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What Does Cary Need to Do To Reach the Next Level as a City..er, Town?


Brendan

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Now that Cary is almost totally boxed in by other towns, how does it contine to grow but remain a suburbs kind of town? And the only thing that I can think of is what seems to be currently happening, but on a smaller scale of what they would like...continue to build Cary by skipping over Jordan Lake and into Chatham County? Look out Pittsboro...

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Now that Cary is almost totally boxed in by other towns, how does it contine to grow but remain a suburbs kind of town? And the only thing that I can think of is what seems to be currently happening, but on a smaller scale of what they would like...continue to build Cary by skipping over Jordan Lake and into Chatham County? Look out Pittsboro...

This is the no win situation faced by well….the whole planet. An expanding population either takes up more and more land, or it must densify. That our National economy is based on growth…as many municipal budgets are…is a setup for absolute failure. Once boxed it, Cary's budget will have to zero out its growth projections. If it simply cannot set service fees and rates at sustainable levels, they will have to grow via density. This is the greatest failure of capitalism (mind you I am not advocating socialism and certainly not communism) and Cary will have to face it at some point. 

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Cary has already extended slightly into Chatham County, just as Raleigh has already extended slightly into Durham County. Cary and Chatham County have been in dialog for years about the east bank of Jordan Lake (see http://www.chathamnc.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=15674). I'm not familiar with that land, but I assume watershed protection would limit the density of development there. And I'm fairly certain that neither Cary nor Apex will be allowed to go onto the west bank of Jordan Lake. Pittsboro would fight to prevent that.

 

Cary will be able to grow upwards to some degree, just as Dunwoody in Atlanta has been able to. A lot of apartments and condos could be built in the sections of Cary that predate 1970. 

 

There is also a populated area between Cary and US 401 that is outside any municipality's ETJ at present, but the Annexation Reform Act of 2011 makes it difficult if not impossible for any municipality to annex that area forcibly.

Edited by ctl
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  • 1 year later...

Anybody know what's being built on walnut st right by the corner of Macedonia rd? Looks like a church but there's no signage or info online that I can find. Just curious.

Edit- nevermind, got confirmation on city data that it's going to be an secu bank. Boo.

Edited by NikOnder
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  • 4 weeks later...

There is a mixed use development in downtown Cary proposed at the SE corner of Chatham and Harrison. There will be a 4 story office building with retail facing Chatham, and a 188 unit apartment building with structured parking behind. Evidently there are quite a few moving parts to the project; it will involve some of First Baptist Church's parking lot and presumably an agreement giving them access to the parking deck on Sunday mornings. It also asks that the Town pitch in $5m for public parking in the deck and road improvements.

This is exactly the direction Cary needs to go to take it to the next level: focus on its downtown. It has slowly been picking up momentum through public improvements, new retail establishments, and private development, and I hope to see the trend continue.

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2 hours ago, orulz said:

There is a mixed use development in downtown Cary proposed at the SE corner of Chatham and Harrison. There will be a 4 story office building with retail facing Chatham, and a 188 unit apartment building with structured parking behind. Evidently there are quite a few moving parts to the project; it will involve some of First Baptist Church's parking lot and presumably an agreement giving them access to the parking deck on Sunday mornings. It also asks that the Town pitch in $5m for public parking in the deck and road improvements.

This is exactly the direction Cary needs to go to take it to the next level: focus on its downtown. It has slowly been picking up momentum through public improvements, new retail establishments, and private development, and I hope to see the trend continue.

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They would also move that Carpenter Gothic style house to the back of the lot, something that is raising some concerns. The developer has no issue with saving and moving it, so it seems like a fine solution to me. 

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  • 5 months later...

IKEA coming to Cary? Maybe at the mall. http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2016/11/08/ikea-talks-raleigh-durham-cary-nc-store-potential.html?ana=e_me_set1&s=newsletter&ed=2016-11-08&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1478621222&j=76392541  IKEA needs another store in the state as the Charlotte store is busy all the time with out of town shoppers and this site could be the best 2nd store location in the state. 

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I just can't see IKEA going in the CTC spot. The footprint of the store and parking may be larger than the mall property. I don't think that's the right thing to go in that location.  Cary and the area need something more mixed-use, commercial, residential to go along with Wegman's development next door.

 If IKEA does come to the Triangle, I see it being off I-40 somewhere south of Raleigh.  

 

 

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Like Garner??

 

2 hours ago, Brendan said:

I just can't see IKEA going in the CTC spot. The footprint of the store and parking may be larger than the mall property. I don't think that's the right thing to go in that location.  Cary and the area need something more mixed-use, commercial, residential to go along with Wegman's development next door.

