Former News & Observer Site - Nexus Office Tower

Of course that is before they go through there required changes which of course means they will have to be re-reviewed by the city of course…just like 301 Hillsborough went through…so, in my opinion, anytime in the next year…:upside_down_face:

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They should subcontract to Kane Kan!!

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Seeing this block from 200-300’ up with Fayetteville in the background really paints a clear picture how massive and important this project is. I hope we see movement soon!

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Indeed, you really captured what an important block/building site this is for the both the skyline and the fabric of downtown. Kudos to you @OakCityDylan

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I walked by this area this evening and couldn’t help but think about how much this project is going to activate a connection between Fayetteville St and the Union Station district. Right now it’s just a dead zone next to a park barely anyone uses. I get the feeling that there’s going to be a nice walking corridor either thru or around this that carries down the street next to Whiskey Kitchen and on down to Union Station.

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I agree. I just wish they would actually get started

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A reputable source said this project has been delayed a year as they search for an office tenant. Apparently they were courting Pendo. I’m not sure if it’s just the office tower that’s delayed or the whole project.

Also confirmed that this project will be the first building with two floors of below-grade parking built in downtown in a long time.

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Some bad news, some good news…meh

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I thought they planned to build on spec? Or was the fall timeline just assuming they got Pendo as a tenant?

Well damm- if they have to delay anyway, I hope they try going for a higher rezoning. I’d be 100% ok with this lot going undeveloped another 2-3 years even, if it meant getting some actual height where it really should go.

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That was what I thought right off @Jake now they have time to rethink this and give us a really good, signature tower on one of the best lots in the city. I like the initial plans ok, but a) its not tall enough b) i worry about the viability of an internal courtyard/walk way when we struggle to get enough foot traffic on the normal sidewalks. I really want to see a big tall building here - It would add the perfect dimension and scale to the skyline.

I LOVE the initial rendering, just would like it to be twice as tall, all same design otherwise. I also love the pedestrian retail corridor, and while I understand what you’re saying, I just think that more foot traffic WON’T happen until/unless it’s encouraged by interesting new ideas like that (Note: new-to-Raleigh ideas, obviously)

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The problem with all of our desires for big towers is that the office tenants that usually fill and build those towers are almost non existent for the DTR market. If they are struggling to get a tenant for a 250ft office building and are too afraid to build on spec, then it doesn’t look good that they will change plans to all of a sudden build even taller. Wish it wasn’t that way but it is. But who knows maybe they will have a bigger fish come into play. I think the DTR market is at least heading in the right direction for office tenants. It’s just a lot of smaller players right now.

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Small businesses want office space now. Raleigh excels at having companies in the lower range of employees numbers. My multi-million dollar IT company services 3 of the 4 major Canadian provinces and we’re only 12 people and last year we needed an office asap. Not wait 3 years to plan and build a building. Charlotte can do that because they have companies with 10s of thousands of employees. Pendo is not even a half thousand. We have developers that expect us to behave like Charlotte when our market is totally different.

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Good points. How many companies like yours would a developer need to fill a building like this enough to make it worthwhile to build on spec? I truly don’t know.

I would think that if enough demand exists, developers would feel comfortable taking on the risk.

One Glenwood already leased out and they built on spec…so.

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True, but One Glenwood isn’t a tall tower. So, it is consistent with the market’s hesitation.

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The Nexus project is going to get scuttled by the next recession. Mark my words. It will be at least 5+ years now before something happens there.

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Downtown’s Resiliency during a slow economy

A post was merged into an existing topic: Downtown’s Resiliency during a slow economy