Hillsborough Street Mixed Use Projects Near NC State

The amount of density this adds is crazy. More like this all throughout ITB please.

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If you presume 1 person per bedroom offered, this adds 1847 residents to the property. Of course, these are going to be students, but their presence is going to add many more feet miles to the sidewalks between there and the university.

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Hillsborough Street restaurants struggle to get enough clients. I hope this helps keep restaurants alive here.

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If and only if they have prices that are affordable to the average college student.

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I can’t believe you are literally complaining that this thing isn’t dense enough. As far as I am aware, this is unprecedented density possibly for the Southeast US. Jeez guys, take a W for once.

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Should be the tallest or second tallest structure on Hillsborough Street outside of downtown. H. D. Hill Library is eleven floors but not sure the height.

That’s not what he’s saying man- he’s saying it’s crazy that this amount of density is fine, but if you ā€œrotate the building 90 degreesā€ aka 1/3rd the footprint but 3x the height, equaling same amount of density on a 3rd of the land - it’s suddenly a problem because of the ā€œshadowsā€ a tower will create.

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Fair enough, this is a very clear example of maxing out the allowed buildable envelope- so if those restrictions were removed it might have gone narrower/taller. And a narrower/taller building would give each unit better access to light, take up less land, and probably lose the ā€œborg cube meets Kowloon walled cityā€ aesthetic for something a bit less imposing and more attractive - but also recall that the cost of construction per unit and per square foot goes up as buildings get taller. Would this building have pencilled out at 20 stories instead of 11? Perhaps. 35? Probably not.

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Based on other calculations in the ASR, I think we’re actually looking at 2,010. Some of those ā€œ4br or moreā€ units must have 5 (or more).

Really drives home how massive it’s going to be.

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Will this be the biggest Bike Parking area in Raleigh?

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I’m familiar with student projects that have 4 bedroom units, but I’ve never seen them larger. I’d like to see how they are resolving that in floorplan.

Umm…I didn’t say that. Try again.

@John I gotchu :pray: :fist: :rofl:

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Yeah, you’re right, @Jake pointed that out already, and here is my second try:

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I agree with all of those points.
In Miami Beach there is an interesting project comparison that included demo of existing buildings and loads of (high end) housing as a replacement for a worn out convenience store and a some Hurricane Wilma destroyed buildings. The developer wanted to build a tower but the immediate neighborhood fought it tooth and nail. At the end of the day, the developer got his tower but the neighborhood got a really nice park amenity on the land that wasn’t developed. This is what was finally approved: https://fivepark.com/ From this link you can explore both the park and the building. Clearly there isn’t any affordable housing in this, but the park has been completed and opened already and the building won’t be done for another year or so.
It’s a shame that Raleigh seems stuck in a cycle of maximizing plots of land within the context existing zoning while not being able to think/operate outside the box for more comprehensive and better solutions. I’m not saying that this exact thing would work on Hillsborough; I’m just saying that creativity seems to be prevented by NIMBYs and our own laws. For example, I would have liked them to explore having a taller building for housing in the back of the property with the frontage activated with mixed uses and private/public spaces like Smoky Hollow.

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There’s definitely somewhere nearby that has 5 bedroom units. I found at least one when I was looking as a student a couple years ago… Just can’t remember where.

A lot of the townhomes over near Trailwood Hills are rented out as 5BR units as well. Though that’s much different than this.

Thanks for the link. I will take two please. :rofl: Your point is spot on - these sorts of trade-offs are regular, so it seems, in many places that end up giving towns great public spaces and developers great buildings. I do like the look of the building and of the park.

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Does NCSU own this building? I wonder what the odds of a redevelopment are once the ginormous monstrosity is finished? There’s so much potential here.

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Yes, they do. And yes, huge opportunity. Unfortunately, University Housing already has a shortage of on campus housing and can’t afford to lose any inventory.

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Weren’t there future plans to build around the existing building?

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