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Stanhope Village / Valentine Commons


orulz

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In addition tot he Cresent cameron village project, the city council approved Stanhope today as well. Looks like those little shotgun bungalows are history, with a parking deck it their place. Progress? i don't think so. I recall that the compromise was the developers agreed to a larger setback from the remaining SF homes and planned to wrap the deck in residential units, but i'm not certain those proposals are final. I would really like to see a rendering of this...

WRAL link here

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As Jones133 pointed out earlier, the houses where the parking deck will go were torn down some time ago.

At one point, the developers were offering to "wrap" part of the parking deck with townhomes. I wonder if they followed through with that. They mentioned that the side of the parking deck closest to the neighborhood was dropped to 2 stories, maybe that's all they got.

If I were to make a generalization about Raleigh that seems to apply here, it is that the city is usually timid in its dealings with developers. Part of this is because of a general pro-development bias in the council and staff. But in the case of dense, urban projects like this, the city also wants to maintain a reputation of being easy to work with. The comprehensive plan talks a lot about encouraging denser infill development where appropriate, but that's just meaningless words if the city refuses to back it up by actually approving such developments when they're proposed.

It is true that making unreasonable demands can indeed make developers give up, and that many cities and towns side far too easily with NIMBYs. That really does drive developers away. But in this case, there probably was room for council to push for something more amenable to the neighborhood, without coming across as anti-development.

I do worry that, by not taking a more neighborhood-friendly stance here and at the project in Cameron Village, council might be walking towards a NIMBY backlash at the next election. If that happens, the current (pro-infill) council will be replaced by hard-line neighborhood advocates who will change the development process to involve so much "public input" that it results in a de facto moratorium on all dense infill projects.

Another factor here, which may have sealed the deal from a legal standpoint, is that the whole neighborhood was zoned for industrial development decades ago. If they really wanted to remain a residential neighborhood, somebody should have caught that, and filed for a rezoning. I do feel sorry for them, though. I can see how it might not occur to the folks living there to double check the zoning of their property. Let that be a lesson; check the zoning of the property you're buying and the surrounding properties as a part of the due diligence that you carry out when you're buying a home.

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Looking at Wake County Tax Records, it seems the properties along Stanhope are a 50/50 split between potentially owner occupied (identical mailing and property addresses) and land owned by a trust or corporation. Several of those house are rented to students or other people, but a few are owner-occupied. It is a throwback, insulated neighborhood that makes you forget how close you are to NC State (unless there is a night baseball game) and the bustle of Hillsborough Street. With the industrial uses to the west -- the uniform cleaners, Progress Energy -- it probably was a matter of time before the neighborhood was squeezed out. It is sad that there are few picture of when the neighborhood was intact, and little effort on remembering the history of the area before NC State's march westward.

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WRAL did a story on Stanhope and you can see a brief rendering of the project. Given that the homes are already torn down, I guess there wasn't much left to fight, although the neighors seem to be trying to hang on. The planning director mentioned that the developer has agreed to wrap the parking deck adjacent to the homes with office or retail uses and reduce it to two stories with a greater setback... better than before. I wonder if the large gravel area will stay as-is for long.

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  • 1 year later...

FYI an Alabama developer, Capstone Development, has revived plans to build a 10-story student apartment building with parking deck off of Hillsborough St. by purchasing 3 acres there for $6 million and is apparently one of three redevelopments they plan to do in the area. The new apartment complex will also allow for students to walk to the State campus, which is certainly a huge plus.

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/279806.html

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So a "multifamily unit" is really just the newer student floor plan where four bedrooms and baths all share a common living room and kitchen? From my experience in student apartments down in the Gorman and Avent Ferry end of town, these buildings are the cheapest of cheap. I hope Capstone does a better job, though I know nothing about their reputation and quality of work.

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Any building that is 10 stories automatically can't be the cheapest of cheap since its structure will have to be concrete or steel, rather than wood.

I wouldn't expect any earth-shattering architecture though. Probably something along the lines of University Towers.

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If it hasn't changed, it looks similar in scale to University Towers, which is right next door, and similar in height to Lee and Sullivan, which are right across the tracks.

I'd say that the architectural design on the PDF you linked is pretty boring and pretty massive, though superior to all three above.

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I really hope all this ties together the high technology feel of new hillsborough street (LED street lights!) and the old industrial identity of the west end around Lulu/NC Equipment Company. The rebirth of of downtowns like Denver, Seattle etc, that spliced these two elements successfully makes me want the same for Raleigh. I can't help but feel that even though it looks like the architect is trying to do this that the project remains more about making a buck than making something pushes Raleigh past mediocre.

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  • 1 year later...

Well imo opinion this blog has it all wrong. First I have always understood these to be private student dorms not really apartments per se. Second, anyone that thinks a cluster of students improves home values is on drugs. Sure you can make money on students, but you are essentially setting up the area for student life only. Nothing wrong with this but say it like it is. Third, The Stanhope neighborhood was perfectly fine as the late Victorian neighborhood it was before Valentine bought it all and milked rent with no upkeep, only to let Raleigh tear it down for him....house by house...so that he could then make money off the land as a big ass parking lot. The neighborhood once extended all the way to Dan Allen. For all his claims of having grown up on Hillsborough Street and therefore having its bests interest in his heart, all I see is a greedy pos.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

This project is well underway at this point. At least three levels of one building are complete. Does anyone know where I can find final designs for the entire complex? There seems to be questions about whether or not the parking decks will be wrapped with offices/retail/housing or not.

