301 W. Cabarrus St. development

I guess when you see the drill come out, it means something is in the works. Excited to see what comes of this. More walkable stuff to consume I hope!

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The plans are not on the city website yet, but with retail, residences and a parking deck, we can assume this will be 6 floors minimum, with possibly more.

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So the link hit the Wire but it appears to be the wrong PDF, instead of this development it’s for a church in SE Raleigh.

(link if you’re interested in that one:)

Anyone know how we can get the right one??

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They’re toying with us. :grimacing:

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So………Leo, Does this make you a “Boy Toy”? :wink: :laughing: :sweat_smile: :rofl: :joy:

link is fixed now…

12 floors
261 units (193 1-bd / 68 2-bd)
255 parking spots
137-ft height from Cabarrus St, 158-ft height from the southeast corner.

Only “retail” space seems to be for the residential lease office.

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Well, that’s decidedly different than the “use the ground level to bring people in and retail to activate the space” that was previously advertised :thinking:

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Love the height and small/mostly hidden parking deck. I can see three doors where the retail would go if there is any, so what makes you think the only retail will be the leasing office? Regardless, my bigger question is WHY ARE BUILDINGS IN THE DOWNTOWN CORE STILL ALLOWED TO BE BUILT WITHOUT GROUND FLOOR STREET LEVEL ACTIVATION???

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I mean I’m all for ground floor retail, but most of it seems to just sit empty.

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Rent is too high - developers need to either ease tf up on their retail rental rates, or else more needs to be built so competition drives rent prices down and opens up more opportunities for smaller business to start filling them.

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Completely agree. I feel like every developer basically has this idea that there’s a high market rate for rent owed to them, but obviously very few places can afford to pay it. I honestly wish the city would make rental rates for GFR fixed at a reasonable level for 5 years as a condition of rezoning.

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From the floor plan and “proposed use” table…

The 3 doors go to “move-in staging” area, lobby, and the 1,660 sf “retail” space at the corner listed as “retail sales” in the table.

Seems like this would be a tough spot for retail anyway being on Dawson and then the future Cabarrus dead end at the train tracks.

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Bummer about the no retail aspect but at least the 320 south project will have retail the next block over. The full 12 stories is great to see! Id rather have no retail than oversaturated, failing stores but im no city planner.

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second quote is exactly why I’d want retail (honestly more than even just one corner spot) in this development, as well. The biggest reason so many spaces sit empty or fail is because they’re the only damn retail space in a 3 block radius. The more retail spaces that can be within walking distance, the better it is for ALL retail spaces involved.

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320 w south & Dawson/Cabarrus at roughly the same scale and matching elevations at Lenoir… (basically the view from Red Hat Amp.)

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It looks to me that the space at the corner is an actual retail space (albeit a small one). The square footage for the leasing office is shown separately, and usually these offices are part of the residential lobby.

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I can’t help but wonder if developers are just lazy and not really understanding the sort of retail offering that will work downtown. All I see are larger format parcels that one might typically see in a suburban strip mall anywhere. Clearly that’s not what the market wants because it’s mostly sitting empty.
Doesn’t anyone study this topic, or does the city have to do it for them? It would seem to me that more variety of size would encourage more variety of goods and services, especially when it comes to independent local businesses who can’t make a commitment to a huge space. It would also seem to me that more options for indoor/outdoor business models would be desirable (think Dram&Draught).

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Is that little thingy in the middle the train-tracks overpass? You’re the :crown: for this render edit! LOVE THE HEIGHT VARIATION!!!

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I also think that that the need for bigger spaces may be just as big a reason as to why there’s so little foot traffic downtown. Imagine if we had a bowling alley, movie theater, etc. in downtown proper. Developers need to invest in bigger retail spaces also, especially near Fayetteville St. and the Warehouse District.

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Commercial mortgages are dependent on a certain expected rent, which causes building owners to be unable to lower the rent without being on the hook for a significant chunk of cash. Read more here:

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