https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2024/12/06/triangle-town-center-sale.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=ae&utm_content=RA&j=37757249&senddate=2024-12-06&empos=p4 Sold! Struggling Raleigh mall has new owner: if true is it possible/likely this go in some mixed use direction?
Interesting not so much, but still a great place to live. Crabtree definitely has its positives. A lot of hotels (12), quite a bit of apartment complexes within half a mile, 8 bus lines including 15 min frequency to downtown (one of which I used to get to the fair this year), and the best greenway connected shopping area in Raleigh. It definitely lacks in nightlife, bars/breweries, and overall indoor entertainment. For the entertainment, you could technically get it in North Hills which is pretty close. A lot of people do consider Crabtree to be one of the top shopping places in the area. So I do think that does add a bit of âinteresting-nessâ to it.
Just my opinion since living out here almost 5 years now.
I feel that âup-and-comingâ is used in a lot of places that really arenât. You hear of a new 200 home subdivision and people will say that is âup-and-comingâ.
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Not looking promising:
Zohar Levy, controlling shareholder and board chairman at Summit, said in a news release that the firm sees âimmense potential in transforming our retail centers into flagship assets within their local communities.â
âOur aim is to attract anchor tenants, including leisure and entertainment, alongside leading national retail tenants,â he said.
Time will tell, but it would be nice to see parts of the parking lot developed. Although not the most interesting development, I do like that they put the Home2Suites there.
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Yeah, this portfolio is an odd assortment of small town malls. Itâs telling that TTC appears to be the nicest of the lot, judging by how many photos show it:
Maybe theyâre better capitalized than the former owner, but they donât even have a management team in place â much less a redevelopment team, or a national leasing presence.
Another giveaway is that they describe themselves as owners of âyielding properties.â Not-dead-yet malls throw off lots of income if you can buy them really cheap.
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Thereâs the plans Summit filed in September. Kinda hard to tell what theyâre proposing to do.
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Whole lotta âNot ResolvedââŚfeels like more of the same for TTC
Adding to what @orulz already touched on, in the early-to-mid 2000s, it felt like the Crabtree area was on the precipice of exploding into something closer to what the Southpark area in Charlotte has become. I think the combination of Triangle Town Center in 2002 and definitely the initial phase of North Hills in 2004 really killed Crabtreeâs momentum. Even though North Hills isnât perfect, its initial phase did a much better job of bringing a quasi-urban shopping experience to the area at a time when that was emerging as the generally preferred layout among younger shoppers. By now, North Hills has pulled so far ahead of Crabtree and TTC that any new-to-market premium retailers are going to locate there and the cycle will continue.
I think Crabtree is healthy enough at the moment, but is has lost a few name brand stores to Fenton in the past few years. Losing Sears in 2018 wasnât a huge deal, and there was a residential tower planned for that spot shortly thereafter but that proposal seems to have died. I think if another anchor leaves though then it might be time to start worrying.
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Crabtree is super stable lol. I know everyone wants to see it fail, but it wonât. They opened Lululemon last year despite preparing for expanding the NH store, for example, so some retailers are in both and doing fine. (Btw, no one reported on the new Lululemon store, itâs twice as big as the old one across the street. I predicted they would move into the new NH expansion area and they did, just with no publicity). Crabtree backfills vacancies quickly, and itâs always packed when I go. Folks who think itâs failing donât actually go there, Iâve come to learn. Correct me if Iâm wrong.
Tiffanyâs, Gucci, LV, etc? Yeah they are going to NH. And that wonât impact Crabtree at all. Yes, weâre getting those big dogs in our market, only a matter of time. Columbus, OH has them at Easton, and NH is ready for them now.
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I didnât see or read anything about Chanel opening in NH, but itâs on the directory map as coming soon. I predict the old RH location or the old Finkâs becomes one of the luxury brands mentioned above.
I do go to North Hills. Thanks for thinking of me.
I do occasionally go to Crabtree because itâs reasonably close to my house and has a lot of stores I occasionally need stuff from.
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Honestly I agree, all the fuss about the malls around here dying is overblown.
I have been to TTC about twice a year lately (coinciding with my kids having soccer games or tournaments up at WRAL park) and even that place seems in decent shape. Plenty of foot traffic (on Saturday afternoons, anyway), some vacancies and mostly mid-market retailers, not much in the way of high end/luxury stuff - but not nearly troubled enough to give a âdying mallâ vibe in any way at all.
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My dream for Midtown East:
-
Residential Mixed-use (RX) zoning 10-20 stories
-
Mixed-use Office (OX) zoning 20-30 stories
- Gridded network from Wake Towne Drive to West Hodges Street
- The Waterfront District (shown below) should have one or two hotels (citizenM & a boutique hotel)
(Picture source: https://cityofraleigh0drupal.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/drupal-prod/COR22/MidtownStAlbansFromIdeastoActionPresentation.pdf)
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Just saw this Generation Z loves in store shopping as much as their Baby Boomer grandparents and parents.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/12/gen-z-shopping-at-malls-rather-than-online.html
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Omg shopping for stuff in person like a human being is so retro. I love it! And mullets and terrible facial hair!
Pictures from walking North Hills the other day. Have to say Iâm quite disappointed with the fact that the tallest tree in North Hills is surrounded by a roundabout. I donât see why they couldnât close at least a section of the roundabout to make it to where people could take photos.
The shops are now opened up on Center at North Hills Street. Nothing much to report other than that.
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Going back to the Crabtree discussion: You can definitely tell itâs not a dead mall especially at this time of year. They had a cover band playing yesterday. While people donât really go to a mall to see a cover band, I also kind of wonder âwhy not?â compared to going other places that have cover bands play. I liked the Christmas decorations as I typically do every year when I go. The mall does have events at times, but I feel they are also not advertised a whole lot.
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Crabtrees location is too good to ever fail
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Its location in a floodplain I think keeps some stores from locating there unless they can be on the top floor. The mall floods every 7-10 years it seems and when I walked on the greenway behind it along Crabtree Creek they have a good history of the flooding. But it is a good location but the vacant Sears needs to be torn down and redeveloped into something like housing or a hotel with limited new retail.
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Itâs definitely in the floodplain which makes redevelopment next to impossible, but the work that has been done along the creek over the years, especially the improvement at the culvert under Glenwood has had a huge impact on helping the flooding issues. It can still flood for sure but it happens with way less frequency than it did 10-20 years ago. I actually canât recall a flood of significance since Hurricane Matthew in 2016
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Mathew was 7 years ago. So weâre due for another one.
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