carolina1792

This isn't accurate. The last major NCDOT rail project, Piedmont Improvement Project, one could say benefitted Charlotte the most by having the full length of the rail lines between Charlotte and Greensboro be fully double tracked. The line between Greensboro and Raleigh got marginal improvements of a few rail bridges and some passing rail on a very short section. This is one of the reason the Triangle Commuter Rail project would cost $3 billions. Most of the cost would be to fully add a second rail line between Raleigh and Durham. The Raleigh Union Station was largely funded by the city of Raleigh and federal grants.

36 stories according to their website, scroll to the bottom: https://creameryraleigh.com/residential/ Structurally is around 38 floors and will likely be in the top 3 tallest buildings in Raleigh if nothing taller is in the works.

Shaw University campus rezoning case has passed 5-3. This rezoning will allow many acres of downtown to be zoned to for 30, 20, and 12 stories development . Shaw University is the 3rd largest property owner in downtown Raleigh so really positive news for local dev-heads.

ASR filed for one of the largest buildings in Raleigh, if built, Nash Square Apartments. 430 feet. This is the property that was scheduled to be a 10 story hotel before COVID hit.

There's been a slow down in construction of a few projects in the Raleigh area but it appears that the folks at DTRaleigh has spotted on LinkedIn that one of the dual 20 story projects appears to finally start up this summer (June 1st). Few of the larger tower projects in North Hills, Downtown South, and a couple of projects in Downtown Raleigh have been delayed to re-evaluate office space requirements, redesigns, and readjust the financing due to higher interest rates. I'm not aware of any other project breaking ground soon so this is pretty exciting.

Is there a significant price difference between the AA RDU to London flight compared to the CLT route to warrant the longer trip to Charlotte?

It's going to take some work (some passing rail, temporary stations with limited services) and almost every city down the line will eventually require some extensive route changes but if we don't mind the slow transit through towns we really don't even require proper train platforms at the beginning. A lot of AMTRAK routes don't even have platform boarding such as Portland, OR. 140 miles with ten or so stops. Probably looking at a 4 to 4.5 hour transit between Raleigh Union Station and Morehead City initially maybe get it down to 2.5 hours after extensive modernization of the line down the road.

Raleigh to Morehead City would probably be the easiest new route to build out right now.--it's already built and just needs some improvements. Johnson County (Clayton, Selma/Smithfield), Goldsboro, Kinston, New Bern, and Morehead City have all expressed at one point recently that they would support a passenger rail service between Raleigh and Morehead City. Raleigh to Wilmington will be harder because that rail corridor has been abandoned and may require extensive rebuilding of the line and probably realignment.

Looks like Breeze Airways and Avelo Airline getting serious with RDU. Route expansions from RDU are happening almost as fast as they can get planes delivered. Technically Avelo has an advantage over Breeze with a more advance operations/commitments from RDU but if you look at the route list you can see Breeze isn't lagging far behind.

Just part of the development slow down happening around the US. There's still a lot of already approved development plans in North Hills queueing to start. I know the 23 story residential tower should start up soon. Also the current city council is anti-development so I'm guessing Kane going to wait until there's a more favorable market and city council in the future.

According to the City of Raleigh last month they have received several proposals for the hotel project and will make an announcement sometime this summer after reviewing all proposal. The minimum requirement for this project is 500 room hotel, if they don't get any proposals with this requirement they don't have to move forward with the project and will wait until a developer does offer 500 rooms. However the renders are greatly exaggerated, the property is just under 1 acre and with 500 hotel rooms--I suspect a building of 30-to-35 stories tall at most. Probably in the mid-300 feet range. However if a developer proposes 500 room hotel plus condos or other mixed-use than I can see this Raleigh project going over 400 feet. But very unlikely. If the RVA project is on limited space like the one in Raleigh it will have to get reasonable tall. In the end I suspect the Raleigh project will take ages to get off the ground.

RCC is pitching a $500 million expansion to the Raleigh Convention Center. This will double the current convention center usable space and also create a new amphitheater next door to replace Red Hat. https://wake.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11647658&GUID=514B56DE-D1A6-4AA1-89FC-1C89D4533EBA Also according to the presentation the 500-room hotel project has some bids and RCC/City are currently in the process of negotiations. So that seems promising.

