Justin6882

The deal falls through. McClatchy says they have others lined up that are interested... N&O: News & Observer office sale falls through

Couldn't find a topic about the once proposed hotel where the Baptist Headquarters is on Wilmington Street next to the McDonald's, but I was looking at another topic and saw an "element" hotel is the brand going there? Had never heard of it, but it's by Westin. Here's the link to their locations.

Adding a 150 room hotel: News&Observer: Developer plans 150-room hotel in downtown Raleigh

Hmm...seemed to vanillafy it a little bit. Was there an article to go along with the rendering?

HAHAHA I just saw this on TBJ and rushed here to post it. I knew Orulz would be THRILLED that this thing will be coming down. Happy days indeed!

A few updates on things I've noticed around downtown lately and some news on restaurants that are opening/closing: I stopped by Port of Raleigh in the L Building over the weekend. Great spot to find unique household items that you can't find in other places. The owner, Ana Maria, is amazing and really fun to talk to. You can tell she takes pride in all the items in the store. Definitely worth checking out if you're downtown. Flight, the pop up shop on Martin Street put on by Deco and Edge of Urge has closed, as expected, on December 31. The Borough (Corner of Dawson and Morgan in the Dawson condos) is closing on January 31 and new restaurant called Hadley's (I think) will be taking it's place. According to New Raleigh, a pizza joint called Pizza Guerra will open next to Fox Liquor Bar on Martin Street. Batistella's has closed in City Market Phonomenal Dumpling Truck, winner of the Food Truck Race on Food Network is opening up a brick and mortar restaurant. I've heard it'll be in City Market where the turkish restaurant is/was. Provenance has signs up in the windows of the restaurant space in Skyhouse, but I have no idea if anything has been done inside. Whiskey Kitchen looks like it's coming along, the parking lot in front of the restaurant is torn up and it looks like they're doing work there. The owners of Busy Bee Cafe have closed the upstairs portion called "The Hive" and are opening a new restaurant concept focused on Belgian beer and local food. Here's a story from the Indy yesterday: http://www.indyweek.com/food/archives/2016/01/04/the-hive-quits-buzzing-to-make-way-for-the-belgian-beer-focused-mash-and-lauter Twisted Mango in the Duke Energy building will be changing concepts again, back to Italian I believe. And here's an article from the N&O that ran after the holiday. Apparently retail in downtown Raleigh did well this year: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article52659855.htm

Leave it to Kane to come up with one of the better designs we've seen downtown in a while AND get it started in a relatively short amount of time. I'm really excited about this one.

Say it ain't so! Plans are being submitted for a rezoning of the Lulu headquarters on Hillsborough Street (warehouse with the tractor on top) to make way for another 700+ beds for student housing. At what point is the market saturated? I would really hate to lose that building and the iconic tractor. I didn't even realize they were entertaining bids.

Other than CVS and the relocation of IHOP, I'm not sure what's going in the retail. Looking forward to finding out though!

I don't hate it! Actually... I think I like it!

Just for the record, people calling that "Romantic Taz's" cracks me up! "Sources" also are saying there will be a NY-style deli in the new location in Skyhouse.

WRAL reporting Natty Greene's is closing their downtown Raleigh location. New Raleigh seems to think Tobacco Road will move into the space.

We have renderings and more info on the "Dillon" - an office and mixed use project. It will have more apartments, not condos, so for those of us who'd rather buy, we're still SOL. It incorporates the facade of the Dillon Warehouse, and includes a parking garage that kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. Here's the brochure with renderings: http://dtraleigh.com/2015/06/rendering-of-the-dillon-office-and-residential-in-the-warehouse-district/

Charter square opens tomorrow with a 5:30pm ribbon cutting. I hope this means they open up lenoir this week as well.

Some more info from IndyWeek on this project. The tilt of the article seems to be against any large-scale development in this area under the guise of it taking away the character of the area. Personally, I'm a bit torn - on one hand, I would love for it to keep that industrial feel. On the other, I'd love to see the density and retail that this project would bring. I guess it comes down to what the structures look like and how they integrate with the surrounding area. Honestly, none of the warehouses down there have the charm of the ones in Durham, sadly. That's just not what Raleigh was back then. So I'm not even sure that keeping the big Dillon Suppy warehouse "Mostly" in tact would even make sense at the base of a tower. Anyway, I'm sure there will be much discussion on this as it comes closer to groundbreaking.

They've also begun putting up the brick facade on the aloft.

I thought frank Harmon ended up being the designer of that building.

Are the things they're designing actually feasible? or do they just do this as a "what if" scenario? The condos/apartments they designed for the space next to Fox Liquor on Martin Street are awesome too. Much better than the J Davis crap we've been getting.

Yep, right across the street. I plan on being at the city council meeting speaking in favor for the restaurant.

More info about the potential rezoning of 501 S. Person Street for a high end restaurant. Lots of tension between the developer and (some) of the neighbors. However, those most affected (Person Pointe Condos) and the house directly behind the building, are all for a quality project to go in the former church that has been vacant for 4 years. N&O: After years of work, East Raleigh church restoration meets neighborhood objections

Article in the News&Observer today: Raleigh considers new downtown height limits, peaking at 40 floors Sounds to me like they would approve something over 40 (or 500 feet) with a special hearing, but anything 40 floors/500 feet and less, they would approve in certain areas downtown without special approval. For perspective, PNC is 33 floors and 530ish feet tall.

It's a done deal. The Council of State vote unanimously to approve the sale to the City of Raleigh!!! Finally!

The hotel and conference center breaks ground today. 164 room Marriott "Autograph Collection" hotel with 9,000 sqft of meeting space. N&O: Centennial Campus hotel construction gets underway Wednesday

I work at State and I heard at a meeting recently that they're supposed to start Pullen to Oval very soon.

It is baffling to me that people come and think Downtown Durham is more exciting than Raleigh. You go almost anywhere in Raleigh on any given night and it is far busier than Durham. I just don't get it? What is Durham doing differently than Raleigh to make the perception that their downtown has more going on? On one hand, we have Greg Hatem saying there's too much going on, then on the other, we have people just going to Durham because they think Raleigh is dead? And I worked in Durham for 8 years and went downtown at night. I know of what I speak.