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Dilworth Projects (Kenilworth, Morehead, East)


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I think it (Epicurean site) would be ideal for a nice mixed use development similar to the one right across the street with residential and retail on ground level. I actually went to Blockbuster the other day, and it really got to me how bad the lot looks. It needs to be better manicured. I think the city should have a rule making them keep their lot up, as it is in a highly desireable area of town that many people shop and dine at. It really sticks out like a sore thumb... :(

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I was on DCDA back when the original proposal came through. Not a pretty sight. The family didn't want to work with the neighborhood to make the building more ped friendly or change the design (one big faux French thing). Even their chosen developer (JDH Capital) couldn't get them to budge on certain things. I aksed if they would consider either relocating the overhead utilities to the rear of the site or (better yet) putting them underground. You'd have thought I'd aked for the first born to be sacrificed for Passover. Not only was I yelled at, I had fingers pointed and shaken in my face and told in no uncertain terms that I had no right to aks them to spend their money on something as useless as utility relocation. Needless to say, they didn't get DCDA's approval. :D

Even though I am sad that nothing has happened on the site, I do smile when I drive past knowing they're paying taxes on a large piece of land that provides no income to them.

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is the inactivity a direct result of dcda rejection?

also, why faux french with a name like epicurian? why not italian? sheesh, can we not even get internally consistency of faux themes? :)

on an aside -

Those utility poles around there really need something to be done about them. is there not a way to create utility districts where ratepayers can share the cost of local utility improvements? I'd gladly pay a few dollars a month for underground wires in the mile or so radius around my house.

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is the inactivity a direct result of dcda rejection?

also, why faux french with a name like epicurian?  why not italian?  sheesh, can we not even get internally consistency of faux themes? :)

on an aside -

Those utility poles around there really need something to be done about them.  is there not a way to create utility districts where ratepayers can share the cost of local utility improvements?  I'd gladly pay a few dollars a month for underground wires in the mile or so radius around my house.

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I could not agree more on the poles. I just think their ugly, ruin the look of a comunity and in turn reduce the walkability of a neighborhood. Not to mention it would make my life easier.

I made a phone call out of curiosity to someone I know on the construction side of TWC, to ask about the costs and steps it takes to put utilities underground. I asked specifically about a couple blocks on East blvd near Scott and Kenilworth. After permits, dealing with the city, installing duct banks, new lines, new fiber, splicing, manholes(which would be needed in this section), labor, night time hours, and everything else involved it could cost more then 50k for just our fiber and cable. Add bellsouths hordes of fiber and the cost of running power underground and anyone else on those poles and your talking 100's of thousands easily.

This is what happened on Cedar St., behind the panther practice field near J&W(panthers and J&W split the cost) and also recently behind Imaginon Childrens center. And soon near courside, davidson, 5th, 6th st's area, and down Elizabeth. Yes it would be nice down East blvd. but the owners of Epicurean are never going to pay for it.

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thanks for researching that.

i think it is tough to expect property owners to pay for the section right in front of their projects. Maybe a slight percentage of it, say 25% or so for big projects, or 50% if it is large insitutions that own quite a bit of land in the area, such as along Eliz Ave or around CMC.

It seems to me that if a permanent funding mechanism were in place, like those proposed after the 2003 (?) ice storm, that over the course of a decade, much of the intown utility poles could be buried.

200k is expensive, but if planned rationally to coordinate with other construction projects, where they'd need to dig or close roads/sidewalks anyway, many of your listed costs would just go away. If a permanent neighborhood- or district-based funding arrangement were in place, the work could automatically be done at the most advantageous time based on some priority framework.

No doubt signature corridors like east blvd would be high priority, so the bonds on 200k (or some discounted number) could easily be absorbed by ratepayers in the square mile around it.

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Ran some quick numbers. The Castanas Family (owners of the site and the original Epicurean Restaurant) have paid $117,000 in taxes over the past seven years for the three lots they own on between Scott and Kenilworth. I chose to add up seven years because they proposed the Epicurean Shoppes in 1998.

DCDA had little (if anything) to do with the project's failure. It was poorly designed and they couldn't get anyone to sign leases. They themselves were to be the anchor, opening a new Epicurean Restaurant at the corner.

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my guess is once the K-worth/Scott blocks are densified north of East Blvd, some developer will be looking very strongly at combining the epicurian, blockbuster, adt, and misc lots together for a nice big project.

(I hope they reconnect Ideal Way to itself in that section as part of reconnecting the grid.)