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This is the best I've been able to find. I think this is the actual site plan as approved by the city. It does seem to show what might be eleven townhomes along Concord in front of the parking deck. I could be wrong.

stanhope_siteplan.jpg

Also, looks like the new 5-story building will be larger than I thought. The Technician has an article that mentions Capital Comics will be coming down to make room for it as well. It will take up the entire block from Concord to Friendly, and will have an 1,100 space (!!!!) parking deck behind it. Tenants will include:

  • Kerr Drug
  • Wake Tech
  • University of Phoenix
  • Some sort of healthcare facility targeted at students and faculty
  • A top-floor restaurant similar in concept to Top Of The Hill

The site plan has yet to be posted on the city's website, so we have no idea what it will look like yet.

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Found this in the 6/1/2010 meeting minutes of the Raleigh City Council:

Mack A. Paul, IV, Capstone Development Corporation, reports that on October 7, 2009, the Council approved SP-125-07, Stanhope Village Student Housing Center, with a condition that the petitioner pursue a variance from the Board of Adjustment that would allow residential units on the ground level of the structured parking deck instead of office units. The petitioner obtained that variance and is now required by City Code to have the site plan re-approved by City Council; therefore, the petitioner is seeking re-approval of SP-125-07.

Looks like the initial plan was for offices facing Stanhope Avenue but that was revised to be residential units as a part of the approval process.

If they're not actually part of the parking deck structure, then they'll probably be built after the deck is complete, and will probably be stick built. The townhome units in the above site plan seem to be about 20ft deep and 30 ft wide.

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This is the best I've been able to find. I think this is the actual site plan as approved by the city. It does seem to show what might be eleven townhomes along Concord in front of the parking deck. I could be wrong.

stanhope_siteplan.jpg

Also, looks like the new 5-story building will be larger than I thought. The Technician has an article that mentions Capital Comics will be coming down to make room for it as well. It will take up the entire block from Concord to Friendly, and will have an 1,100 space (!!!!) parking deck behind it. Tenants will include:

  • Kerr Drug
  • Wake Tech
  • University of Phoenix
  • Some sort of healthcare facility targeted at students and faculty
  • A top-floor restaurant similar in concept to Top Of The Hill

The site plan has yet to be posted on the city's website, so we have no idea what it will look like yet.

Thank you for providing this information!!!

Per the comments in the Technician, how is this project to be built upon for 100 years? Last 100 years??? But built upon?

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  • 2 weeks later...
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There is a site plan for the second phase of Stanhope Center / Valentine Commons. It is mostly 5-7 stories. There are two buildings facing Hillsborough Street - one at the corner of Hillsborough and Concord, and the other at the corner of Hillsborough and Friendly. There is a massive parking deck, but the deck is screened by buildings almost all the way around. The only unscreened portion is a parking lot that faces HIllsborough Street, between the two buildings mentioned above, though there are no curb cuts from Hillsborough Street to the parking lot (the parking lot is accessed from the rear.)

The site plan has architectural elevations depicting the parking deck building and the residential buildings screening it, but not the two buildings facing Hillsborough Street.

The deck is mostly screened by several 7-story buildings containing 126 residential units as below:

28 4-bedroom units

28 2-bedroom units

10 2-story, 2-bedroom units

60 1-bedroom units

All in all this seems pretty good. I'm not too pleased with the parking lot along Hillsborough but it seems to be done in a way that's not super intrusive so I'm not terribly upset either. I suppose in some theoretical future where there is less demand for parking near NC State (yeah, right...) the parking lot could be redeveloped into another building.

I'm interested to see renderings of the two buildings that will be along Hillsborough.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like another JDavis special. Totally fine and has a decent techy clean look. But this does not undo the fact that about twelve commercial spaces will be lost between Friendly and Concord, several about 100 years old with 4 inch hardwood floors and pressed tin ceilings (Blue flame was one but its gone now). Raleigh has maybe 50 such buildings left. So not only are we reducing the number of small affordable places that college type businesses can open in, but you are erasing most of the history of this end of Hillsborough Street. Tearing down Zaxbys and putting in this building alongside refurbished old buildings would have been a better total urban package. I realize of course, that Valentine does not own the Zaxbys property.

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  • 8 months later...

I am looking at the current apartment building on the valentine property at this moment and it turned out better than I had thought it would. All brick and corner windows (lots of cream colored brick which is a good change-up). I am resigned to changes beyond what I really wanted so now I hope all these new developments continue the trend of gunning for a premier urban street. LED street lamps, bike lanes, and tight looking buildings with outdoor seating and combo designs that are modern but not overdone. If Hillsborough Street turns out well, then you have a template for other parts of the City.

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