When Kane met with our neighborhood a few months ago (we are heavily impacted by the construction) they mentioned that the office space is currently not moving forward just based on the current market (aka tons of WFH due to COVID). At that time they were just not developing that space and holding off until the market picked back up. They didn’t mention anything about additional residential, in fact they stated that they felt very confident that this portion of the project would still move forward as planned, just at a later date.
That being said, things can change. I don’t think any new residential will be going in during this phase of construction though because I don’t think they have any design work complete for it.
“Potential” to be cheaper is accurate… we’ve priced out mass timber on several spec office buildings and it hasn’t yet survived VE. It is still more expensive than steel, although cost has come down significantly since the first one we did a few years ago and should continue to do so.
No specifics on the whys, so this is a bit of speculating here, but I got the impression it had nothing to do with mass timber hesitancy and everything to do with office space hesitancy post-COVID.
@clairebertt I came on here to check the history of the project and also noticed that the office buildings had been delayed. This may still be the case; perhaps the person I spoke to doesn’t know all the details. But what they told me is that Duda Paine is no longer part of the project.
I’m a broken record, but it makes me uneasy that the balance seems to be shifting so heavily towards residential, so close to Union Station. Generally, mixed uses are good because it encourages activity at all hours and on all days, but the area near Union Station should definitely tilt towards office.
Really, if office buildings are in permanent terminal decline due to remote work and the pandemic, I’d still rather see new office buildings get built near Union Station and then see many of the office buildings over on Fayetteville converted to housing. (Fayetteville always made more sense to me as a residential area than Glenwood South or the Warehouse District, anyway.)
It didn’t sound like the intent was to change over to residential based on the conversation that I was a part of. It sounded more like they were just delaying building the office space a couple of years for when demand ticks back up.
That’s the same feeling/info I got. Phase 2 is just on hold. Kane obviously sees how successful their residential projects have been and they didn’t want to hold up the Cabarrus project with rezoning/COVID/other delays that pertain to the commercial part of that development.
Aside from the utility work happening on Cabarrus, they’ve cut down at least 2 very large trees on the other side of the fence and there are quite a few heavy machinery tractors on the other side of the fence. I’m fairly confident those aren’t for the road work. Also, the buildings that I believe are being demo’d appear to be getting gutted now. Looks like site prep!
“Cup half full” can see the value in residential near the train station if residents of DT were working in RTP, or other locations along a future heavy rail commuter train.
If office space demand picked up at a future date, then it would drive taller towers nearby to fulfill it. It could end up being the key to a bigger skyline in the long run. In the meantime, if residential is in demand, and if all of those new bodies create a more engaging 18 day downtown.
Also, here’s my thought on this entire block. It is appears as though they are proceeding with demolition on all of the buildings on the block. I could be wrong, but if so, I suspect they’ll use the other half for staging during the phase 1 construction and during that time frame developed a plan for phase 2. Perhaps we see this unfold as we did Smoky Hollow phase 1 and 2.
