With all of the development happening along the Capital-Wake Forrest corridor I kinda feel like “downtown” is spreading northward. 
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It’s an even smaller creek that feds into big branch. There is not that mush water in it. They must be planning to damn it up a bit.
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Could you imagine burying part of 440 and Six Forks? That would be amazing! And I guess probably unlikely anytime soon, but still…
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Would have preferred that DTR be much further along with density before all of this North Raleigh and DTS gets built. 
But as they say, you have to be in the game to play. And sadly, although I have lots of ideas, I am not a developer nor do I have the money to invest… 
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I hear you and I’m a DTR supporter, which is why I’m on this forum. But I don’t think it’s a zero sum game: Population density in the immediate surrounding area helps feed the demand for downtown business and housing as well and will contribute to the growth of downtown proper. Take me for example: I live near NH and happy for the local businesses, but still consider DT “the center” and enjoy spending time there. I think the whole Midtown-North Hills development along St. Albans simply stems from the fact that Kane (and the developer for Midtown Exchange) has owned that huge chunk of land for a long time, and the time is right to build there. As an attractive live-work area nearby, it’s just one more thing to attract businesses and residents to the area who will contribute to Raleigh long-term.
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Not that we have a city core as dense as Denver, or anywhere close, but that’s a city that has lots of spread out pockets of concentrated development like we are getting… Lots of mini clusters of 12 -20 story buildings in throughout a sprawling area
And the one thing Raleigh has going for it right now is it’s a huge destination for people moving in. Percentage-wise only one city bigger growth than Raleigh in the entire US, So our “downtown” downtown will eventually get built up if politicians don’t slam the brakes on our economy.
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I would like to see this next to the Midtown exchange plans, and more importantly, see some interconnectivity between the two developments with walking paths, roads, etc… Would be a shame to have these right next to each other as separate, disjointed developments. I think both would benefit from connectivity.
Not sure how keen Kane and DeWitt are to working together to come up with something. But needs to be coordinated.
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I’m sure they are… I can’t imagine they both don’t have a person or team dedicated to adjacent property integration and impact.
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They could also move large trees from the area over there too it’s not impossible my university has done it multiple times (NCCU)
I’m hope its still being worked out since each of their next phases are away from each other. But looks like right now they both sort of “back up” to the new city greenway connection here.
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I don’t think anything already built east of six forks is disjointed. Hopefully this follows that trend.
The Kane frontage road is, I think, supposed to tie in across the creek, and connect to Quail Hollow and Navaho. but it won’t quite connect directly with DTX. Of course there is also the planned “multimodal bridge” which is supposed to carry the greenway plus an extended Barrett Drive over the beltline into the Midtown/St. Albans area.
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^^ Midtown Exchange site plan
The extension of the Kane frontage road would connect beyond the southern boundary of the DeWitt development.
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Its all inward focused. If each of these continue the trend then they will both face inward for each of their developments (hence them both backing up to the greenway rather than having active uses extend across this ‘boundary’.
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Inward focused, depending on how you define that, but what’s wrong with that if they create a urban street feel on St. Albans, which has been the case for the all the developments until now. Walking most of St. Albans feels like an urban neighborhood should. The setbacks are extremely minimal, and there are access points to the buildings all along it. It’s all residential, but why should that matter?
I could be mistaken, but the new renderings look to continue with this.
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Not saying there’s anything wrong with it. Just the way it is. St. Albans (and Six Forks) feels like the ‘back’ of the development. Kinda the nature of the new urbanism manufactured districts - not really cohesive at the edges like how projects blend together in downtowns.
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True, it’s not like a downtown, but this development isn’t downtown anyway.
It’s more of an office park with some retail mixed in, with a suburban neighborhood of single family homes all along the north side of St. Albans. I guess their property values will go up, but I’d hate to have to live in what was a quiet neighborhood and get it turned into this. I like the “this” but I wouldn’t if I’d lived there for a suburban home for years.
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True. I def agree about Six Forks. But I think how they have built up St Albans has been great. It’s a pleasant walk that reminds me more of some newly redeveloped areas of Philly than a sun belt clear cut development.
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Look, I like North Hills. I grew up in the neighborhood. I went to middle school across the street, and elementary school in Quail Hollow. But, and this is indicative and tiresome of so many projects in the City right now – this just continues to create semi-“gated” communities that face inward, turning their backs on streets, and essentially making Six Forks a highway without the name. There is no walkability, no livability. All you see is a massive blank wall of stucco and steel that you have to drive into to see activated. The offerings of retail are almost solely devoted to high-income earners, and the connectivity with existing neighborhoods is poor. All this does is make St. Albans a fortressed street.
And I wonder about the impacts this has on the location that even led to Raleigh: Isaac Hunters Tavern, which is noted to have been located behind the Hilton.
Don’t get me wrong. I think what is becoming in this area, and areas like Downtown South or Park City South or even the Smoky Holly. It’s Raleigh growing up. But damn, does everything need to be inwardly focused, “luxury” communities? Why can’t these all be connected to the existing network and nodes of the city?
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I think large % of the hate on this area is from trees coming down and seeing that parking deck. Seems like a bit of a self own. Excited about this new stuff planned thought.
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