Since the 2016 Wake County Half Cent Sales Tax Referendum Passed the GoRaleigh (formerly Capital Area Transit) has slowly shifted gears from trying to build a light rail system to shaping up the bus system in Wake County/Raleigh first before investing in a light rail transit system. Durham/Orange however decided to invest in a light rail system that ultimately failed and cost that region over $150 million and a decade of transit development. Since the Transit Referendum passed, Raleigh/Wake created a new comprehensive and cohesive Wake County Transit Plan. Per the mission statement of the plan: "The Transit Plan envisions four “big moves” to connect the region across county lines, connect all Wake County communities to the transit network, provide frequent, reliable urban mobility to the densifying areas of the County, and give enhanced access to transit across Wake County. This will be accomplished by tripling of bus service in Wake County, investing in commuter rail and bus rapid transit infrastructure to enhance speed and reliability for transit customers, and focusing on improving the transit customer experience." 1) Add new bus services. More GoRaleigh lines, expanded GoCary system, the city of Garner and Knightdale are now working on bus systems. 2) Increase bus service from 4:45 AM to Midnight on most routes. 3) Add frequency, reduce 1 hour headways to 30 or 15 minutes. 4) Decentralize the bus system by creating new regional transit hubs. This includes adding local bus service. For example, routes 23L, 24L, 25L. These routes operation in a smaller section of the city as local routes unlike regular bus service that starts in downtown Raleigh. 5) Build out a network of 4 Bus Rapid Transit lines (now maybe 5 lines) that will provide an express connection from these new regional transit centers to a main transit hub downtown. 6) Ultimately, the Triangle Commuter Rail line. The 'main transit center' that is currently under construction is called the Raleigh Union Station Bus Station and the hope is that all the bus services will funnel into this new transit center so that people from around Wake County can reasonable use the commuter rail system to get to Durham. Example, take local bus from east Raleigh to a BRT line that will reach the main station then transfer to the commuter rail line to reach Durham. Of course, COVID has delayed or slowed down much of the progress made however the ridership levels are starting to go back up to pre-covid levels now. Big Move 1: Connect Regionally Cross-county connections will be strengthened with a variety of bus and rail investments. The Wake County Transit Plan will fund the Wake County share of a new commuter rail in the NCRR corridor. This commuter rail line also could eventually extend to Johnston County to the east, with state, federal, and Johnston County support. The Transit Plan also would enhance the connections to Orange County, RDU, and other key destinations with more frequent express bus routes while providing strong connections to the planned light rail line linking Orange and Durham Counties. Other agencies, including the adjacent counties, would participate in funding the interegional connections. This figure illustrates major elements of each connection across the region proposed in the first 10 years. Big Move 2: Connect All Wake County Communities The new plan will connect all 12 municipalities. This will include links between the communities and downtown Raleigh. New links also are provided between some of the smaller communities for employment, shopping, and medical trips. These connections will be a combination of 30- and 60-minute all day service, peak-only service, and commuter rail. The proposed plan will connect the twelve municipalities, RTP, the airport and many other major destinations. The figure to the right shows the range of services that will connect the Wake County communities. Thirty-minute all-day services connect to Cary, Morrisville, RTP, the airport, and the Wake Tech campus on the northern edge of Fuquay-Varina. Sixty-minute all-day services connect to Apex, Garner, Knightdale, and Wake Forest. Peak focused services, including the regional commuter rail, are provided to and between other communities and destinations. Additionally, BRT infrastructure such as dedicated busways, will benefit all buses using those routes. As the communities grow and change over time, it is anticipated that the transit connections also will change and grow. Big Move 3: Frequent, Reliable Urban Mobility The size of the frequent network (15 minutes or better all day) in Raleigh and Cary will increase from 17 miles to 83 miles. Weekend and evening service hours will expand throughout the County, which is particularly important to people working in the service sector and other jobs that don’t follow a traditional 9-to-5 weekday schedule. BRT improvements along the north, east, south, and west corridors will improve the speed, reliability, and amenities of bus services. Frequent service follows patterns of high demand (usually characterized by density, walkability, linearity, and proximity). BRT is a key element of enhancing urban mobility in the Transit Plan. This can comprise many different speed and reliability improvements, including exclusive busways in many locations as well as priority treatment at traffic signals and fixed stations with off-board fare collection to speed boarding. Big Move 4: Enhanced Access to Transit The Transit Plan will improve fixed-route service by extending the number of hours per day and days per week the transit system operates, increasing frequency and expanding the extents of many fixed routes, especially in Raleigh and Cary . The Transit Plan also will improve nonfixed route paratransit service by increasing funds for TRACS (serving non-urbanized Wake County). Finally, the plan includes a 50% match for towns to establish local services . The towns will work with the County and transit agencies to set the frequency and span of service, and choose the sizes and types of vehicles based on the needs of their residents . The 50% match would be available for the 10 municipalities (other than Raleigh and Cary) that are not currently directly funding transit systems . GoRaleigh has stated in peak COVID 2021 that the daily ridership of GoRaleigh system was about 18,000.

