of Hong Kong it was 2 levels below the street.  It was tighter space than the US stores but still huge by HK standards.   They have announced all new suburban stores in Marietta GA, San Antonio, Norfolk and Nashville and not sure how this Cary location was so different.   And I do believe this has nothing to do with Cary or Raleigh for that matter.  Some global change made by an European retailer that I still don't think has enough stores in the US market to meet their potential here. 

[rancenc]

Looks like the IKEA site in Nashville is also cancelled.

 

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/05/29/developer-denies-reports-ikeas-rethinking-planned-nashville-store/651825002/

[paytonc]

Prudential, which holds a mortgage on CTC, intends to foreclose on CBL. Good riddance to the bandits who ran it into the ground, and may it quickly find a better owner.

http://www.snl.com/Cache/c393826440.html

(Incidentally, Prudential/PGIM now owns Avalon in Alpharetta, the development that Cary's planners kept recommending as a model for CTC's redevelopment. However, PGIM is just the investment manager, not the original developer.)

[PuppiesandKittens]

What went wrong with this mall? I've only been there once, about 25 years ago, but it seemed fine then.

[Jones_]

3 hours ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

What went wrong with this mall? I've only been there once, about 25 years ago, but it seemed fine then.

In the last 25 years, malls in general, have fallen out of favor. I guess people prefer real life to disney land fish bowls. 

[nicholas]

On 7/13/2018 at 8:20 AM, PuppiesandKittens said:

What went wrong with this mall? I've only been there once, about 25 years ago, but it seemed fine then.

It has had to compete with Crossroads Plaza just a couple miles down the road since the early 90s.  Both shopping centers have had their struggles filling vacancies, but CTC had more anchor tenants that are simply very difficult to replace.  Sears and Macys both closed their stores at CTC within about a year of each other, and since consumers are doing more and more shopping at online stores, there just aren't many companies who can or will fill those empty spaces.  That leads to another reason, which is malls with multiple vacant anchor stores like those lend somewhat of a trashy feel to shoppers because it looks and feels like the mall isn't being run well.  I was in the JCPenney at CTC a couple months ago and it felt almost abandoned; I only saw two or three employees in the entire store, and there were only a handful of other shoppers.  There were lights burned out, dressing rooms boarded up, etc, throughout the store, and it just didn't feel like a very great place to be.  CTC also in my opinion hasn't done a great job of updating its property and staying fresh in the minds of consumers.  Just drive around the outside of the mall and see how ugly everything is, and how poor the pedestrian experience is.  It looks old, but not in a good way.  Also, that part of Cary has struggled a bit to keep pace with the growth throughout the rest of the town, and though I'd argue that the lack of activity at CTC is one of the driving forces behind that, it doesn't help when the surrounding buildings and shopping centers consist of mostly terrible-looking '70s and '80s architecture.

Edited July 19, 2018 by nicholas

[KJHburg]

Dillards pulling out of Cary Towne Center leaving only Belks. Time for total mall demo except for Belk, outside accessible shops, mixed uses, hotel, apartments, for sale housing etc.  And the town of Cary needs to get hopping on approving a redevelopment of this dead mall. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/07/12/dillards-leaves-cary-towne-center.html

[paytonc]

Rezoning filed. Very little retail, mostly office or residential on city blocks. Existing Belk and/or Sears buildings might be maintained, but everything else will get razed.

https://www.townofcary.org/projects-initiatives/cary-community-plan/eastern-cary-gateway/cary-towne-center-redevelopment

[Jones_]

On 9/6/2019 at 5:58 PM, paytonc said:

Rezoning filed. Very little retail, mostly office or residential on city blocks. Existing Belk and/or Sears buildings might be maintained, but everything else will get razed.

https://www.townofcary.org/projects-initiatives/cary-community-plan/eastern-cary-gateway/cary-towne-center-redevelopment

I wish this were going to be real city maintain streets but I imagine the end product will be more like this in Morrisville. 

[rancenc]

Could this be the replacement for Cary Town Center??

https://www.wunc.org/post/sports-complex-proposed-revitalize-cary-towne-center

 

[Brendan]

I just posted something about this in another feed.  What the hell happened with the impressive mixed-use project?  This real estate is too valuable for this use and deserves something better.  A sports complex could be placed anywhere.

 

[paytonc]

Demolition begins in January 2021. Replacement (in many phases):

https://carolinayards.com/

Cary still intends to purchase the one block at the Maynard/Walnut corner for the sports/mini-arena, but funding has been delayed as hotel/meals tax revenue has cratered this year.

[Jones_]

Yada yada yada, Epic Games. 

[rancenc]

Check out this 1986 video filmed at the predecessor to the Cary TownCenter