 If IKEA does come to the Triangle, I see it being off I-40 somewhere south of Raleigh.  

 

 

 

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If Crossroads had enough vacancies, that seems like the right area with interstate visibility and all. 

As an aside that development next to Bond Brothers is topped out and dried in. Not bad. Only urban by Cary standards but hey, Downtown Cary is coming along. I went out there this weekend and there are three (that I know of) places you can get drinks at night, all within easy walking distance of each other. And the big park is mostly cleared of houses and will be an interesting destination too, though I don't know what all is planned in it. 

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6 hours ago, Brendan said:

The footprint of the store and parking may be larger than the mall property.

You also said this back in May here - but in the very next post here I provided numbers to show that that is not even close to true.

The CTC mall is three times the size of an Ikea in terms of square footage, and its lot is three times the size of what an Ikea would need, even with surface parking (like the one in Charlotte.) If said hypothetical Ikea was built with a parking deck instead of surface parking (Like the one in Atlanta), they could make it fit while keeping the mall completely intact (go to gogoraleigh's recent post on the subject to see.)

The Atlanta example is at Atlantic Station, very much in Central Atlanta, so that is also proof that Ikea actually doesn't have a preference for outlying locations like Garner or Mebane. The thing driving their tendency to locate non-centrally is probably just real estate availability; but if the chance arises for a central location, at the right price, then they will take it.

As for what to do with the mall itself: maybe they could make it an outdoor mall like they did when the converted Asheville's Biltmore Square Mall into the Asheville Outlets shopping center.

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IKEA in Charlotte is 360,000 but it is 2 stories. There is plenty of room at Cary Town Center for it if you get rid of some of those vacant anchor stores. IKEA is such a destination store even if they build it way off the interstate like in Atlanta in Atlantic Station it would be successful. IKEA looks for access and with this location near the Beltline, I-40 and US 1 it seems to be a pretty good location to me. Also I think it needs to be the RTP side of Raleigh and this Cary spot does that to make for easy access from Durham and Chapel Hill. 

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Speaking of connectivity, I wonder if the Town ever gave any thought to say, dropping a road from Chatham adjacent to the eastern edge of the  soccer park, down to Cary Town Blvd and connect it to say Convention Dr.I know I-40 provides that route, but giving local traffic another option around there in the face of a bunch of Ikea traffic seems prudent. Just musing...

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16 hours ago, orulz said:

Trinity Road extension to Cary Town Blvd is definitely planned. Cary is in the midst of writing a new master plan called Imagine Cary and this area is one of the main focuses of the plan.

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Oh cool...pretty much what I had in mind. 

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  • 2 months later...

The N&O reported on the rumors last week about IKEA coming to Cary, but it was still just rumors.

In Mayor Weinbrecht's blog post yesterday on CaryCitizen.com, he pretty much gave up the secret that it was in fact IKEA.  

"We also talked about the redevelopment of the mall called project emerald. Apparently, the potential business wants it to remain a secret even though it was on the front page of the News and Observer. All I can say is that project emerald equals blue and yellow. We will see how this is presented to the council in the future."

Someone on Reddit joked that blue and yellow means that Cary's about to get a Blockbuster Video!  

I really hope CBL tears down the entire mall and focuses on building a walkable, mixed-use area along the Walnut Street side with restaurants/retail/apartments and then have IKEA in the back.   

 

 

 

 

Edited by Brendan
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11 hours ago, Jones_ said:

An IKEA would be cool and all, but is anyone aware of a walkable shopping center than an IKEA is a part of? I've been to three...Charlotte, Potomac Mills and Newark and all suck pretty badly for pedestrians...

You're right. Atlanta's IKEA is tucked away behind Atlantic Station, is pretty much unwalkable, and has its own parking deck. But then again, if you're going to IKEA are you really going to be able to carry much of anything with you? Unless, say, you're just looking and plan to order online / get delivery. 

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9 hours ago, InitialD said:

You're right. Atlanta's IKEA is tucked away behind Atlantic Station, is pretty much unwalkable, and has its own parking deck. But then again, if you're going to IKEA are you really going to be able to carry much of anything with you? Unless, say, you're just looking and plan to order online / get delivery. 

True. My most victories visit resulted in only one small shelf being bought. Every other time it was a carload. The idea to tuck it in the back of a redeveloped CTC would be a good compromise though I'm not sure they'd go for the reduced visibility....it's kind of ironic has the purveyor of space saving ideas and furniture, needs so much freakin space. 

As an aside regarding Cary, over near Bond Brothers, that new building facing Chatham in front of BB was originally criticized for looking too suburban (by me too), but it actually turned out to have a nice street presence. 

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