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Seeing as they work on it well into the night every night and on the weekends and they start before the sun comes up, the pace at which it is going up is not surprising.

Typical downtown Raleigh reporting. I can't wait to see this story: "Are there too many businesses and jobs in downtown Raleigh? Some think there are. What does this mean to hog farmers down east."

The news media, whether local or national, loves trying to scare the crap out of us. Pumping fear into us keeps us watching. This quick pace sounds good. Seems like they are in a hurry for a reason, which speaks good things about the building that is to follow.

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I believe he was asking about Edison, DPK. I haven't heard anything about it either in a long time as well.

Oy, I'm sorry. My wires were crossed last night as I was up late working a technical vibrations report. Too much caffeine and math and I guess I forgot how to read. :whistling:

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They need to build this and be pretty far/done with the retail space on the Blount Street frontage by July, to be ready for RBC Plaza in August. From looking at how it has come together, the retail space will be part of the last sections to be built.

I thought it might be built higher (not as high as Moore Square Station, but close) if it is going to provide parking for some RBC workers, a spec tower on the Davie side, *and* a hotel/condo buiding on the Martin side.

Plasn for the rest of the block haven't been finalized yet, so that makes it hard to create renderings for them.

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  • 1 month later...

I noticed at the parade yesterday crews are building up the section fronting Wilmington St. There are a lot of good things about this project... needed density, mix of uses, leaving of the historic buildings on the corner, etc, but I think it's unfortunate that we'll have retail only on the Blount St frontage, and not on Wilmington St. They are trying dress up the deck frontage with brick facades, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I know the city is hoping to address the parking deck issue with the "interim downtown framework" and incorporate that into the next comp plan, such that we have minimal parking deck frontage on most downtown streets.

webcam link

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I was downtown once with a friend from up north and he said something like, wow, you guys really have fancy looking parking decks. In northern jersey and NY, I guess a parking deck is strictly utilitarian, at least during the 60's through the nineties or so when plenty went up in that part of the country. Its funny how the new south tries to sort of do things different with fancy facades but substantial changes in the old guard pattern are still hard to come by.

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I noticed at the parade yesterday crews are building up the section fronting Wilmington St. There are a lot of good things about this project... needed density, mix of uses, leaving of the historic buildings on the corner, etc, but I think it's unfortunate that we'll have retail only on the Blount St frontage, and not on Wilmington St. They are trying dress up the deck frontage with brick facades, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I know the city is hoping to address the parking deck issue with the "interim downtown framework" and incorporate that into the next comp plan, such that we have minimal parking deck frontage on most downtown streets.

webcam link

I went to one of the Downtown Comp Planning meetings at the Urban Design Center last month. They had a map of existing retail and planned retail. I made a strong mental note that this deck will have retail on both Blount and Wilmington. Do you have other information about this? source?

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I went to one of the Downtown Comp Planning meetings at the Urban Design Center last month. They had a map of existing retail and planned retail. I made a strong mental note that this deck will have retail on both Blount and Wilmington. Do you have other information about this? source?

The "Interim Downtown Framework" page from Planning Raleigh 2030:

http://www.raleighnc.gov/portal/server.pt/...wn_Framewo.html

Here's that map of where they want to focus retail:

http://www.raleighnc.gov/publications/Plan...ail_Streets.pdf

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They had a map of existing retail and planned retail. I made a strong mental note that this deck will have retail on both Blount and Wilmington.

Here is the site plan submittal with ground floor layout of Edison with the parking deck in gray:

link

Now, it clearly does not show retail on Wilmington St, but that could be because of the way the level rises from east to west, thus not actually indicating the true ground floor on the west side. I hope I'm wrong. We'll find out soon enough.

Part of the point of the downtown framework is to restrict or eliminate parking deck facades on many downtown streets, such that parking decks such as Edison's would have to be built completely internal to the block. If it's the case, having retail on both sides is good, but that doesn't include the upper floors of parking which will overlook the street. I think the city planning staff has had some issues with that in their review of the project. In the staff presentation, city staff showed plenty of examples of other cities who have made this work to the point where one cannot identifiy buildings that contain deck from ones that don't, so clearly it's just a matter of us demanding that we get a better product. It would be a great goal if we never had another parking deck built on the street downtown.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The parking garage's Wilmington and Blount faces are done and look kinda fancy, with holes for possible awnings eventually. On the Blount side, the entrance/exit appears to be unfinished on the north side, closest to Martin. South of that is the retail space, then a stairwell (possibly elevator) for getting in and out of the deck.

