TKJones

OK, good to hear. I initially missed the caption about that rough render being from 2014 too. Fingers crossed they do this well - there is definitely opportunity to.

I don't know, as a neighborhood resident and someone who is into the bar scene probably more than most on here, I'm pretty apprehensive about the impact of just bulldozing what is essentially an entire entertainment district, let alone one serving as the primary connector for downtown/midtown. Vibes & 3000Bar are awful and dangerous, no question. The greenroom side of Tin Roof gets trashy and overcrowded on the weekends, sure. Any density beats that travesty of a surface lot currently in the back, plus I'd absolutely kill for a pedestrian-friendly grocery store right there. But on the other hand: Tailgate is an A+ location for a local patio brewery, and is as family-friendly a spot as you'll find anywhere in the central city (plus selfishly they're my alumni bar during football season and their pizza is way better than it has any right to be). TR, Live Oak and Dawghouse are all important music venues for local writer's rounds during the week. Just Love/Little Chicago are well-liked and unproblematic. Tacos and tequila is a newly-renovated spot that literally just opened. That's quite a decent little chunk of Nashville left to replace, and these super gentrified mixed use projects too often attract trendy-on-paper, yet ultimately bland and overpriced retail tenants that are only "safe" because they never get popular enough to be anything else. It could be an improvement if executed well, but without any info re retail yet, we may end up just kicking the problem behavior a few blocks down division where it won't be spread as thin once you account for an (at best temporarily) gutted Demonbreun hill.

Can't say enough about how nice this one looks in person IMO, especially for the area. The white exterior contrast in particular is striking and the unique shape actually fits its height so well that it might be the first major project in a while where I'm not actively disappointed the design isn't at least 10 floors taller (looking at you one22one)

I'm still shocked they gave that one up, unless it was outside their control. Location was practically a landmark and seemingly always slammed with customers.

Of course probably the strangest looking, most isolated high-rise would be one to get hit with a delay. Gonna withhold judgement on the finished product for now, but that exterior in its current state is legit hideous.

I'm a big fan of these having small, non-elongated footprints so that they look less boxy and more like proper towers at that height. Most of our stubby skyline perception is from buildings that just seem "big" more so than tall, even if they are decent height. My office window view is the narrow side of Broadwest Conrad and so whenever I drive down west end I always get caught off guard and a little underwhelmed that the 10th(?) tallest building in town isn't even twice as tall as it is wide.

Is anyone who “liked” this post actually excited by the news? If so, why? Sure, it’d be one thing if The Cadence was some crumbling eyesore where this renovation would bring much-needed aesthetic redevelopment or any new urban density whatsoever to the site. But in reality it’s a perfectly nice 2014 building that hundreds of permanent midtown residents will no longer be able to call home less than a year from now - all for an out-of-state management company to serve tourists who already have other options a mere block away in almost any direction. I totally understand that this is a cash grab which has nothing to do with city planning, but it’s still a shame we’re not celebrating a new hotel in the abandoned surface lot directly north of here instead of yet another unnecessary business transaction that will ultimately benefit precisely no one who actually lives here.

There's a spot next to 9round that's always been empty if I'm not mistaken. But true, this whole area is a work in progress. I give them a ton of credit for planning for long-term growth.

Jittery Joe's coffee (beneath 650 lincoln apt) has closed down. Nothing devastating, but you would have hoped USC's first attempt at modern mixed-use could have been more popular. Two of the five retail spots are now currently unoccupied over a year later.

My thoughts exactly after having walked through, unfortunately. It's definitely a nice redevelopment, don't get me wrong, but the whole thing just seems way too non-functional to justify taking up nearly an entire city block. If they wanted it to feel like a small park like the article says, then why not just build one of those instead of planting some small trees and a few hundred square feet of sod in the middle of a big stone parking lot? Also, what's with the giant slabs just sitting there? Am I missing something on this one?

