The Greensboro Triumph Center

[DanRNC]

This has got to be the longest thread for a project that doesn't officially exist. One has to really question the economic viablity of a project like this as an "entertainment draw" considering Greensboro is not really a tourist hotspot. Orlando makes sense to me for a project like this but are people really going to travel to Greensboro just to drink and eat an overpriced hamburger?

[cityboi]

Cityboi, there is no need to keep repeating yourself over and over again as you state. Some people are skeptical of this, deal with it. You do not have to constantly shove this down everyone's throats.

people need to stop making accusations that I made stuffs up thats what need to be delt with

[cityboi]

But that statement about a southeast destination was made by Ray Gibbs, who has made some untrue statements about this project in the past. Also, it's funny that he would say it carefully:

"The goal is to create a destination for the region -- the Southeast region," Gibbs says carefully.

Then he goes on to say that they hope to attract people from as far as 2 hours away. Why would he call this a southeast destination if they expect to attract people from as far as 2 hours away. A 2 hour radius would barely cover central NC. As krazeeboi indicated, I have a hard time seeing people and their children coming from all over the southeast to Greensboro to stay in downtown at this "luxury" hotel just to enjoy the entertainment venues at this complex. Have you seen gas prices lately? Furthermore, how are they expecting to fill up a 300-600 room "luxury" hotel week after week in order to justify this? And when we talk about a $200 million max budget for the entire development, something just doesn't add up.

There are just so many inconsistencies with the statements being made about this project. That is the reason most people are so skeptical. It's going to be virtually impossible for Ray Gibbs or cityboi to change minds on this. Until the mystery developers come forward, and make statements of their own, people will continue to question this project.

I dont recall where anything that Ray Gibbs said was untrue about this project. As for drawing people around the southeast, well one hook is the convention center, but like I said, before you go judging a project that "doesnt exist" you need to wait and see exctly what this is. It may be totally different from what you or I think it is. The developers know what they are doing, if they propose a 300 to 600 room luxury hotel downtown, then there is a good and profitable reason for it. But you know what. Im keeping my mouth shut until anther news update comes up because there is no point arguring with you. You are going to believe what you are going to believe. I'll let time and the announcement of this thing prove you wrong and thats when I'll have my day

[RALNATIVE]

I dont recall where anything that Ray Gibbs said was untrue about this project.

Do you recall when he said back in early June that land deals could be expected within 7 to 10 days? Eventhough he recanted that statement later and made another prediction, he still made that earlier statement which calls into question what's really going on here. He also said that if this thing is going to happen, it will happen quickly or won't happen at all, and so far, nothing has been formally announced. He said this back in early May.

He also said the following:

"It's so early," said Ray Gibbs, president of Downtown Greensboro Inc. "It upsets me when people start talking about ... something that is extremely conceptual. We don't want to comment because it is so conceptual."

But what does he do, continue to make comments and provide highly provocative details about the concept of this mysterious project and he's not even officially the head of Downtown Greensboro Inc. any longer. Now he's completely quiet. Anyone in their right minds would question these series of events surrounding this mystery project.

[Creasy336]

Being from the Greensboro area, I can easily see a project of this magnitude coming to downtown. Even if the radius of people expected were only 2 hours from downtown Greensboro, that would include all of the "Big 3" metros, a large section of southside VA, Fayetteville, and even some sections of SC. In the last few years Greensboro has started to become a hub for activity, Greensboro already draws huge crowds of people multiple times of the year. The events I can think of include 102 Jamz Super Jam concert, NC A&Ts Homecoming, Downtown Greensboros "back to school festival", and many others that don't come to mind at the moment. Many of these events have no comparison in terms of amount people they draw in NC (excluding NASCAR and NFL games). The closest thing I can think of would be in "South Carolina" those events would be, Senior Week and Bike Week at Myrtle Beach. Downtown Greensboro draws people of all ages, races, genders etc, to the same area to have fun in harmony. This may sound strange but I see High Point Rd/Lee St and Downtown Greensboro as one large area of activity. Greensboro can support a project of this magnitude. Yes it is a bit excessive to call Greensboro "The LA of the east". It is also excessive to have this long of a thread about a project that is only speculation at this point. I'll be the first to congratulate cityboi if this project comes in to fruition.