On the Wilmington side, there is a fair amount of space between the deck and the still standing structures to the north. There might be retail on the north side to be in line with the pawn shopt and other existing stores. The vehicle entrance on Wilmington is on the south side of the deck, so it isn't directly across from the RBC entry/exit. It will be nice to get the sidewalk back on the east side of Wilmington, but that is probably still a couple of months away.

Parking on the Blount and Wilmington faces is flush with the street on the upper levels of the decks, as opposed to set back behind a Palladium Plaza (the restaurant/bar looks close to opening there!) /Hue/West/The L-type structure. I would rather have the deck go up a story or two and leave space for offices/condos/apartments to offer a nicer face, but it isn't my money. I hope the city is a little more strict about this when approving other projects going forward.

There was/is a "for lease" sign in the old Gandalfo's space in the Hudson. It will be interesting to see what goes in that space, and when.

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  • 1 month later...

I can report that there is a retail space on the Wilmington St side as well as the Blount side. Much of the fencing is now down on Wilmington St, so you can clearly see the space to the left side of the vehicle access.

I think the space on either side of the deck is left for commercial truck loading docks access... good thing too, so Edison will not have a "back door." I wonder how long until we here more about this project. I guess there's not much point in Sandreuter releasing info until we get through this lending crisis.

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  • 1 month later...

New story on the Edison and some great news!

Edison will now not be two towers, not three towers, but FOUR towers, two of which reach 39 stories ( :yahoo: )

It will include 1,600 parking spaces, more than a football field's worth of retail and over 560 hotel rooms and condos

It is said in the article that it could be a "signature" project for the southeast, if not INTERNATIONALLY :) . The developer also hints at a "splashy" design:

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1105192.html

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I almost spilled coffee on myself when I saw today's N&O business section. Here is the rendering:

501-reg-1957783-1262057.standalone.prod_affiliate.3.jpg

I'll wait to reserve judgement until I understand everything, especially the timeline....but I am very excited!

those are some sexy twins

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First off Mr. Sandreuter, thank you for bringing such pleasant news in an economy that has taken a downturn. Secondly, the proposal looks great!

I'm not sure how tall this will be, but 39 floors plus, are those 9 floor spires or part of the 39? LEED certified and wow, this thing could eclipse everything in Raleigh. The massing looks great and all of the additional condos and hotel rooms could really change the activity downtown. I forsee much more entertainment and retail opportunities on the horizon if this thing does get built.

Can't wait to see a rendering of this superimposed on the downtown money shot.

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Nice looking project! There seems to be a bit of Vancouverism going on here- slender towers that let light into the surrounding streetscape rather than block out all the sun, with what looks like some 6th-10th story level greenspace in the middle.

Assuming this goes forward, I can't wait to see how the condos do on pre-sale compared to Soleil.

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This is really exciting and I'm glad that they decided to incorporate Coopers into the building. Hopefully the rent won't be too bad. I hope this doesn't get downsized in any way. This is great for downtown and great for the city... finally getting some high-class buildings. Plus all the retail will be great!

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The sidebar (online here, not sure if it was in the print edition) made me feel better about "losing" the curent Cooper's. The character of the old building will be lost, but so will the problems that come with it -- "It's been tough working with that old building and some of the antiquated plumbing, heating and electrical."

I hope they salvage as much as possible -- the windows, the counter top and stools, etc. It is probably easier to start new than update the old equipment. I don't think there is as much nostalgia attached to the pawn shop.

Having a unified block will be nice, as will be the potential "greening" of the parking deck under construction. With the added size, maybe they'll add a few more floors to the deck, or will it be possible to connect/expand the existing deck into the structures of the Four Towers.

In the main story, the downtown office vacancy rate quoted in the story (4.4%) is a sign that adding office space to the CBD will be a good idea. And the staggering of projects -- The L in late 2009, Charter Square in 2010-2011, the Reynolds buliding (prone to adding and losing office space), and these towers one or two at a time in 2011/2012 -- won't flood the market. And if downtown starts to attract more businesses, the construction schedule of the Edison could be adjusted accordingly.

Going this big might dampen plans for other office projects downtown, but I don't think there are any "in the pipeline" not mentioned above, other than Powerhouse Plaza. Hopefully this will serve as a push for supporting hotels, apartments, or condos (if/when the financing for that market recovers). We could do a lot worse than be "Vancouver south".

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