CANCELED: Divinity Development

[mcheiss]

Great to Hear!!!

This adds to the plethora of major projects for Fayetteville: Mountain Inn Project (18 Floors), Legacy Building (7 Floors), Lofts at Underwood Plaza (9 Floors), Spring Street Lofts (3 Floors), Divinity Project (9 Floors), and the Dickson (6 Floors) {Hopeful}.

[strmchsr77]

Great to Hear!!!

This adds to the plethora of major projects for Fayetteville: Mountain Inn Project (18 Floors), Legacy Building (7 Floors), Lofts at Underwood Plaza (9 Floors), Spring Street Lofts (3 Floors), Divinity Project (9 Floors), and the Dickson (6 Floors) {Hopeful}.

...and that is just downtown...

Bellafont on Joyce (2-16 floors and 2-10 floors) and a dozen other 3-6 story buildings in this part of town.

[mcheiss]

...and that is just downtown...

Bellafont on Joyce (2-16 floors and 2-10 floors) and a dozen other 3-6 story buildings in this part of town.

And the 3 Sisters Development, the Blair Library, the Walton Arts Center, etc.

[masons_dad1]

This is good to hear. Now maybe there won't be so much crazy debating over future developments in Fayetteville. It sounds like they have at least 5 smart people on the PC. Between the Divinity and The Dickson on Dickson Street maybe some of the other property owners will become motivated enough to remodel their buildings to blend in better with the NEW Dickson Street. It's kind of ironic that the people against these developments were probably against it because it'll make their building look bad up against the new buildings. HOORAY FOR PROGRESS!!!

[mcheiss]

^

Some people just prefer the quaintness of Downtown Fayetteville. There's nothing wrong with them not wanting this project here. I agree that this development is good for Downtown Fayetteville, and I hope to see more mixed use projects that incorporate mid-rises, yet I still would like to see the quaintess there.

[masons_dad1]

^

Some people just prefer the quaintness of Downtown Fayetteville. There's nothing wrong with them not wanting this project here. I agree that this development is good for Downtown Fayetteville, and I hope to see more mixed use projects that incorporate mid-rises, yet I still would like to see the quaintess there.

I agree with a certain amount of quaintness on Dickson Street. It shouldn't be so quaint as to resemble a small town, but it should retain a small town atmosphere... just with mid-rise buildings in the mix. I would like to see some of the older buildings that just don't fit in with Dickson Street remodelled to resemble newer buildings like the Three Sisters or Divinity. Next, I'd like to see the character and charm of those newer buildings carried to the street with nice lampposts, trees, benches, brick inlayed sidewalks and decorative trash containers. Dickson Street should be much more than just about the buildings.

[Mith242]

Now I can finally comment on this since I lost internet just before the vote. I was surprised to see as many people supporting it as there was. Also it appeared a number of people on the city council had come around on it. One person mentioned about the romantic notions about Dickson St's past had been a bit of a misconception. That he remembered it being a rather rundown place before the WAC. Also another member commented that although this wasn't his ideal building for that location that it was still a nice anchor between Dickson and the Square. That and if one building can ruin Dickson St then there were obviously bigger problems. I saw some renderings on tv. Looks like the glass has been cut back a bit. But overall much of the same look exists. Now that I have everything working again I'll e-mail the Barber Group and see if I can get an updated rendering and post it on here. Now it sounds like they have work to do on the interior and that construction will hopefully take place early next year.

[Mith242]

Hmmm...well I received some new renderings from the Braber group of the Divinity but they seem to be set up differently than the ones I had before. I don't think I have a programm to convert pdf into jpg. I'll keep searching and see what I can do.

[Mith242]

Well since I couldn't convert the pdf into jpg, for now I did it the roundabout way. I printed the files off and the took pics with my camera to upload to the computer then upload them to image shack. Wow, sure did seem like a lot of work. Of course they don't look as sharp as the original. If I find a way to convert them over I'll post them. Great now image shack is lagging on me, everything has to be difficult today....

Here's the north elevation and a close up.

The east elevation.

The south elevation.

The west elevation.

[mcheiss]

This looks nice.

It seems like just the right size to me.

Great Pics Mith, thanks.

[Mith242]

This looks nice.

It seems like just the right size to me.

Great Pics Mith, thanks.

Yeah just wish I could show the originals. Anyway yeah I think that will fit in better than what people think. I also think they changed the look enough so that it won't seem to stand out quite so much. It's too bad Bordino's isn't across the street from it. I think it would compliment it well.

[Mith242]

Since these are the finalized renderings of the exterior I was curious to see what everyone thought of them. Does anyone like the earlier plans better than these?

