Thought this would be a good new topic for this forum. New apartment complex on N King Charles Road in East Raleigh behind the Food Lion. Three buildings, nearly 200 one- and two-bedroom units.
This had the original grocery store from the 50s located on it. Nice to see some density, and I’m speaking as a nearby homeowner.
Nice. Along with the Washington Terrace development and whatever goes into the north side of St. Aug’s (not even thinking about the rest of that property likely being up for development later), there’s some real density starting to emerge around Raleigh Blvd.
It’s difficult to get too excited about a suburban style, 3 story, surface parking lot apartment complex this close to downtown.
I’m curious what kind of development would get you excited in a suburban neighborhood two miles from downtown where there’s nothing even close to this kind of density.
a 30-story multifamily mixed-use tower, duh
Aren’t 4 and 5 story suburban style apartments being built outside the Beltline that are more than 2 miles from the very center of the city? It just seems to me that we aren’t maximizing our opportunities when there’s so much need for housing. This seems like a site plan that is dictated by how many surface parking spaces can be provided.
If this had been closer to New Bern near a BRT station, I’d be even more disappointed.
I don’t go to this part of Raleigh really, but I do have a great idea for a public art feature when the apartments are complete:
Probably the exact same design of the buildings in your picture, too 
I did Google “generic apartment building”…
I guess so? So we just compare things in a vacuum now? By that logic, North Hills is outside the beltline and farther away than this neighborhood and it’s got so much more density, so this is even dumber than you thought?
I get that that it’s a pretty generic suburban-style development and that you don’t have to be excited for it, but for the context of this area that’s 99% single-family, it’s pretty cool. I also think it’s a little disingenuous to remark on the parking when almost every topic in this forum is about a new building IN DOWNTOWN with 5-10 stories of parking deck at the base. We are bending over backwards to let people drive wherever and whenever already, so I think a little perspective is in order before saying things like “we aren’t maximizing our opportunities.”
Also, no one in this neighborhood is going to walk 25 minutes to New Bern just to take the BRT so that’s irrelevant, and again, context. The 3 and 10 bus routes are within actual walking distance in case you were wondering.
There’s the elevations, they look good enough to me.
I wouldn’t expect anything taller a mile out into the suburbs.
Its truly awful.
First of all, why not? Second, I’m not sure King Charles should be considered “suburban.” I feel like its solidly an urban neighborhood and should be developed as such, despite its suburban form.
Awful is a reach. Generic? Oh yeah.
Eh, I’m going to stay with awful but can certainly add generic on top of that.
It’s single family homes, some schools, a golf course, and a strip mall with a Food Lion.
They’re not building a ten story tower in King Charles any more than they are going to build one on Harps Mill Rd up in North Ridge.
Who suggested they build 10 story towers? Apparently good urbanism is just too much to ask in city neighborhoods. It was built as a suburb and can never be anything other than by the book suburbia. Got it.
“I came here to be mad online and nobody is going to stop me, dammit!”
I mean I would argue that at bare minimum, a 5-over-1 would be more appropriate this close to downtown. I think the complaints are more about not MAXIMIZING density, which is a common complaint of many Raleigh developments, and a just one at that.
I’m going back to my posts to see what sort of language I used because I try to be careful and clear about what I’m saying. That said, I do make mistakes, so I went back and looked at what I posted.
That said, nowhere did I use the word dumb.
As for the context of this specific location, there is a lot of multifamily surrounding the strip center that’s next door to the site. I don’t know that its immediate context is 99% single family.
As for North Hills, I did not suggest that this site should emulate it.
As for driving, I have been consistent on two messages on this platform.
I’m generally unpleasant offline as well.
