I will have to look into what Mini City is like - in my mind its still rock strewn dusty soccer fields - streets laid out and really no buildings. Gosh, it was like that for years (4 or 5 easily). I remember when they built the CASL fields and it was soooooooo far out of town. 401 back to Mini City was so rural then.
The location of the TTC seems good - I’ve never been it. But certainly it would be prime for redevelopment. All those acres of parking are just waiting for the right development. I like the baseball stadium idea, I like the Wolf Creek - or maybe a giant Bass Pro Shop if there isn’t one around already. Some sort of destination anchor to draw folks.
FYI – The official Mini City Project was the area around what is now intersection of US 1 and Millbrook/New Hope. There was a HUGE mall planned in SW counter of intersection where the big box stores are now. As I recall was going to be X shaped with an amphitheater in center area of X and twice the size of Crabtree. There were plans for office buildings and lot’s of apartments. Not sure if detail plans where made public, I saw them while working a summer job between HS and University for survey company while we there surveying the area laying out streets and such in 1970. About only thing that got build, of original plan, was some of the apartments along New Hope RD east of US 1.
The area around where TTC is was thought of as being way out in country side and do not think what is now 540 was even in anyone’s dream. Heck the southern part of inter beltway was just a line of planning maps.
Just to see what I could do, I tried to see what I could squeeze into apparently-unused spaces and parking lots around TTC by doodling on a map (while overlaying the BB&T Ballpark in Charlotte and Audi Field soccer stadium in DC) using the website Two Maps One Scale.
My only concern about TTC being a regional destination is that it’s a bit far for people who live 100+ miles away.
I’ve recently bene making several friends who live on the more rural parts of southeastern NC, and when we talk about midway points where we can meet and hang out, we usually end up thinking about Pinehurst, Sanford, or maybe Fayetteville; it sounded to me like, psychologically, there’s a bit of a mental block for people living around there to consider Raleigh as a convenient day/weekend-trip destination. If we want to repurpose TTC as a place for these people, then we’ll definitely have to make the renovation worth that sort of commitment.
People from Raleigh go to Charlotte for day/weekend trips to Concord Mills, IKEA, Great Wolf Lodge, NC Transportation Museum, and Carowinds all the time. I (and my wife + 3 kids) are five of those people.The zoo is an hour and a half away and we go monthly-ish. I agree this is a big stretch for the current mix of uses and tenants at TTC, but to me it’s less a matter of distance/inconvenience and more of a matter of upping the game in terms of destinations that would make it work.
Going old school!! Thanks for the background history @scotchman !!
That land on the west side of 1 sat empty with the streets laid out until the early 80s.
Do not remember a lot from plans, only saw plans for whole thing once. But the shape, size and amphitheater stuck with me. Can not say for 100% sure but seem to recall that what is Calvary Drive was going to be major entrance from US 1.
I’d like to see lots more housing built around TTC. You could put apartment towers in each of the open parking lots and convert some of the mall space to more livable needs like grocery, daycare, fitness center, etc. Apartment towers in that part of town would be dramatically more affordable than downtown towers.
Catching up at ITBInsider this morning and I was looking at the depiction of the proposed Crabtree addition and noticed all the outdoor space upstairs. I didn’t notice before, but between the tower & its side building and the mall proper it looks like they are going to finally get that outdoor shopping strip like Southpoint.
That whole area is pretty much garbage, and has been for a long time. The car dealerships are nice though. Everything else is old, some of the buildings and strip malls more run down than others. Pretty much the same story as the rest of Capital blvd from Wake Forest Rd. to 540. There just hasn’t been any investment in that corridor in the last 20 years; more if you exclude TTC and that area.
The car dealerships are nice though. Just about every single one has been remodeled over the last few years.
I missed this but ---- Miami-based LNR Partners bought the Triangle Town Center last month, entering the highest bid of $120,372,570.89 at the Wake County Courthouse on July 11.
Turnbridge Equities and Denali Properties bought Cary Towne Center and hired Sasaki (the design company that also worked on parts of the National Mall and Moore Square’s redevelopment) to make it into a more walkable version of North Hills! Yay density and walkability
Sounds like they have good ideas, but… I really hope they’ll be held accountable to their visions if Cary’s going to stand a chance at being better than the wasteful, sprawly mess that it is today.
There has been work done on the site. I work at the corner of Creedmore and Glenwood. I’m guessing, but I imagine the Westin site will pick up once the building next to it is complete. The service road directly across from the mall access intersection is very congested with equipment/trucks for the current project.
It’s been stuck in building permit hell from what I can see on the city’s website. They can’t seem to get approval. I think they have had 4 reviews so far.
