There are some things that they at least programmed here for the luxury market:
chef’s/dirty kitchen
his & hers ensuite bathrooms and closets
direct elevator/private vestibule access
service entrance into utility/laundry room
den within the private part of the plan for the family
That said, there are still problems, as there typically are with many Miami condos that often get reconfigured by the buyer before occupying. The primary suite door is directly off the living room. That’s pretty awkward. At least recess that entrance to the suite deep into that corridor and make that corridor a bit of a gallery space.
Ideally, that service entrance would be adjacent to the chef’s kitchen as well so that any event/service staff could come and go easily without disrupting the family or an event.
Oddly, there isn’t a coat closet for guests.
The show kitchen is oddly small.
A few updated renderings from Raleigh Magazine showing the exterior. I feel like the original apartments were cooler looking (and taller). Annoying that it’s yet another 20 story building.
It’s high-quality, I like it. The article uses this project to talk about stalled projects. The one with newly released renderings and newly listed units? What makes people feel it’s stalled? It’s bizarre.
Talk about Mira or Union West if you want to talk sbout stalled. Personally I’m still optimistic about Union West.
Another short, fat box that was once-upon-a-time slated to be among the city’s tallest. Wake me up when something like the Creamery is announced, again.
I’m a huge fan of the recessed outdoor patios, in this project or anywhere. But 100% agree on the PNC balconies. They make my palms sweat just thinking about them.
I too am a big fan of the recess balconies as they are integrated into the architecture. While a cantilevered balcony can be integral to the design of a building, it certainly isn’t the case here or at PNC.
Compared to peer cities, we have very few buildings 20 stories or taller downtown, and this site is currently a gravel lot. Let’s count this one as a win, if it gets built! It’ll also set a benchmark for condo projects in the city, of which we need a lot more. Folks email us often asking why are all residential “high rise” construction projects always for rent apartments.
I agree that condo buildings like this in downtown Raleigh are quite rare, so indeed this is a win. It makes me less annoyed that the building height is now half of what was proposed for the apartments.
Here are some examples from Miami Beach of buildings with “lifeboat” balconies with glass railings. In all cases the buildings updated their railings to glass ones during a building renovation. Some of these buildings are 60 years old or older and look fresh and updated with the glass railings.
tbh those look super dated to me, with the clunky posts and tinted blue glass. I actually prefer a metal picket railing if it’s custom and minimally detailed. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but when done right they can actually fade away as much as or even more than glass. Also easier to clean/maintain, especially when projecting and exposed to the elements.
I’m with you. I don’t love it. I think for the money of these units the layouts are lacking and the outside just doesn’t cut it for me. And I do wish it had more units. HOWEVER, we desperately need some condos in DTR. So I will take this as a semi-win. And a win is a win even if it costs millions of dollars to the end consumer.
I would like to point out that construction costs have increased substantially both during COVID and even now, they continue to see noticeable rises. For residential construction you have tract home builders that have done several things, used the cheapest material, standardized everything, and repeat the same design and this gets them to sub $150 but also not going to last. Commercial construction is another element, projects are bespoke, the building code continues to add significant cost both in soft (like engineering, consultants) and hard (systems, materials, labor). $300-400/SF construction cost for high rise is on the low side.
For additional info, Jan thru April saw a 6.2% increase and I get emails frequently from suppliers on our material cost going up (insulation, copper, drywall, concrete) and now just about every vendor has added a diesel surcharge BISNOW | Construction Costs Rise
So we all need to buckle up and be glad we are getting those multi-million dollar (maybe not perfect) condos.
As my mother used to say when she gave me something to eat that maybe was not my favorite - “You’re gonna like’m or else by golly”. LOL And in all seriousness we should be glad we are getting this (and other projects) given the cost environment we are currently living in.
But also prices will likely keep going up for the next 8-12 months, if not longer, right? Maybe that’s why One Nash Sq is trying to start ASAP by the end of the year?
Well, I am guessing that you didn’t see them before their renovations decades ago. I did and they look 100% better now than they did, even with their heavier frames from 2 decades ago. As for the glass color comment, that’s inconsequential to the conversation about whether or not glass railings make more sense on a high end project like this.
There are more current framed and frameless glass balconies examples that are a much cleaner solution, but those are more typically found in more recent buildings that have their balconies integrated into the design language of the building itself and are NOT add-on “lifeboat” balconies like are proposed for the Nash: which in itself is a bad design choice for an ultra high-end project like this in the first place. I was looking for examples that are more relevant to that design decision, and those happen to be on old buildings.
100% disagree that metal railings are a better solution for a high end product like Nash.
Yes, I know more minimal glass railings are available, and I agree that lifeboat balconies are far less preferable to something integrated. I don’t think metal railings are a “better” solution; I just said I prefer them in many cases, and that a minimally detailed custom picket railing can appear very modern and high end.
It’s ultimately just an aesthetic trend/preference though, and I’ve noticed that architects are using metal railings far more often than we used to in recent years, even in our highest budget commercial projects. My office was doing glass railings on 90% of our projects 15 years ago, but that’s not the case today.
$/SF is one thing, but so is efficiency factor (sellable vs buildable), structured parking, land cost, financing cost, etc. I’ve not studied heavily the Nash Square project, but doing napkin math.
Let’s say the build has 80% efficiency factor, that means if they have 200,000 sell-able SF, the buildings actual size is close to 250,000 total SF (hallways, lobby, common areas, etc). If it has 200 parking spaces, a parking garage spot usually runs around $50,000.
So we have the following:
Land: $16M (but holding cost like brings this to $20M)
Hard Cost: 250,000 x $360 = $90M + $10M parking structure
Soft Cost: $10M (rough estimate)
Financing Cost: $15M (rough estimate)
Selling Cost: 6% of sale price
So the building sells out for $200M ($1,000/SF over 200K), but it cost $157M to develop, so the developer is netting $43M (20% margin) or a 2X equity multiple assuming they had 33% of the capital stack as equity.
I hope this works. I think it looks great and is actually on the tall side for what I think would look best surrounding Nash Sq. Plus just a ton more full time residents
