I wonder what the rent rates are compared to Fenton in Cary.
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Feels more like the Village Tavern should be in the Village DistrictâŚ? LoLsâŚ
Doesnât it also feel like Camerons and Karens are similar in this worldâŚ?
Donât @ me⌠
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Decided to bike across the main entrance from the mall today. Found the new multi-use path which is part of the Clairmont at Crabtree development is starting to make progress (Project Link).
I really wish the mall would do more as far as nightlife goes. Iâm not talking about making it completely over the top crazy, but some type of social events would be nice on the weekends. I went over one night to take some photos to see what it was like at night. Besides the chain restaurants, one annoying thing is that the main entrance also has some of the only outdoor sitting areas. I havenât eaten at those restaurants, but even with other restaurants it would be annoying to have to hear the constant honking of the cars through the parking lot. The entrance facing the Marriott is also very badly designed from a pedestrianâs perspective although this is no different than North Hills district when trying to cross near REI and Coquette.
Closing the upper deck parking section on the back side of the mall could be good (near Brio and Belk). Bring a couple of food trucks in, maybe set up a stage, and youâd have a good social event that is similar to other places (but local for selfish me). Parking could still be underneath and youâd have places for the people living in the nearby neighborhood to go. The mallâs Facebook page shows theyâve had events during the day years ago. I donât know why it seems they havenât done much recently.
Left: Looking towards the mall you can see the very minimal outdoor seating from Kanki and Seasons52.
Right: You can see the cars coming speeding right in.
Left: On the backside near Brio.
Right: Facing away from the restaurants. Yes it is a parking lot, but imagine it with maybe some vendors, food trucks, or a stage on a weekend night. You also donât have as many cars passing through.
Left: Looking from Seasons52 towards the front. Not too bad in my opinion. Not a fantastic view, but there are other places that keep busy which donât have a nice view.
Looking towards Brio and Julioâs. I should have taken a photo looking towards the parking lot.
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I mean⌠itâs North Hills.
Itâs the glitziest shopping district in NC outside of Charlotte (not a high bar, admittedly) and draws people from all over the region, 99% of whom drive there. None of the districts surrounding it are walkable, either, so it has to provide a ton of easy parking if itâs going to work.
At least those streets inside the bubble are slow-speed and easy to walk around.
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Thereâs also a couple of alley like corridors and just from a glance I think that eastern N-S route could be closed for special events / weekends if they wanted. To me this is no different than actual city blocks either.
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At least the bulk of the parking is underground, and no parking pedestals.
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This section of the development was designed by someone who hasnât spent 5 minutes driving around the property. Currently leaving the Fitness Connection around 5pm with only 1 exit makes me want to pull my hair out.
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I magnified this picture and the amount of stores and restaurants that have closed since this rendering is amazing and sad. I donât think loading this area up with more retail is sustainable - I think there will continue to be a lot of empty store fronts. I hope I am wrong.
Maybe they will decide to lower the rent. Supposed to be supply and demand. If thereâs too much supply and not enough demand, the price should go down.
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Exactly. They canât even find someone to lease the old Mia Francecsaâs spot and soon theyâve have 3 more retail spots that are even larger to fill. Not to mention more of the similar sized spots that people arenât beating down the door to rent that are also vacant.
The 15,000 sgft spot is not going to be easy to lease either.
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Thats the Restoration Hardware mega luxury showcase signature store.
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Clairmont Crabtree is one of the worst developments in the city, and gave rise to the name Disappointment Gulch for the Crabtree Valley area. Might as well be some generic apartment complex off Highway 55 on the Cary-RTP border. Blegh.
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I am beginning to wonder about the CRE industry at large. Seems there is some box-checking financing going on for some of these projects that arenât residential. I wonder what the pro forma for Bloc 83 looks like for instance⌠If we head into a recession with tons of brand new empty retail/office space, it will likely be a multi year process to fill those spaces
As long as we keep adding housing downtown weâll be fine retail space wise. Even with whateverâs coming, we still have a housing shortage and I think at least in our market housing will still need a steady supply. As we keep the influx of downtown residents coming the demand to fill these spaces will still be there. As for other locations and cities, they may struggle.
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How long has the retail space on the corner of Davie/Mc Dowell (under the L) been open? I think ever since they built the L as it doesnât have any concrete slab work done. Thatâs quite a run being vacant since construction.
April 2015
August 2017
July 2019
June 2021
And of course today itâs still vacantâŚ
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That is a sneakily awful spot. Construction site on one side, govât parking entrance catty-corner, ocean-sized surface lot on the other side, and not really the way anyone prefers to walk into the Warehouse District. Once the hotel is done (2030?) it should feel a lot better.
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And on a literal highway.
I have to imagine they are comfortably holding out for a rock solid tenant, but still it seems like they could do something with the space in the meantime
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I used to live in the L and was told that this space had always been vacant. Which was fine for me, living right above it. As @oakcityyimby says, itâs not the way anyone wants to enter the Warehouse district, which was also fine for me in terms of noise.
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Maybe a Lego museum. If can call a bunch of backdrops a selfie museum, surely can have something that shows off design and building skills. 
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