Does Trader Joe’s do downtown urban location? I’ve only ever really seen them in suburban settings. An urban Target (similar to the NC State one) could be an option.
I used to shop at this one all the time. Truly epic lines.
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There are a few of them in Boston, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they chose to add another store in that location.
Yeah I’ve been to a basement TJs in Boston when I lived up that way. They could definitely do one here but it’s not their preference and I think with all the space in the Triangle they’ll hold off.
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Yeah that’s the one I go too and I definitely understand that but you never know 
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This Aldi in Valencia was my main grocery store when I lived there. Would be rad if we could get a similar urban form factor with similar prices.
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I’d love a downtown Aldi or Lidl.
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Not downtown exactly, but there is a TJ’s at the Metropolitan midtown development in Charlotte.
Just watched the city council meeting. Man Cox be Cox to the end. He wanted to delay this decision again even though this process to develop this land has been going on for 20+ years!
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Yeah, that’s more similar to the location of Fresh Market in The Village District to the center of Raleigh.
That said, this is a really good example of how Charlotte’s downtown freeway loop damages the connected urban/neighborhood experiences. Imagine if Raleigh had a downtown loop that plowed through Broughton High, Forest (Cameron) Park, the YMCA on Hillsborough, Oakwood, Mordecai, South Park, and both Pullen & Dix Parks.
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Current ownership of City Market is second generation. It was Joe Hakan that purchased City Market from the City and a NCNB Community Development entity in 1986. Joe was a legendary chief engineer for UNC and a founder of Hakan/Corley (Dean Dome, etc). I knew nothing of DTR at the time but knew Joe’s investment meant it was something interesting. It is his son, Michael, that has been the entity contact since Joe’s death in 2006. It’s a low-energy ownership (“here’s where you send the rent check”). Time for them to pass the torch.
It has been everyone’s desire to see this under-capitalized property revitalized. The bones are strong. Was always my hope that a large firm would convert the City parking lot to a hospitality use and purchase City Market as a supporting retail/service activity hub, recognizing this jewel for what it could be.
Bonus element of the Loden proposal is Northpond’s involvement to do exactly that.
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Any better utilization of City Market is a win in my book. My concern with this whole proposal is they have a lot of great ideas like City Market, but also a grocery store, affordable housing, fancy “brasserie” type ground floor retail, etc. However, many of these have hurdles, such as demographics for a grocery store to actually agree to go in, the high rents leaving the GFR spaces mostly empty or with another yoga studio, Jimmy Johns, etc., affordable housing making it hard to make the money work and fancier elements getting scaled back and making the timeline drag on, and no willingness from the City Market owner to do anything. Then the value engineering begins, plus keeping Raleigh Rescue Mission onsite means a large concentration of homeless people milling about and harassing visitors/tenants. And so we’re basically left with what happened with the whole Edison block.
I know this sounds super pessimistic, but tell me none of this sounds familiar from the last 15 years in downtown’s experiences…
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TJs are between 8k and max out at 15k; their newest location in the Triangle is just over 10k sf. 22k would likely be something else.
The grocery store going into the American Tobacco Campus expansion in Durham is around 25k and it’s gonna be a Fresh Market 
I believe the goal with providing a brand new (bigger, more modern) building and facilities for the Rescue Mission is to remove the likelihood of homeless citizens living/begging on the streets! Also much, MUCH optics to propose this rather than “unfortunately the Rescue Mission will need to be relocated in order for this development to work” which would ONLY draw criticism and protest. I think the proposal to build an entirely new building for them that could much better serve the homeless community is a big win, and also likely one of the reasons this proposal was chosen.
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Lots of things draw criticism, and sometimes it’s best to just let it wash over you and proceed anyways. Like with the moloks. But yes, I get the optics, and I’m happy those people will have a better facility. I also think spending tons of money to improve an area, and then guaranteeing a bunch of homeless people will be wandering around, seems kind of foolish. They don’t need to be located in the heart of downtown to get the services (and hopefully the help) they need. I realize this makes me sound like a dick, and I’m not unsympathetic to them or wanting to just hide them away. But there’s a balance. Just ask people who live in places like San Francisco or Portland.
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TBJ just posted an article about this, a couple stats:
560-590 Multi-family unit
135 Room Hotel
22,000sqft Grocery store
5,500sqft of retail and dining
New building for Raleigh Rescue mission (I thought this was relocated down Wilmington St.)
-Hopefully the provide a lounge or common area for individuals to loiter in besides the park.
160-190 Affordable units and 400 Market Rate
There would be a mix of affordable units at 30, 50, 60 and 80 percent of the area median income
The block directly south of Moore Square includes a 150-160 room boutique hotel, 25,000 square feet of coworking space, audio/recording production and art studios and a reuse concept for Esso Station. It also includes a relocation of the Norwood House.
The city staff reasons for choosing Loden :
“Loden’s proposals offers the highest amount of affordable housing, the most developed tenanting strategy and includes creative touches that relate well to City Market, according to city staff. The proposed hotel also provides the strongest market support for City Market.”
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This sounds great IMO
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A post was merged into an existing topic: Show Off Things From Other Cities
A post was merged into an existing topic: Show Off Things From Other Cities
