paytonc

Cary's new Downtown Park doubles as a stormwater basin, allowing the denser development on the eastern side of downtown.

Is that last photo from the roof deck at "Modern on M"? Wonder if they'll ever bother leasing the retail space, now that the theater is back and the plaza across the way is completed.

^ That's because DC funneled tremendous growth into just a few corners: just 10 block groups, with 5% of DC's land, accommodated 40% of the past 20 years of housing growth: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/where-20-years-of-new-housing-was-built-in-washington-dc-and-where-it-wasnt/ "While there is clear political appeal to keeping low-density residential neighborhoods largely unchanged, this strategy also raises serious equity concerns... Avoiding short-term conflicts over zoning changes may delay addressing long-term economic and racial disparities." In addition, it doesn't make for interesting or enduring places, as I wrote a few years ago: https://ggwash.org/view/64861/instant-neighborhoods-dont-make-great-cities-washington-dc-insists-on-them "Large swatches of construction built at one time are inherently inefficient for sheltering wide ranges of cultural, population, and business diversity" - Jane Jacobs

New Charlotte headquarters: Six Flags. "The combined company will be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will maintain significant finance and administrative operations in Sandusky, Ohio." https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2023/11-02-2023-100020810 $3B+ in revenue would put it in the Fortune 1000. The HQ was probably set by Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman, who already lives on Lake Norman and has worked within the company since becoming GM of Kings Dominion in 1998.

Supposedly, the verrry last step is to complete demolition of the temporary RR bridge over US 70. Here it was on 3/18; as you can see, it has many more columns than the new bridge behind it and therefore doesn't leave room for the exiting lanes: Ofc, this road was first proposed in the 1960s and the construction contract was awarded in Feb 2015. "Spring 2022" is still the supposed opening. Once this is done, there's much less of a case for maintaining NC-147 through downtown Durham as a grade-separated expressway. Durham, like Raleigh, could have a beltway instead of a destructive downtown freeway.

Google subleased some Duke space at 200 Morris, with plans to expand up to 1000 headcount, or 200K+ sq. ft. They could take the WeWork space at 300 immediately while eventually anchoring one of the new office buildings planned for the blocks to the north, northwest, or west. https://www.wraltechwire.com/2021/03/18/google-picks-durham-for-engineering-hub-aims-to-create-1000-jobs/

In a "shareholder value" era, most corporations do not go for glitzy in that 1970s and 1980s way. (Charlotte's race to be tallest was won in 1987.) Note that most of the tallest new North American buildings of recent years have been trophy residential, not corporate HQs. Even Sears Tower undercuts your point; it was actually exemplifying the company's cheapness. They took the wide lower floors for themselves, and financed the building by renting the narrow top floors to higher-paying tenants. And, of course, they later moved to a sprawling third-ring suburb. BTW, returned here b/c Raleigh planning is inviting comment on a text change (TC-19-19) that would add a 30 floor height category to the zoning code.

Tough to see much from Cary Town Boulevard, since it's all so high above! The building on the right is apartments over retail, though it looks like it's on a two-story concrete base. Surprised to see a tower crane for mid-rise, but maybe it's needed for the Type I offices.

Nah, end-user businesses almost never shop for building height; they shop for square footage. Spec developers care about height. The more reasonable reading: Raleigh's zoning's high-rise height categories are 12, 20, and 40 stories. Over-building is illegal, under-building is perfectly fine, and there's no benefit to ask for 20 instead of 40. So why not ask for 40?

No, that apartment complex is not part of the project. Notably, the site was rezoned for high-rises, and they're under-building it as wooden mid-rise.

New houses a block or two from Northgate sell for nearly $1M, and Durham's premier employer has made a huge commitment. Seems like a fairly good start, especially since the plan looks like it's mostly residential with some office at the I-85 edge. Correlation is not causation. I'd argue that the long-distance interstates were often routed around the "wrong side of the tracks" of each city -- often intentionally, since federal highway money was easy to use for urban renewal purposes. That legacy, plus the lower-wage industrial jobs that followed the interstates, seems more likely why those highways remain on the wrong side of town today.

Eh, they doubled their money (after expenses) within 1-2 years. What annoys me: CBL held on to their property for about three years too long, somehow thinking that yet another anchor-box-swap would rescue their mall with little effort on their part. If Columbia or Turnbridge or someone else had purchased CTC instead of the state land (Fenton parcel) in 2015, we'd probably already have a Wegman's-anchored lifestyle center instead of CTC. Meanwhile, the hillier Fenton parcel would make a great corporate campus, a la SAS, and backing up to the soccer park. That's exactly what the Town has proposed ("indoor recreation," for either basketball or e-sports), and apparently is still in negotiations to purchase land for, at the Walnut/Maynard corner. The previous owner was willing to cooperate, but dunno about now. Maybe I should suggest to the town that they should negotiate to buy the entire Walnut St. frontage, and resell the excess for mixed-use. That's what they did with the Downtown Park, and plan to do for the new transit center.

