Blount Street Commons

[BoylanHghts]

WRAL has an article about the Blount Street redevelopment project. Does anyone know if this rendering is up to date? It seems to have a lot less ground floor retail than I remember being promised in this project. It's basically all clustered at the northern end of the redevelopment near Peace St.

"Things could start moving forward as early as this summer. The entire project is expected to be finished in four years."

http://www.wral.com/news/7820282/detail.html

[orulz]

No idea if that's the latest rendering.

I'd like to see some retail on the ground floor of the buildings along Wilmington that are marked "E" - Garden Flats. I would guess those buildings are going to be ~ 6 stories tall; why not dedicate the bottom floor to retail? Retail on that stretch of Wilmington might be a tough sell at this point, though, given the absence of cross-traffic and the extreme 9-5 nature of the state government complex. (Thanks, Halifax mall!)

[BoylanHghts]

In the end it's probably better to have more housing in the area (more people will bring more retail). Of course, there is the Seaboard project just adjacent to this that will function as retail for this area.

I just thought I remembered always hearing about this being a lot more mixed use than it is coming across in this plan. Although it could be that some of the old houses will be retail/restaurants (but the article seems to imply this is not the case).

[avery]

I saw a master plan rendring on a website that had a Raleigh visitor's center planned where the state parking lot is adjacent to the NC Museum of History along Edenton. It looks like a good bit of green space is incorporated as well. Not sure if this will ever happen, but it would be much better than the current parking lot. A visitor's center makes sense here due to its proximity to the capitol, museums and governor's mansion.

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

I saw a master plan rendring on a website that had a Raleigh visitor's center planned where the state parking lot is adjacent to the NC Museum of History along Edenton. It looks like a good bit of green space is incorporated as well. Not sure if this will ever happen, but it would be much better than the current parking lot. A visitor's center makes sense here due to its proximity to the capitol, museums and governor's mansion.

What website? Please share. Thanks!

[BoylanHghts]

I saw a master plan rendring on a website that had a Raleigh visitor's center planned where the state parking lot is adjacent to the NC Museum of History along Edenton. It looks like a good bit of green space is incorporated as well. Not sure if this will ever happen, but it would be much better than the current parking lot. A visitor's center makes sense here due to its proximity to the capitol, museums and governor's mansion.

It was a visitors center for the State of NC. Intended to serve as the "starting point" for all the visitors and school children that visit the Capital complex (Capital building, Legislature building, Govenors mansion, musuems, etc.) during the year. An architecture firm actually created a design for this project back around '99-'00. It was ultimately shelved, but it did in fact take up the entire block bound by Edenton, Blount, Jones, and Person. The project included a good amount of green space (the building only occupied about 1/2-1/3 of the block). It was one of Hunt's pet projects but I think the legislature ultimately killed the funding.

[avery]

What website? Please share. Thanks!

I found it at this site. You have to scroll trhough the thumbnails with the right arrow key and cursor over to where it say stategovt. There are many other plans at this website, some of which are Raleigh. I do know that the Five Points project is in there. There is another one called morganst. It is impressive, but there is nothing to go on to tell whether or not it is in Raleigh or if it is old or new.

Renderings

[BoylanHghts]

I found it at this site. You have to scroll trhough the thumbnails with the right arrow key and cursor over to where it say stategovt. There are many other plans at this website, some of which are Raleigh. I do know that the Five Points project is in there. There is another one called morganst. It is impressive, but there is nothing to go on to tell whether or not it is in Raleigh or if it is old or new.

Renderings

That image looks pretty new. The visitor's center design that I have seen is not the same as indicated in that plan. My guess is that it's just a "place holder" for the project on the govt's masterplan. It would be nice to eventually build it, those vast surface parking lots over there are terrible.

[foodpainter]

Last night at the Mordecai CAC meeting, Doug Redford of LNR Properties and one of the architects associated with the project spoke about Blount Street (I won't mention anything else that was discussed at this meeting )

It was said, and I agree, that other than the Conv. Center, this is probably the most significant development going on in Raleigh. It's going to be awesome!!! It will be so nice to see all of those houses restored to private ownership with proper upkeep, landscaping, etc.

His presentation was an overview, but here are a few points that I took away that I don't know if I knew about prior to the meeting:

[RALBOI]

Last night at the Mordecai CAC meeting, Doug Redford of LNR Properties and one of the architects associated with the project spoke about Blount Street (I won't mention anything else that was discussed at this meeting )

It was said, and I agree, that other than the Conv. Center, this is probably the most significant development going on in Raleigh. It's going to be awesome!!! It will be so nice to see all of those houses restored to private ownership with proper upkeep, landscaping, etc.

His presentation was an overview, but here are a few points that I took away that I don't know if I knew about prior to the meeting:

[Jones_]

No idea if that's the latest rendering.

I'd like to see some retail on the ground floor of the buildings along Wilmington that are marked "E" - Garden Flats. I would guess those buildings are going to be ~ 6 stories tall; why not dedicate the bottom floor to retail? Retail on that stretch of Wilmington might be a tough sell at this point, though, given the absence of cross-traffic and the extreme 9-5 nature of the state government complex. (Thanks, Halifax mall!)

Some retail along the lines of Kinkos or a wireless store would compliment the office park nature of the government complex. Residents at home in the evenings often don't want to live above retail that stays open all evening too. My two cents.

[ChiefJoJo]

FYI, Public Hearing on this project is next week, July 25 (also North Hills project). I looked at staff comments on the rezoning, and it looks good. All the building heights seem to be respectful of the historic chracter of the area, max is 55 feet I think, which is reasonable and not overpowering to the character of the neighborhood. I believe the historic districts commission has to look at the plan as well.