[masons_dad1]

Yeah just wish I could show the originals. Anyway yeah I think that will fit in better than what people think. I also think they changed the look enough so that it won't seem to stand out quite so much. It's too bad Bordino's isn't across the street from it. I think it would compliment it well.

Mith, if you open the pdf file using Adobe Reader and set the view to 100% you can select the snapshot tool on the toolbar then simply click and drag to highlight the entire image. When you unclick the mouse button the highlighted area will be saved to your clipboard. You may be able to just click anywhere on the image and it'll copy the entire image to the clipboard. At that point you can open any image software (I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager) and just select paste. It will probably paste the image as a bitmap which you can convert in Microsoft Office Picture Manager by using the export function. You can even paste the image into Paint (which everyone has) and just select "save as" and choose jpg for file format.

Hope that helps! BTW... great pics!!!

[Mith242]

Thanks for the advice Masons_dad1. I should have looked better, that made perfect sense. Anyway here's something closer to the original files. I'll go from north to east, to south, to west.

Maybe I can try to do some close ups as well to show some of the details a little better.

[itk]

Thanks for the pics Mith. I like it a lot. I now see the parking deck expansion to the south. Whatever is going in in the NW corner is going to have an unbelievable view of Dickson St and the valley. Awsome

[Mith242]

Thanks for the pics Mith. I like it a lot. I now see the parking deck expansion to the south. Whatever is going in in the NW corner is going to have an unbelievable view of Dickson St and the valley. Awsome

Yeah that does remind me I heard mention that they were able to cut down the height of the building down to 9 stories because they bought an additional parcell of land to the southwest and moved parking towards that direction.

[Mith242]

Here's a couple of pics of that additional lot the Barber group bought southwest of the rest of the land. The last pic looks back towards the northeast which will eventually be looking back towards the main part of the hotel.

[masons_dad1]

City's approval of Divinity project challenged

Fayetteville residents appeal City Council decision

The Fayetteville City Council's approval of the controversial Divinity Hotel project on Dickson Street was appealed Wednesday.

Opponents of the project have contended the city didn't follow its own rules when it approved the development last month.

Specifically, they have argued that the council did not follow the city's Unified Development Ordinance when it approved the project because aldermen considered its economic impact. They contend economic impact is not one of the criteria that the ordinance allows to be considered.

Looks like all is not well with the Divinity plans. I wonder how much more resistance the Barber Group is going to accept before pulling out of Fayetteville altogether.

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/08/...inityappeal.txt

[mcheiss]

Oh Great, Coose Hollow all over again.

[Mith242]

Yeah, it's has more to do with the way the city approved it than the development itself. Supposedly it's not directed at all towards the Barber Group. But for some reason it still might halt progress while this goes through all the processes. Not sure what it might all it might halt though. I don't think they were doing to start any construction till early next year. I'm hoping all of this will be over with by then, but I guess you never know.

[Mith242]

I didn't take any pics but I drove by on Dickson and it looks like they are already setting up materials and such for the future construction. A bit surprising to me since I don't think construction will start until early next year. I still see other developments that don't have anything out like the Lofts at Underwood Plaza. It's still just a gravel parking lot. And I don't think construction is supposed to be holding off till next year either.

[mcheiss]

Damn, I guess will have to wait.

[Mith242]

Damn, I guess will have to wait.

I'm just wondering if some of these developers are getting cold feet, having problems, or think there's too much development going in now and are just in a holding pattern. I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if at least some of the developments are eventually dropped. I don't think any of the Barber Group projects will. I do hope the Lofts at Underwood Plaza goes through, it was a pretty nice one.

[razorbackfan]

I'm just wondering if some of these developers are getting cold feet, having problems, or think there's too much development going in now and are just in a holding pattern. I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if at least some of the developments are eventually dropped. I don't think any of the Barber Group projects will. I do hope the Lofts at Underwood Plaza goes through, it was a pretty nice one.

I have my doubts about the underwood project, as well as the tux project and the 6 story behind the post office. I am most excited about the old mountain inn project if they would ever get started. I was at the mall area of Fayetteville yesterday and I saw old main and then started to wonder how neat the renissance tower will look from there. That building will change the entire skyline of Fayetteville.

[mcheiss]

It's just going to take time unfortunately.

With rising costs in construction, limitations of concrete, cranes, etc, and the ever rising price of oil projects are just going to take longer. It also doesn't help that Winter will be here shortly and most big project developers don't like starting in Winter as construction is halted more often than in the Spring or Summer.