I completely agree even as a huge mexican food lover. You also gotta wonder if any of these taco spots are going to start running each other out of business since this will put salud, chipotle, tin lizzys, sure fire, barbaritos, cantina 76, moe's, monterrey's, tio's (others?) all more or less within walking distance of each other. Does anyone have an actual source on the apple plans? It would be huge to get something no matter what, but building under what is essentially a dorm seems like an odd choice for them even though it hits an ideal demographic. It would be very interesting to see what kind of non-USC draw an apple store could bring in being the first of the new campus-foot-traffic driven retail spots to have big time consumer appeal for non-students.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Finlay's bad reputation (at least from my observations) isn't because of its poor physical condition. Putting big money into renovations won't necessarily change the fact (or the perception) that the park has been completely taken over by homeless people. With a struggling bull street commons and a need to keep momentum and move toward connectivity for main street/vista, making this a priority just doesn't seem like the right move at the moment. I like Finlay probably more than most, and a reasonable amount of maintenance and reconstruction makes sense right now, but potentially spending eight figures on it would be wasteful. Hopefully not too long from now once downtown's appeal continues to improve, the demand and the money will actually be there to support a quality renovation.

Their website says it opens on April 11, 2017 rather than fall 2016 like the original announcement . Wonder if there is any particular reason for the 6 month-ish delay.

Nice. You wouldn't guess that this place is nearly done judging by the outside so that's good to hear. The Knox Abbott Monterrey's already moved across the street though, plus the vista Monterrey's is only like six or seven blocks from here so it's most likely going to be something else.

A friend of mine works at Heathwood (the private school right behind this spot) and I'm pretty sure I remember her telling me that it is going to be some type of truck stop. They aren't thrilled but it makes sense given the i77/Bluff Road intersection.

Outlets would likely offer some stores that would be new to all of Columbia so I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do well here, assuming variety is a factor. Looks like this whole area is being called "Otarre" and the plan is to expand it a good bit: http://otarre.com/ Their map isn't up to date though - an apartment complex went up last year across from the tennis center and a Courtyard Marriott is under construction next to it.

The design is cool and fitting, especially with the glass sections as I said. Same with 650 lincoln, strom, marriot, etc. All I was really trying to say was that since everything is the same neutral color, those nicer buildings tend to blend in with the bad ones (coliseum, old law school, jones I think it's called on main) depending on where you're walking, and make the area as a whole look a lot more dated than it actually is - at least to my eye. Good point bringing up consistency though - can't really argue against them trying to do a better job with it in this area than they have in some of the others. I'm excited to see how everything turns out on Greene.

On a side note, I'd really like to see USC stop building nearly everything out of that sand-colored brick. As modern as most of the buildings near that intersection are, the area as a whole still looks very bland.

Innovation center is looking great with the glass put in

Yeah, I was happy to see that last week. They already have the next block stripped off too.

My boss mentioned an H&M and REI coming to bull street common - can anyone confirm this? If he is right then I'd say both are a step in the right direction. Being yet another decentralized entertainment district, I feel like the best way for the commons to succeed in a way that benefits the city is probably by becoming a harbison alternative. Both of those stores fit into the hard to describe but very large category of Columbia's shopping that is currently only available out on Harbison or maybe Sandhills. A smaller scale selection (hopefully without the miserable traffic) would have a pretty big appeal and could help keep/bring people downtown while being different enough to not compete too heavily with main/vista/5pts *Apologies if I bring up any old topics or news since I'm new to the site.

Maybe so. All I know is that they originally planned to finish up by the end of the summer since it's right in front of the Moore School entrance. Either way, looks like it's almost done which will be a huge improvement for walking/driving through the area.

From discovery garage - not much to see yet but they are doing some concrete work on this corner. I'm impressed with how quickly the 2nd phase of 650 Lincoln (top left) is moving along considering the other crew somehow hasn't managed to finish re-paving one block of Greene Street in 9 months and counting.