coastalmindset

It's across from the old War Memorial baseball stadium. I would place it as just outside the CBD. It's at the corner of Yanceyville St. and Lindsay St. http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/departments/P...ilities/market/

If only we had the income around downtown to support such a retail environment. Average Household income within 1 mile of Elm Street is about $38,000 while Charleston is around $81,000 within 1 mile of King Street according to SRC. If Greensboro wants to grow retail downtown they should start by encouraging the existing businesses to stay open past 6PM. I don't know many people that have time to shop during the day from 10AM to 6PM (the hours of most of these retail stores). As it stands right now, aside from a few art galleries that host functions at night once in a while, downtown is an entertainment destination for dining and drinking past 6PM. These stores would benefit greatly by being open when the bulk of people with disposable incomes are downtown which is from about 6PM to 10PM. If there was a stronger contingent of people with disposable income living downtown this would be different but they need to adapt until that happens. Judging from the empty store fronts downtown I'd say few are weathering the storm. Hopefully Center Pointe will help bring some disposable income to downtown but it will take many more projects like that to bring in a stable base for long term, national chain retailers.

I know that this will make me look like I am against the future development of Greensboro but Greensboro has more commercial office space (and retail) than it will need in the next 5 to 10 years without a major economic shift to bring in a rush of businesses. At the end of 2007 Guilford County had an office vacancy rate around 19%, according to Karnes, and given the current economy I would say it hasn't gotten much lower. Adding to the already vacant office space isn't the answer to growing Greensboro's downtown. If only the city planners would stop allowing developers to throw up a new building every week and give some better incentives for developers who rehab existing buildings. This would certainly be a better starting block for continued growth in downtown Greensboro. Fix and fill what is existing then build new. Roy Carroll at least got that part right with rehabbing the Wachovia building into Center Pointe and he should look to continue that trend before throwing up a 40 story high rise that will sit at 60% occupancy for the next 10 years. We already have enough empty buildings.

While I've only been here 15 years I agree that most large scale cities are suburban at their root with large scale urban centers. And I agree that these "urban cores" develop in part from the ease of interstate access. From the center of downtown Greensboro to I-40 (the closest interstate) it is roughly 2.5 miles, so for new developments in downtown Greensboro, especially all these proposed high rises, wouldn't it make more sense to grow toward the south side of the city which would grow downtown closer to I-40? Maybe the city planners should look at that if they really want to push the growth of downtown. I would think that would help set a boundary for its urban core while at the same time making it more accessible for visitors. As we become more energy conscious, people will want more and more to live close to work and while this theory would support the growth of future downtown developments in some cities, Greensboro has continued to bring in jobs that leave people living in a suburban environment due in part to our cities design. Shipping, logistics and large scale manufacturing simply don't work in our current downtown environment. The land isn't there, what is there isn't cheap and it's not close to reasonable transportation. The Hwy 68 area will continue to grow at a much faster rate than downtown because these industries can thrive there. While in 10 years there may be a shift that brings large scale developments to downtown Greensboro I would doubt we will see many large scale developments downtown in the next few years without a shift in our economic position. As you mentioned downtown will remain an entertainment and dining destination.

This is probably one of the most accurate and in tune points I've ever read on UP.

While I agree that there should be some reasonable control over what people do on their property when it affects the properties around them, I don't see how this law is enforceable. What is the reasonable definition of ones front lawn? If I paved my entire front lawn or put down gravel does that allow me to park on it? What if I have a U-Shaped driveway that runs through my front yard? I can't wait for all these people to move their cars in to the street in front of their houses.

I wasn't being negative with my comments but rather my point of view was that of concern. Greensboro keeps building offices, hotels, and retail without people to work in them, stay in them or shop at them. There are so many projects out there from developers (many which may never get developed) that the city is being overrun and continuing to sprawl. If we already have 2 downtown hotels and not many people staying in them why build one, two or three more? The city should lend a hand to the existing hotels so they are remodeled or bought by owners that will actually spend a few dollars on them. I know that these developers do a ton of research. A lot of that research says we'll pick up X% just because we're "new" and we'll take away X% of business from the existing downtown hotels leaving them to die and become more vacant buildings downtown. I'd like to see a study showing where we need more hotels, maybe it's out there. We've just added the Proximity and remodeled the Double Tree/HOJO (<--this is what we need more of in Greensboro, remodel!) among others in the Wendover area. I think the hotel concentration is positioned where the people tend to stay. The convention center and I-40 have a large amount of hotels around them. The Friendly area has two hotels because of Friendly and the multitude of office parks around them. I just don't see convention people staying downtown when they can stay at or across the street from the place they spend their days. Cities like Charlotte have lots of downtown hotels because they have multitudes of offices (BOA has 2 high rise buildings on it's own), a downtown arena (with pro sports and good concerts) and other draws. Greensboro, while I hope one day we get some of these things, doesn't have the need yet, in my opinion.

