I have a crazy idea. How about a Walgreens. But one that is open during normal hours. 
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I didn’t realize what had changed on Fayetteville Street regarding outdoor seating. I figured restaurants themselves were just not taking part since I’ve seen some restaurants have outdoor seating (Big Easy, Chido’s, City Plaza). With Bittersweet having outdoor seating as well as The Raleigh Times, I figured the big hold up from places like Sono Sushi was just them not wanting to do it. So I can definitely see why the push for it.
I ended up walking around Fayetteville Street just to see what it was like to be outside the office building during lunch. There were some people walking around, but not too many. I blame part of this on the cold weather and people opting to eat inside the offices. I recently found out one of the offices does have a cafeteria inside which may also be holding back people from walking around since they can stay within the warm building.
I mentioned that I figured places like Sono and other restaurants didn’t have outdoor seating by choice. Here is a picture of Bittersweet. Since they have outdoor seating, I figured it was possible for restaurants to have it on Fayetteville.
I talked previously about Fayetteville needing more retail space. I think there still need to be some by City Plaza, but the existing vacancies need to be filled on other parts of Fayetteville. I’m not sure what’s keeping these stores vacant, but if I really think about it, there are vacant retail spots in other areas as well (Block 83, 301 Hillsborough). There is quite a bit of parking in these areas so that can’t be a reason.
Other things to take into consideration are the groupings of businesses/offices. I saw the Social Club tonight, but to the right of it is a Transportation Technology Center; the left building is vacant.
As far as outdoor lighting and seating goes, there are some underutilized plazas. These are kind of in weird spots as they aren’t really right next to restaurants (save for the empty restaurant). They are next to office buildings or the back of restaurants which really kills what could have been an opportunity. If restaurants were actually facing these spots, then I would expect a little more action. For now, they don’t really seem to be decent places to be at either during the day or at night.
I’ve already talked about City Plaza being dead due to not enough open restaurants surrounding the plaza. I apologize for the washed out faces. I may have a different photo I can add here.
Lastly here are some bonus photos from Fayetteville St. on my bike commute home.
And a couple of photos from Wilmington St.
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Hint: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
That’s what I was wondering. I’m curious how much it costs to lease a spot here vs some places like Smoky Hollow, Bloc 83, North Hills, Crabtree mall, or Glenwood South.
Smoky Hollow appears to have a lot of their spaces leased or moving in. Is the price that different?
If it’s the owners, then is there anything the city could really do to bring business to Fayetteville St if retail space owners don’t bring down their prices?
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IMO, retail often benefits from clustering. Those places you mention generally have a critical mass of retail, often curated to not overly compete with each other while Downtown Raleigh doesn’t really have organization.
There are pluses and minuses to both approaches, but right now DTR, especially Fayetteville Street is struggling b/c it isn’t enough of a destination to cause people to come downtown and visit, and with hybrid work schedules, there aren’t as many office workers as there used to be.
Regarding why owners don’t drop their prices, sometimes that is b/c they have debt on the property and they underwrote retail prices at a certain level and got loans based on those prices. They have to get approval for transactions, and often the debt holder won’t approve a lease at a lower price than what was underwritten. It is obviously not great b/c some income would be better than none, but no bank officer wants to be the one to put their name on an approval for terms outside of what was originally agreed to.
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Yes outdoor seating along with pergolas/awnings that create a human scaled ceiling and planter box partitions that create outdoor walls would go a LONG WAY in making faye feel more cozy. We have to eliminate the “grand canyon” effect. It goes against our biology and doesn’t feel safe to hang out in a wide open chasm where predators can lurk on the fringe.
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When you have more parking spots than residents in an area you get vacancies like these. In order for these businesses to be successful, you need to force people to walk and explore. You do this by forcing people to park blocks away or allowing for denser housing surrounding dead areas.
Drivers bypass everything and miss small shops and often can’t find their perfect little parking spot, that’s two steps away, in time. Pedestrians and bikers can easily see everything they pass by and are more likely to stop and shop.
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Looks like we’re getting a salad place on Fayetteville Street.
They also added nice signage to Benny’s Pizza. These updated storefronts look solid.
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I’ll be surprised if that doesn’t do pretty well.
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We’ll see how that goes with the new year. Our office is starting to really push people coming to the office. At first it was a suggestion and request; Now they are tracking it and making it more mandatory for coming into the office at least 3 days a week. Granted we’re not the only ones downtown, but it might be possible other companies may push the same for the new year as a fresh start.
On a separate note: I decided to try to hang out around Fayetteville Street (south) last Thursday and to see what the vibe was. Normally I head home right after work and normally don’t hang out after work. Sometimes we’ll get a few of us hanging out in the office. Sometimes some colleagues will go out around the bars there after hanging in the office for a bit, but the majority head home (of course family situations play out I’m sure).
This time I had a friend who wanted to hang out after I got off. They didn’t work for the same company. Although we could have been in the office, we chose to grab food and a drink from Chido Taco.
Unexpectedly there seemed to be a decent amount of foot traffic. Most of it was related to the Performing Arts Center I’m sure, but there was quite a bit more foot traffic than I was expecting. Once you got to the City Plaza, the majority of foot traffic had pretty much dropped off. There was still some.
Thanks to Instagram/Tik Tok, Haymaker has been getting attention. I had some people come up and ask if I could point them in the direction of where it was.
Just wanted to share my experience on a Thursday night. I haven’t been to Fayetteville St. on a Friday/Sat night recently. I may have to do this during the new year to see what it’s like. Again I’d be curious what it looks like when the B.Good place is filled along with the restaurant next to it.
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My unsolicited opinion is that Fayetteville Street shouldn’t bank on office traffic alone, and that’s clearly part of what holds it back. If cities haven’t learned anything else from the last four years, I’d hope the one lesson they’ve taken to heart is that residential and diversified uses are what will keep downtowns alive.
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Mustang House is reasonably busy at 5:40 PM today. Maybe there’s hope it will survive Faye Street Curse.
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I’ve been there a few times. It was really only a matter of time. That place serves really really good food.
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Glad to hear they’re doing well, they’ve got some great food.
That building, where Mustang House is located would so benefit with a retail facelift, sort of like what the Benny’s Pizza building got. The canopy they have makes the retail so uninviting for whatever reason.
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Agreed re the canopy, it makes the sidewalk feel like an airport concourse. I suspect that the entire building is managed by Duke together with the many many other pieces of real estate they own ans one giant grab bag and therefore gets very little attention.
Eg there’s a whole ass bar and restaurant space next to Mustang House that as far as I can tell isn’t even being marketed.
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Personally I would like to see this property redeveloped one day. The format with the surface parking lot is extremely outdated. Land value on this lot will be really high one day for that not to happen.
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i lived here for 10 years…maybe a couple of polar border signs, ‘F-Street District’, more fleets of food trucks, outdoor ping pong, alive after five stuff (I’m old but i enjoyed them) stuff at one of redone moore or nash spaces and close off traffic on weekends?
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I’d love something like this. Where would the best place to put it be? I’m thinking it’d be best right at the state capitol end of Fayetteville St. The two buildings at the end of the street are government buildings, so might be easier to get buy-in.
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Would it be possible for a pilot to be done where half of Fayetteville St. (from Martin St. to Lenoir St.) is car-free for a few months? @anon8787296
Businesses in the pilot area could be allowed to have additional outside seating, more community events could be held in city plaza, etc. Also, parking spaces outside that area could be used by those visiting the pilot area 
.
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Wells Fargo will be leaving DTR. Another hit for Fayetteville Street perhaps? Sigh.
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