[ChiefJoJo]

Reminder: public hearing tonight in city hall on this rezoning at 6:30pm. I'd hope anyone attending would speak in favor of this important urban development.

[carynative]

Bumping this up... Does anyone know what the status of this project is? I heard from a friend that works in one of the houses the govt uses as offices that they don't have to move till late 2008. I thought the timeline was must more advanced than that.

[DanRNC]

Bumping this up... Does anyone know what the status of this project is? I heard from a friend that works in one of the houses the govt uses as offices that they don't have to move till late 2008. I thought the timeline was must more advanced than that.

It will probably be done in phases as not to displace everyone at once.

[foodpainter]

I know the State still owns all the property--when the guy from LNR Properties spoke at a Mordecai CAC meeting a few months back, he said it would take 4 years to finish, so I think the "phases" idea is right. He said one reason it's moving so slowly is it took a year to negotiate the sale of the land from the State, and remarked that was unprecedented sluggishness. Go figure. I guess work will start once they close on it? He mentioned at this meeting dirt would move in the Spring, but we'll see.

[JTsaysToYou]

If it happens in the next four years, and any signs of construction happen, i promise i'll tell you guys soon as I know, most RCHS students drive by there a lot (if they come into DT form the south)

[RaleighRick]

According to Doug Redford with LNR the first phase will be the block bounded by Wilmington, Peace, Blount and Polk. This will begin in early 2007. They will move a couple of mansions, tear down a few structures, put in the utilities for the development and the road/alley that will bisect the block to make room for the row houses and carriage houses over garages. The multi story retail/condo buildings fronting Wilmington St. are also in this phase.

[Raleigh Kid]

I think that the blount street project is a great project that will put some life into downtown from the renderings ive seen it looks as if it will be a promising project. My only concern is that there are so many low rise buildings this is prime real estate and it looks as if the city is going to waste all 30 acres on lowrise buildings this might as well be in a suburban neighborhood in cary! Does anyone else feel as if we should put mid and high rise buildings in this space to utilize as much space as possible.

[foodpainter]

No. Just thinking of how gorgeous Blount Street will be once private owners finally get into those houses, paint them, give them some tlc and landscaping--- the residential aspect will make Blount St. a beautiful "entry" into downtown- I think it could be similar to the Queens Road area in Charlotte-the houses need room to breathe.

[dmccall]

I think 3-story row houses is as tall as that area ought to be. It should stay a walkable, front-porch-oriented neighborhood. We aren't even close to running out of land, so I'm not worried about scarcity.

[Jones_]

I think that the blount street project is a great project that will put some life into downtown from the renderings ive seen it looks as if it will be a promising project. My only concern is that there are so many low rise buildings this is prime real estate and it looks as if the city is going to waste all 30 acres on lowrise buildings this might as well be in a suburban neighborhood in cary! Does anyone else feel as if we should put mid and high rise buildings in this space to utilize as much space as possible.

No way. You need districts that are primarily residential, walkable, and semi-quiet close to the downtown core. Blount Street is between Oakwood and State government, both of which are smaller scale themsleves.

[ChiefJoJo]

The project (rezoning file is here) was approved by the Planning Commission on Tuesday, so i imagine it will go to the council soon for final approval.

My only concern is that there are so many low rise buildings this is prime real estate

When I was younger, I used to love tall buldings just because they were cool... but I couldn't disagree with you more. The context of this area is much more genteel than the rest of DT and has a sense of character and charm that would be ruined by any type of mid-rise buildings rising up over the historic old mansions of Blount St.

FYI the buildings will be tallest and most dense on the northwest side near the state govt complex on Wilmington St (where buildings are already 4-5 stories); most of the old mansions will be located along historic Blount St, creating a beautiful historic corridor into DT; the only issue I heard was the height of the condos/retail facing Person St. Oakwood neighbors feel 4 stories is too tall in that spot (near the state motor pool lot). If you look at the master plan above, you can see all these areas shown.

[Damien]

I don't think 4 stories is too tall at all. It seems just right to me. Most of the homes in Oakwood are 2 or 3 stories anyway, so what difference is one or two floors going to make? The only thing it will be blocking is the view of the white elephant and some trees. Having said that I would think that 4 stories would be the tallest they should go because anything else definitely would overwhelm the surrounding homes. I stay right across the street from the motor pool lot, and several of those houses facing Person aren't single family homes, they are apartment houses. So why would the SPHO even care about that building being 4 stories..they aren't going to be looking at it everytime they step out on their front porch. I think the key thing here is architectural style. Oakwood is a very beautiful neighborhood, and I wouldn't want anything built there that would be out of context with the rest of the area.

On a side note there was a party at the Murphey School about a week ago. I guess it was the groundbreaking ceremony for the Burning Coal Theater project. They have been working inside ever since. Does anyone know if they are going to renovate the entire building, or just the auditorium?

[JTsaysToYou]

Yeah, Blount st. definitly has charm (at least on the north end, on the south end it is ghetto, i saw the swat team on someone's porch one day!) And i would hate for some condo project ot ruin that, and also, we can't really predict hte future of this area, so building low is good at first, then if we really want more height, we can demolish a couple new houses and it will be all good. I just really hope it doesn't end up looking like pilot mill, because that whole area (minus the mill part) is ugly, all those houses are nasty looking! I thought they were all affordable housing at first (turns out they sell for half a million). I bet blount st. will look nicer thoguh.