GoRaleigh is fare-free still and ridership count is already at 90% 2019 levels even after severe cutbacks to service due to the bus driver shortage. Fare-free just makes sense especially since fares only make a very tiny part of the operating budget.

Technically the High Speed train route should probably go from Raleigh directly to Greensboro before heading directly to Charlotte. Durham can be served by the future Triangle Commuter Rail system and Greensboro can be a transit hub so that passengers can switch to a different service to reach Winston-Salem, High Point, and other nearby areas. No point to go 180 mph if the train has to stop so much. DC ---> Richmond ---> Raleigh ---> Greensboro ---> Charlotte ---> Greenville, SC ---> Atlanta (or Athens then Atlanta depending on the route chosen). If you include Hillsborough then why not include a score of other cities like Spartanburg at that point high speed rail just gets downgraded to regional rail with goofy acceleration patterns.

Please tell me this station was designed for future platforms right? I'm not sure where more platforms will be going?

Where did you get the info that Mayor Baldwin has appointed herself to the GoTriangle board? I live in the Triangle and follow this pretty closely, and this is the first I've heard of it. This Tuesday's City Council meeting.

Raleigh City Mayor is aware of the challenges and has added several comments since that article came out that she's steadfast in support for the rail project and the project will be major topic in the upcoming Raleigh City Council Retreat and the Mayor has added herself to the GoTriangle board starting today. I think the Triangle Commuter Rail project has way more support and enthusiasm behind it than any previous failed attempts. Triangle metro has been visionless for so long it's hard to gauge how much influence a pro-transit city/county government will have getting the project going. Still could fail but any future attempts will obviously cost more and more.

A lot of incredibly boring towers are coming to Raleigh too as least Nashville isn't afraid going taller. Anything above 18 stories will face a fury of scrutiny which leads to value engineering.

A lot of new renders and information in the latest quarterly report. Looks like it's either going vertical now or soon. 14818918_22-11-15-PublicMeetingPresentation.pdf

650 W Hargett St boundaries.

20-story apartment tower near the Raleigh Union Station hoping to start construction as soon as all the permitting is approved. Likely mid-Summer 2023. This is the same block as the proposed 20 story office tower by the Bloc 83 developers. https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2022/11/30/20-story-development-glenwood-south-new-plans.html

Another Raleigh mid-rise project potentially moving forward. City of Raleigh RFP'ed a mostly underused downtown city block for redevelopment. About 4 proposals were submitted. All proposals included affordable housing and entertainment amenities/retail. The City of Raleigh just voted to move forward with the project below. The scope and renders may change*. 590 apartment units (160 to 190 will be marketed as affordable housing), 135 room hotel, 22,000 sq. ft. grocery store anchor, retail space, Raleigh Rescue Mission will get a new home on-site. The 30-story VeLa Longview tower is being built nearby so it won't be out of character to build a tower here.

Moore Square redevelopment proposals (property east of Moore Square) Woah so many great proposals! https://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/files/CL7PCR5EC7E5/%24file/20221115PLANDEVr4MooreSqDevProposalsPresentation.pdf Just to clarify, the City of Raleigh is moving forward to negociate with the Loden proposal:

Breeze Airways also coming to RDU, 3 routes initially: https://thepointsguy.com/news/breeze-airways-nonstop-flights-raleigh-durham-rdu/