Pedestrian bridges installed at NHID today.
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Awesome! Thanks for sharing this!
I drove by in the morning and saw the huge ass crane and wondered what it was for and then saw the post from Kane. I’d assumed it was for something boring like AC units but the reality is much cooler.
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They are closing St Albans for a few days next week for setting another bridge. I got a notice in the mail.
Yikes. I saw the signs on the street and wondered what they were going to do. Does the letter say what part will be closed? My wife almost certainly threw away the letter lol.
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I think it’s from Hardimont, up the hill to where that Church is.
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Better to get it all done in a shorter timespan than over the course of years! Bring it on!
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More Greenway connections and bridges showing up.
Plus Standard is getting closer to completion. Still skeptical of them meeting that Fall 2025 sign.
Nice outside seating areas
And Benchwarmers 3.0
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Just want to acknowledge that it was incredibly smart of them to keep some of this wooded area and build around it. Really gives a more lived-in touch to the area. Want NHID to really succeed.
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Tell that to DeWitt who clear cut the entire envelope of their “Billion Dollar” development only to build one building in the past 4-5 yrs. I don’t know if I’ll still be alive by the time The Exchange is fully developed. They should cash out and sell the plans to Kane.
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Looks like Kane is starting to work on their Midline development, which should coincide with the new Midtown Bridge
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What is the midline? I’ve never heard of it
ahhh so Kane did end up buying that property. Nice
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Unless I missed it… I’m pretty sure none of us know the plans for this huge plot… don’t think I’ve seen any renders! Exciting!
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So most likely conceptual renders, but still cool to think it could be this dense!!!
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I wonder who stands to profit from the real estate redevelopment in RTP. The way it used to work: tenants like IBM purchased their land from the Research Triangle Foundation. Because it was a park, there was a limit on how many of the acres you bought could be used. If you wanted to sell, the Foundation had the right of first refusal.
Now, all these property owners in RTP have lots of excess land available for development. Do the property owners get the windfall? Do they still have to sell it back to the Foundation?
This implies that RTP is a “park” like Umstead or Dix parks, which is not true. The development limits come from:
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Land use covenants between the Research Triangle Foundation (RTF) and companies with RTP offices contractually limited developments to looking like office and industrial parks - just like how some homes come with HOAs that enforce certain restrictions, and;
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Wake and Durham counties applying special zoning districts for RTP that mirror the covenant’s language and intent.
Given that,…
That land was NOT “available for development” - at least, until two weeks ago.
This change comes from how landowners and tenants in RTP voted in favor of changing the covenant at the RTF’s request. These changes make it easier for companies in RTP to spin off their existing land into mixed-use developments. The new covenant only comes into force when both Durham and Wake county commissioners approve of zoning changes to set the new policies in stone. And since Durham County Commissioners unanimously voted in favor of the proposal two weeks ago, the rules have now changed!
The Foundation’s own words make it sound like it will be up to developers to decide whether they want to make their land more useful - up to an extent. There’s no signs that RTF is changing its business model, so it’s probably safe to assume that existing procedural limits (e.g. RTF having the right of first refusal for land transactions) are still there. So this is less about RTF letting companies do whatever they want, and more about how the foundation is now recognizing how the commercial real estate market has changed.
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I assume we are allowed to use colloquialisms on this forum. Note that Merriam-Webster gives the fifth definition of “park” as “an area designed for a specified type of use (such as industrial, commercial, or residential use”). As in, amusement park.
I worked for an RTP property owner for 15 years and am familiar with how it works. I’m also aware that Durham County’s recent decision was the final step in opening unused land to development. My question, triggered by that decision, was specifically about the business model going forward, e.g. will an existing landholder in RTP be free to develop its unused property by itself (or in conjunction with a developer), or will such a landholder be free to sell its unused property directly to a developer, or will title to everything still have to pass back to RTF who chooses the developer etc. Even in the third scenario, the landholders stand to turn a tidy profit – especially those who bought their tracts decades ago. No wonder the landholders voted for it.
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