Speaking of a need for consolidated places to eat, live, work etc… yesterday, it seems like GoTriangle staff recommended Hoffman & Associates to develop the new Triangle Mobility Hub.
Hoffman is the same company that’s overseeing RUSbus. HOWEVER, the general contractor who’s responsible for the vertical development of the downtown tower got downgraded in responsibilities for this project - presumably because of how the tower’s scope and costs changed so much under their watch.
I didn’t get to stream that meeting so I’m not sure if the Board of Trustees voted in favor of this proposal, but I assume that they gave the green light to negotiate with Hoffman et al. to move forward with this plan:
It’s unclear what the numbers truly mean in this figure since the associated legend wasn’t on the slide deck (the figure was probably ripped out of Hoffman’s proposal, which is not in the public records, yet, since this bidding process hasn’t truly ended yet).
However, we can make a few guesses (click me!)
1: BRT station alongside NC-54. Note that it’s a bit of a walk from where all other buses will stop (13).
2 and 3: There’s a small creek running parallel to NC54. Since it cannot be developed, it’ll instead act as a buffer for the new development. It also looks like a multi-use path will be installed and connected to it - though I’m not sure what the building indicated by the number 3 is.
4-9 and 14: Three presumably mixed-use buildings that will include apartments and some sort of retail/restaurants.
10-13: The actual replacement for the Regional Transit Center. 10 is probably a kiosk and waiting area (with air conditioning!) for passengers. 11 is probably a walkway that’s intended to connect to a future station Amtrak (and regional rail, someday…), while 12 is probably GoTriangle’s new office and 13 is the twelve bus bays + two layover bays for services that start and end at RTP. Note that the bus bay is connected to a stoplight that’s exclusive to buses!
???: 100 parking spaces and 6 battery-electric chargers are also included in this grant, but it’s not clear to me where they are on this map.
Remember that a key difference here is that this development will be in Durham’s boundaries - and they’re overhauling their development ordinances right now. If this change passes as it stands now, it’ll be zoned for commercial mixed-use, so Hoffman shouldn’t need to rezone anything as long as they keep everything 5 stories or less.
Read this, too, before y'all start complainin' again about how this will cost too much, take a billion years etc.
Just like other BUILD grants, this project is a private-public partnership. The idea is that GoTriangle will partner with the Research Triangle Foundation (RTF; they run RTP) to develop this plot of land simultaneously.
This project will cost $58.2M ($25M from a BUILD grant from the federal Dept. of Transportation, $5.5M from other federal sources, and the rest from Wake, Durham, and Orange counties’ transit taxes), and it also includes 10 battery-electric buses. They’re currently aiming to open this by Q1 2029. If you want to predict where things could get delayed, here’s what GoTriangle currently wants to do:
