This site is going for rezoning from 20 to 40 floors too? So I guess that means the 9-story hotel project is dead and they’re just trying to sell the land for more money? Of the handful of hotel projects on the boards, I thought this was the best one.
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I thought this was the best one too. Disappointing to see these kind of things keep getting scrapped.
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But that is an excellent location for a tower. What will suck is if the property just languishes.
I would think that a developer would LOVE the opportunity to develop a tower on a main thoroughfare through the city, across the street from a public amenity like Nash Square, and a short walk from Union Station, RUSBus, and all that the Warehouse District affords. That’s a slam dunk in my book.
FWIW, the PDF is named incorrectly. This is for the corner of Dawson and W. Martin, not W. Hargett.
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I really wanted this hotel to be built, but alas, another one bites the dust. Generally, I want to see more height in DTR, but at this location (directly across from Nash Square) 20-40 story building may dwarf the park and will likely cast shadows on the new city hall (whenever it finally gets built). I think a 10-12 story hotel at this location (slightly taller than previously proposed) would be ideal. IMO
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The problem I am seeing now is that there’s lots of good spots for towers downtown, and it’s great that people are applying for rezonings to make the most of that. But apparently offices and hotels are too scary right now, and condos are hard to get financing for, so that leaves us with apartments… which always seem to wind up being 6 stories of wood.
I was hopeful some of these projects in the pipeline would be moving forward (the hotels, SH ph 3 and 4, Zimmer, 400H, 301H ph 2, Nexus, etc). Now I’m worried it’s just going to be stagnant, rezoned plots of land like the Edison tower/gravel lot.
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I don’t think shadows are an issue here. The park is completely tree covered and directly to the north of the block. Wouldn’t the shadows mainly face east west.
Also Central Park is flanked by 60+ story towers on its southern block. I think it just adds to the atmosphere. Also, it’s a downtown park so I wouldn’t worry about it feeling dwarfed. I think any impacts like shadows etc would come from the Nexus block.
I think this block should shoot for as high as possible. Even though that hotel proposal was pretty good.
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The sun is pretty far south in the winter so, actually, the shadows to the north would be significant in the winter months. My shadow comment was a little tongue and cheek, but then again, if we had a structure with significant height south of Nash Square, it would indeed likely cast shadows on city hall.
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Let’s not become like the NIMBYs who use shadows as their excuse for blocking everything.
The reality is that anything tall will come with a migrating shadow.
Edit: FWIW, the Wells Fargo tower is closer to Capitol Square than a tower would be to the proposed Government complex across Nash Square. If we don’t have a problem with Wells Fargo, we shouldn’t have a problem with something tall here either.
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I’m like most of you on this I think. Sad to see “The Nash Hotel” concept seemingly scrapped (who knows, maybe they want a 21-40 story hotel?) but happy to see some of these blocks get their zoning “fixed”. Stupid to have to go through this process to get what should have been 40 anyway.
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TBJ article with some details on the recent rezoning just hit the e-streets, included the most important parts of the piece below because we all hate paywalls…
Plans for a proposed hotel in downtown Raleigh appear to have changed as the owner of a site across from Nash Square gears up for an upcoming rezoning request to allow for a development up to 40 stories tall.
The Raymond Group of Madison, Wisconsin, recently held a neighborhood meeting regarding a potential rezoning to allow up to 40 stories with shopfront frontage at 217 W. Martin and 303 S. Dawson streets.
The Raymond Group is a hotel development and management company with a portfolio of properties around the country. The company had previously filed plans to build a 9-story hotel on the site, but those plans appear to have changed.
The company also recently nixed plans for a downtown hotel in Chapel Hill.
Representatives for the the Raymond Group held a neighborhood meeting on Aug. 3 at the Chavis Park Community Center regarding the potential rezoning. Filings with the city don’t include breakdowns of how much space the rezoning would allow for.
It’s unclear if the Raymond Group still plans to develop the property itself or if it plans to sell the site once the zoning is complete. Few if any of the company’s hotels listed on its website exceed 20 stories, and the company did not return requests for comment.
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Keep this on the downlow, but on the TBJ if you hit CTRL+P before the paywall you can view the article.
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Yea this project is dead, also I’m glad TBJ used a current picture of the lot in question.
Then goes into detail about the lot, which is also incorrect.
“The site is situated on 0.9 acres across the street from Nash Square and currently features a pair of 2-story buildings and a parking lot.”
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It’s that quality journalism that we’re supposed to pay for.
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The Raymond Group seems to want to keep their options open as a hotel may not make sense anymore for this site and its getting expensive just sitting there with flowers growing on it. The rezoning is a way to make the property more valuable in the event they decide to flip it.
Note that the lot/building that currently houses the Berkeley Cafe is also included in this rezoning, which likely means that if both are approved, the historic building will likely be razed as well. It was the original hotel on the block, built in 1915. Raleigh makes it very easy for developers to tear down old properties, which is why they are quickly disappearing.
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Related topic to this thread:
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BRING IT ON BABY!!! The Firestone lot 40-story rezone was approved, all but guaranteed this will be as well.
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I didn’t realize Berkeley Cafe was part of this project. It would be demo’d (after proper photographs due to it’s contribution to historic blah blah) for anything going on this corner.
What could be the timeline for construct so we know the floor count yet…