[nowensone]

This has got to be the longest thread for a project that doesn't officially exist. One has to really question the economic viablity of a project like this as an "entertainment draw" considering Greensboro is not really a tourist hotspot. Orlando makes sense to me for a project like this but are people really going to travel to Greensboro just to drink and eat an overpriced hamburger?

Maybe, I drove to Raleigh twice for overpriced so-so sushi that I found I could just as easily have gotten here (and at better quality to boot).

That was said tongue in cheek and good naturedly by the way for those looking to create a Ral/GSO war. This thread could certainly benefit from being locked for a while, the byline itself "Replying to Colossal high-rise Luxury Hotel, Convention Center, Entertainment, Shopping, Residential & Office Mega-Project" is begging to incite this kind of posting, it makes me wonder if Cityboi isn't slyly trying to create this very effect...

[JerseyBoy]

I've debated whether to close this topic for awhile to let things cool down and also change the name of this thread because it makes our area look somewhat arrogant. I'm going to close and archive this topic when this project is finally revealed.

I don't believe those are Cityboi's intentions at all. I think he is just extremely happy about this development and the possibilities that could happen from it.

This thread is now locked for two days.

[kmurphy19662003]

For what it is worth, I heard through some folks at REMAX/NAI commercial office that this project has fizzled out. No details to why.

[roningreensboro]

I've debated to myself to close this topic for awhile to let things cool down and also change the name of this thread because it makes our area look somewhat arrogant. I'm going to close and archive this topic when this project is finally revealed.

I don't believe those are Cityboi's intentions at all. I think he's just extremely happy about this development and the possibilities that could happen from it.

This thread is now locked for two days.

Who isn't happen about this project.

[krazeeboi]

For what it is worth, I heard through some folks at REMAX/NAI commercial office that this project has fizzled out. No details to why.

I sure hope that's not the case.

[kmurphy19662003]

I sure hope that's not the case.

Me too.....but I am becoming a little concerned.

[cityboi]

Me too.....but I am becoming a little concerned.

anything is posible but at the same time, if it had fizzled out, it would have been reported to the media. The status would no longer be secret in terms of it hapening here.

[JerseyBoy]

If anything, it has fizzled out because of the media.

[cityboi]

Also if it had fizzled out. officials would be free to talk about this. This is just a rumor. Alot of rumors have been going on with this project including the fact that it was Disney related (which I didnt start BTW) but I did build on why I thought the rumor could have been true. (anyway it turned out to be false) LOL, a number of people told to me not to take "rumors" as fact. The irony.

[krazeeboi]

I've known of a few developments that had "fizzled out" but not reported in the media, but I would expect such to be the case for something that was as hyped up by Gibbs and the mayor as this was. Projects like this aren't always given the green light so quickly.

[JerseyBoy]

Not necessarily true, because of financial reasons surrounding the possible demise of the project. The investors could also not be at will to discuss ongoing litigations. Nobody has proven this as fact yet cityboi, just as you speculated about possible components of this development. It's just a rumor, not the final word.

[JerseyBoy]

It's also better to not say anything than say something at all. If there was a big media craze over the failure of this development, then the developers of this would lose their reputation and might not ever be able to build a project again because of banks having little faith to finance it. It's better to keep it "hush-hush" and let it die down then to formally announce," Greensboro, I'm sorry but we failed and could not just make this project work." Krazeeboi is right, these projects take an awful long amount of time to get off the ground due to their substantial size and likelihood of seeing the light of day.

