Fayetteville Street Developments and Vitality

They were also on yesterday evening when I passed thru downtown. Can confirm the green lights are safe (and the Truist sign doesn’t look bad tbh, it’s already growing on me)

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Yeah, it’s definitely not as bad as Charlotte’s.

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More nightlife… there has to be more bars. And clubs…

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I tell ya Raleigh had it before Covid than something happened the Elephant in the room Covid. And it’s really messed us up.

Fayetteville was failing before Covid too. Covid was just the final dagger. It needs a breath of fresh air. The former Kimbrell’s spot has so much potential to be a game changer if the right business would fit that space up.

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Well maybe a Gucci store could occupy that spot.

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Gucci schmoochi. Give us a store that most people can actually afford to shop in. How about a Mast General Store or something like that?

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No too many of those again read my “Raleigh needs more attractions post” what you said is settling for less… we need growth we need more to revitalizing and broken downtown. We have Gucci Clientele this area has an income of 40,000+ when are you gonna settle for more!!!

Ah, to be young again!

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Good Idea, the Mast stores are major retail draws in downtown Asheville and Boone. Would also make a nice contrast to the tech image with the " this is what was high-tech in 1800’s" vibe.

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I had this odd idea to turn the two grass lots in front of Memorial Auditorium into Louvre-style glass pyramids, one of which would have a year round skating rink in it.

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Empire Properties has made another buy on Fayetteville Street. Raleigh Building at
corner of West Hargett and Fayetteville. No plans other than to touch up maintenance.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2021/11/29/empire-properties-buys-the-raleigh-building.html

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: State Government

A post was merged into an existing topic: State Government

The problem is that they blamed the mall for how dead it was along Fayetteville St. So, they spent millions getting rid of it. Now, it’s just as dead as it was before. They really needed to just fix the mall up. It would probably be doing much better. But, it’ll be 20 years or more before they do anything because of the money they have already spent.

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Fayetteville St needs office workers, subsidized rent for retail and restaurants if the landlords are going to be outrageous, and an overall plan to get a critical mass there. It could also be helped by not having vagrants and panhandlers be half the people wandering around. A pedestrian mall may or may not help. Renovating a lot of the ground floors would help, and so would a few more anchor buildings in the south end. Just brainstorming, but right now it feels more dead and unfriendly than anytime since I moved here.

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Denver made the pedestrian mall work by having a bus system along it, and I think that would be a cool way to do it on Fayetteville street. Close it completely to car traffic and have a BRT line on it with a special frequent run that goes up and down the street.

Of course, 16th Street also has a vastly greater array of retail on it.

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It lacked a soul and after the riots it just has a sadness in its DNA. Too bad.

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Pandemic + property destruction hurt Fayetteville St MUCH WORSE than other parts of downtown. It blunted a lot of momentum. Fayetteville is too reliant on office workers and foot traffic that just doesn’t exist at high levels right now. It needs more residential and things to do after 5pm (not just bars).

But even if it’s not the hub of activity that was expected, it is still a good gathering spot for public events. No reason to sink more money into it when there are other priorities.

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Downtown activity certainly ebbs and flows. Since the Fayetteville Street makeover was completed and opened in 2006, the hubs of activity, from my perspective seem to just shift between districts. I think that is fine to kind of let the momentum roll around cause I think Fayetteville Street will get its turn in the future.

For example, when the convention center first opened, the problem at the time was “how to connect the RCC with the active glenwood south? Let’s create the R-Line” Well, momentum moved from GS to Fayetteville Street over time.

Then, we built a train station and Kane built a development and now the warehouse district is red hot. Another shift occurred.

Now, way into the pandemic, while the warehouse district seems still hot, glenwood south is rebounding with Smoky Hollow plus basically young folks being the first to wade out into the world and GS caters to younger crowds.

Fayetteville Street is fine. It’s turn will come. (back)

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