Demolition begins in January 2021. Replacement (in many phases): https://carolinayards.com/ Cary still intends to purchase the one block at the Maynard/Walnut corner for the sports/mini-arena, but funding has been delayed as hotel/meals tax revenue has cratered this year.

Two updates: - Raleigh released its Equitable Development Around Transit guide, which includes guidance on how upzoning will take place around BRT stations. https://raleighnc.gov/bus-rapid-transit - The western route has been narrowed down to the Western Blvd Extension / Cary Towne Blvd alternative. Cary Town Council has selected it, as has the Raleigh Transit Authority.

Was just skimming the Wake Transit Plan's 5/2019 MIS on commuter rail, and noticed that the projected Morrisville station wasn't downtown -- but at Cary Parkway / Park West Village instead. Granted, that's probably now the spiritual center of Morrisville, but it seems weird to plop a commuter rail station right next to the Prestonwood Country Club's northernmost links. http://goforwardnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Task-11-CRT-Evaluation-Results-Final-Report-5-31-2019-Clean.pdf

Argh. Just as downtown Cary was beginning to see residential development take off (and retail follows rooftops!), the town rushes to downzone parts of downtown by kneecapping one of its most flexible zoning districts. The "CB&R" (Cottage Business & Residential) district was meant to allow small detached buildings, whether office or residential, on key approaches to downtown: 54 West, S Harrison/Dry, Walker St. It was intentionally flexible, to allow for reuse of existing houses. In recent years, homebuilders figured out that its (progressive for Cary) lack of setback rules allowed for exactly the sort of small-lot detached houses that families want. (It also allowed for "missing middle" sized multifamily without huge buffers, which nobody's built yet and now never will.) So of course the Town decides it has had too much of a good thing, and is introducing stringent setbacks and minimum lot sizes to all of the CB&R zones -- and dividing it into three micro-zones, the better to keep a short leash on any development. http://carync.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=&MeetingID=5024&MediaPosition=2390.887&ID=4092&CssClass= Houses on 1/4 acre lots, spaced 20' apart, and apartment buildings that are at MINIMUM one block (200') wide, are not the building blocks of a human-scaled downtown!

Hospitals are beginning to catch up with Western Wake's tremendous population growth. Duke has proposed a 100-bed hospital and 800,000 square feet of commercial space at Green Level (=western High House) and 540, UNC/Rex is building a 50-bed hospital in Holly Springs, and WakeMed Cary is expanding to ~200 beds.

Look closer at the background of the rendering. The building shown is on a five acre site, a bit bigger than the existing gas station/car wash (at Maynard & Walnut). The other 80+ acres of Cary Towne Center are behind it. The 2-story building behind and to the left is the existing Belk, which may remain. Behind that are taller buildings on what are currently parking lots and the existing mall area.

South Saunders rezoning approved by council today https://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BJ2MKS5B4290

Interesting little adaptive reuse under the water tower, right off Main Street, Downtown Garner https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/105-Rand-Mill-Rd-Garner-NC/16904415/

Planning Commission recommended denial of the Saunders-McDowell PD https://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/files/BH8P7Q63448A/$file/20191106PLANRecommendationZ2319SSaundersPD.pdf

Some of the buildings have been combined, so One Walker is the one facing north and facing east (to Walker), including the corner of Walnut & Walker. One Walnut lines the garage on the south.

Five Horizons (now Merge Capital) PD, on the triangle south of MLK and above the Saunders and McDowell fork, will go before Planning Commission later this month. Was deferred from this week, but here are the documents: http://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BGKRQJ6F0133 Design architect is LOHA from LA. Renderings and narrative on their site: http://loharchitects.com/work/south-saunders-master-plan Also approved major changes to cottage court zoning that should make neighborhood infill easier, after years of changes that steadily made it tougher.

One Walker will wrap the garage on the north, and One Walnut on the south. The park plan's map shows 5 buildings wrapping the garage, including the new library. One Walker is definitely the E-shaped one facing north, but I'm not sure yet which one One Walnut will be. One Walnut's described as: "4-Story Type I-B Shell Office Building (B) over 1-story Type I-B retail shell (M) building. Ground floor contains Office Lobby and back-of-house functions." 109,495 square feet, $17,128,702 construction cost. Cline Design is the architect.

No details on One Walnut, but here's the description of One Walker. Downtown Cary's first five-over-one! 5-Story timber frame Type III-A Residential (R-2) structure over Type I-A poured in place concrete podium containing A-3 and B uses. Building contains Leasing Office, Residential Amenities and 153 Dwelling Units. Total Construction Cost of the Project: $35,350,163.00