[blueJ]

This project was in the works well before it was reported to the media. I starting to wish it had been kept under wraps until some ink was dry. In the last News and Record article, it was stated that "they are trying to acquire contracts on various properties", and that "the developers may be interested in acquiring additional property around a particular site for secondary projects". Now folks are starting to drop their head because of an office rumor. Come on guys ... lets keep a positive outlook about this. I'm as anxious as anyone (except maby cityboi) to hear some good news. Just because they're not talking means they're walking !

[krazeeboi]

Another thing we should realize is that this project was only presented as a proposal--nothing more, nothing less. Now had ground been broken, renderings released, site plans drawn up, etc. and the project got shot down for whatever reason, THEN you could expect it to be reported. But a lot of projects presented as proposals just quietly go away, since nothing official had ever been released. The local news may passively report it if some other project comes on line that is proposed to be built on the same property as the unrealized project or something like that. I'm not saying that's the case here, but that's something to think about.

[cityboi]

Another thing we should realize is that this project was only presented as a proposal--nothing more, nothing less. Now had ground been broken, renderings released, site plans drawn up, etc. and the project got shot down for whatever reason, THEN you could expect it to be reported. But a lot of projects presented as proposals just quietly go away, since nothing official had ever been released. The local news may passively report it if some other project comes on line that is proposed to be built on the same property as the unrealized project or something like that. I'm not saying that's the case here, but that's something to think about.

Not nessisarily. One example is when a Greenville developer had proposed to build a hotel downtown a few years back. It hit the media before the developer even decided to purchase property. But it also imediatly hit the media when the developer abandoned plans because the city didnt build a parking deck for the hotel. It doesnt take long for the media to hear things through the grapevine. I will continue to stay optimistic about this until we here more updates.

[JerseyBoy]

Nobody's getting disappointed yet. Like I said (along with others) it is still a mere rumor.

Not nessisarily. One example is when a Greenville developer had proposed to build a hotel downtown a few years back. It hit the media before the developer even decided to purchase property. But it also imediatly hit the media when the developer abandoned plans because the city didnt build a parking deck for the hotel. It doesnt take long for the media to hear things through the grapevine. I will continue to stay optimistic about this until we here more updates.

Yes, but didn't he say,"I'm not going through with the hotel but I'm going to build an office tower." I forget what it was he decided to build instead, but whatever happened to that?

[cityboi]

Nobody's getting disappointed yet. Like I said (along with others) it is still a mere rumor.

Yes, but didn't he say,"I'm not going through with the hotel but I'm going to build an office tower." I forget what it was he decided to build instead, but whatever happened to that?

no, the Greenville developer decided not to do anything. Another group wants to build a mixed use office building around 4 stories in that location with a restaurant on the first floor.

[JerseyBoy]

Well see if nothing had been proposed then it would've quitely faded out, but if there's an announcment directly after to make up for the loss the developer comes out "less harmed" because he was able to make something happen on the site, whether he's building it or not.

[cityboi]

Well see if nothing had been proposed then it would've quitely faded out, but if there's an announcment directly after to make up for the loss the developer comes out "less harmed" because he was able to make something happen on the site, whether he's building it or not.

like the office tower that had been proposed next to First Horizon Park. The plan died before it became public and most dont even know there was such a plan. That plan fell through because the city's support came to slow for that project.

[krazeeboi]

Not nessisarily. One example is when a Greenville developer had proposed to build a hotel downtown a few years back. It hit the media before the developer even decided to purchase property. But it also imediatly hit the media when the developer abandoned plans because the city didnt build a parking deck for the hotel. It doesnt take long for the media to hear things through the grapevine. I will continue to stay optimistic about this until we here more updates.

Well when the city is involved, you can definitely expect to hear something from the media since the information will necessarily be public. But if the city isn't really involved and it's 100% private investment, you won't really hear anything as quickly, if at all.

At any rate, I say we just wait to hear anything--whether the proposal is going through as planned or otherwise. I'm hoping for the former.