Maybe with horse patrols the police will actually do some policing downtown. Standing on the corner doesn't seem to do doing too much. They could at least be out there sending all the 16 year old kids home by 1 AM. All they really need to do is remodel the Marriott into a place where people actually want to stay. And given the latest reports on the local economy, like this one from the N&R, "Median earnings have declined, the poverty rate has risen to 19 percent, and population growth is sluggish, according to the report", I'd say we should look at some business development instead of hotels.

Bidclerk is pretty cool. I've never seen that site before but it certainly tells you alot about what's going on. Too bad full access is so expensive. I can't wait to see the PTRP in a few years.

This is a big boost for this company and of course it is always nice to see municipalities go "green" whenever possible. I think Daimler Buses is actually located in High Point with the original manufacturing facility (formerly Thomas Built Buses) on High Point Road and Guilford College. But the offices and newest manufacturing facility for Thomas Built Buses are in High Point. Daimer owns both Freightliner and Thomas Built Buses. The buses are made locally and there are quite a few Freightliner manufacturing facilities in NC. *I guess only Thomas Built Buses are built out of the HP location. I was under the impression that all their operations (TBB and Daimler Buses) had been moved to that building. Guess I was wrong.

And the sale of Friendly and the rest of the Starmount portfolio is final. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/go...amp;newsLang=en

And here is your official announcement: http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...RSTAFF/71129015

I think most of that building will be DSW Shoes. Apple could go in the small shop space next door to DSW or in the building next to Francesca's. Actually there about 8 vacant spaces on the back side of the new buildings betweeen REI and Jason's Deli. Apple will be a huge addition to this center.

I understand the concept that certain older people may not feel safe in a parking deck but it works in cities all over the country. I showed an example of this in my last post (take a look at the first link in my prior post and you can see the 3 level deck under the buildings in the picture). While it is certainly expensive to do a proper parking deck in this manner it is worth while if you want an easily walkable property. In the Atlantic Station example the parking deck is built underground with the buildings and structures on top of the parking deck. This way you don't have to disguise an above ground deck as anything else because it is below ground. Pedestrian exits are on just about every corner so it is very convenient to get from deck to shops, It's kind of like going into a subway except it's a parking deck, it's the same kind of feel. As far as safety is concerned proper lighting and security cameras will prevent many of the problems people may think of although as with anything in life we are never 100% safe from crime. Yes crime even happens at Friendly Center. If it can work on such a large scale in a town like Atlanta I think we could make it fairly safe here in Greensboro. They also have limited street level parking so those who may be scared of a big wide open parking deck can park on the street. It works, just take a look a North Hills in Raleigh, similar concept and people don't seem too scared to use that place. I see people of all ages using parking decks in downtown and I don't see any problems there. I think if we want big city amenities we need to have a big city mentality.

I agree with what is being said with regard to it being walkable and the overall urban feel of Friendly Center. I believe most of this topic started from a question about people being able to walk to decent paying jobs from Somerset and the answer to that is still yes it is possible and not entirely inconvenient. We will never see the changes mentioned by JerseyBoy and others unless we use what we already have. If we continue to drive instead of walking to (for those that live close enough) and around Friendly or other centers there is no incentive for the city or for property developers to make changes because people have a mentality that driving is the only way. Gotta use what we've been given in order to make it better. As far as Friendly Centers design (for the new section) the right thing would have been to build it on a parking deck, much like Atlantic Station in Atlanta. That place was designed perfectly although it is on a much larger scale than Friendly. Limited asphalt and yet still with convenient parking because everything was build on top of the parking deck. Expensive but it makes for a great lifestyle center which is entirely walkable. North Hills is also a decent example of this and is a little more spread out like Friendly. The city requires so much parking yet doesn't give incentives to allow for enough parking and a walkable property so developers choose the cheap road everytime. Here's a few links on Atlantic Station, this should be our city's thinking for future developments. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/realesta...amp;oref=slogin http://www.atlanticstation.com/home.php