Once those 2 or 3 blocks north of latta are redeveloped, there is really no place to go for large projects but further south. There maybe some random parcels north of Morehead, but they are fairly small and limited.

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Ran some quick numbers.  The Castanas Family (owners of the site and the original Epicurean Restaurant) have paid $117,000 in taxes over the past seven years for the three lots they own on between Scott and Kenilworth.  I chose to add up seven years because they proposed the Epicurean Shoppes in 1998.

DCDA had little (if anything) to do with the project's failure.  It was poorly designed and they couldn't get anyone to sign leases.  They themselves were to be the anchor, opening a new Epicurean Restaurant at the corner.

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The problem with this part of East Blvd is simple, its called Downtown. Once a very hot area for real estate, about the time major condo developments started here, the fad of downtown living started and killed the market for condos in this area. I know people who did pre-sales investing over there and have since seen their investments become worth less than they paid for the units. Nobody wants to pay DT prices to live on East Blvd.

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My understanding of that project is that this was a proposal used to solicit the current property owner to sell, or partner for the redevelopment.  The current property owner has little interest though in doing anything with the parcel......don't worry....he's getting pretty old.

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Oops....I may have doomed this man. The owner of the horrible building at Morehead and Kenilworth just died, so now it is up to the estate to decide what to do with the property. It will almost certainly be sold, so maybe that snazzy rendering is closer to a reality that we once imagined.

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Oops....I may have doomed this man.  The owner of the horrible building at Morehead and Kenilworth just died, so now it is up to the estate to decide what to do with the property.  It will almost certainly be sold, so maybe that snazzy rendering is closer to a reality that we once imagined.

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Gawd, ain't that something?

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Oops....I may have doomed this man.  The owner of the horrible building at Morehead and Kenilworth just died, so now it is up to the estate to decide what to do with the property.  It will almost certainly be sold, so maybe that snazzy rendering is closer to a reality that we once imagined.

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may he rest in peace... and may that building go with him.

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Dubone you live around east blvd, I used to work on the corner of east blvd and dilworth road, and I am frequently known as a caribum because well I'm always at caribou on east blvd.

But anyways I am always suprised that nobody has mentioned anything about rosewood, on providence road and sharon amity, thats the one that keeps making me raise my eyebrows, and assume a confused look, what do y'all think about that building.

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  • 2 months later...

The units between Scott & Kenilworth are coming together now.

But it looks like they're hanging grey/beige vinyl on the upper floors. :sick: Ick. Ick. I would have thought developing in this area would imply using better materials.

Edited by MZT
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The units between Scott & Kenilworth are coming together now.

But it looks like they're hanging grey/beige vinyl on the upper floors. :sick: Ick. Ick. I would have thought developing in this area would imply using better materials.

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are you sure that is vinyl? i thought it was hardy-board. it is a fairly boring design though.

EDIT: in fact, it must be hardi-board, as the rezoning petition says:

"Additional building materials shall be limited to wood, cementatious sideing or EFIS material. vinyl or Metal materials may be used for architectural details including but not limited to doors, windows and trim details."

http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Planni...on+2002_130.htm

Gosh, this thing was rezoned two and a half years ago. soooo slooooow

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  • 3 weeks later...

Found out this morning that Sterling is converting its East Blvd property, between Scott and Kenilworth (Patou is on the ground floor) to condos beginning in the first quarter 2006. Residents got letters telling them of the conversion. Average price per square foot will be somewhere around $250. I wonder how well these will sell after the dismal performance of the project's current condo neighbor.

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I got an update on the Epicurean site last night.....they've decided that they are going to nothing in the foreseeable future. It's gotten to be a pride issue with the family, so I don't think we will ever see anything happen until the children inherit the site.

On a positive front, the ADT building on Scott and several houses on Kenilworth behind the Blockbuster were recently assembled by a developer that is proposing 2 buildings with 30 condos each on Kenilworth and adding a 2nd office building to the ADT site to be used by the hospital.

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slightly off topic: I thought you all might get a kick out of this:

yuppieghettosmal.jpeg

The apartment to condo conversion hype is a bit disheartening. All of us yuppies (I can assume most of us are - like I am) want to live with all the unique characterful hipsters that are our modern day court jesters or village idiots. Not belittling them, but in fact I admire those tattooed artsy folk that work at the corner coffee shop & at night play in some edgy rock band. That's partly why we want to live in the city, to feel like we're part of that same crowd.

But we're slowly driving them out with all these apartment to condo conversions. What kind of city life would it be if we were all wearing dockers & hanging out at Starbucks?

- end of my slightly off topic rant :)

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