Because money. And they need to get this built now to get the federal contribution so they don’t have time to go raise more.
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Let’s keep the negative comments rolling haha.
Hargett St. ped experience is going to suck:
165’ of car and bus infrastructure to walk past
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Damn, even more bummed looking further up at the concept design. Looks like this mid-block entry is now a loading dock. Maybe they weren’t able to get it to function for the retail anywhere else with all the program they’re juggling with the station.
But damn, the ground-level condition is suffering in the redesign. As usual, I’d be happy if they plopped the most generic basic tower on top of this as long as the ground-level condition is a rich experience.
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ugghhhhh…
At least the bridge to Union Station remains…for now…
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On the bright side, there are more residents as potential transit customers.
To pile onto the 
, the tower has lost some height with the final rooftop coming in just under 411’ now.
All in all, these are really difficult market times in which to build, and VE is not surprising to me at all. I’ve been in VE Hell all Summer and it’s not a fun place to be.
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Lenders will finance construction for multi family residential but not for hotels if the developer doesn’t have a management company lined up and on the hook. Hoteliers don’t want to commit to a large multi-layered project in a market with very few precedents and a complicated albeit evolving hotel market. Whereas years of NIMBY zoning has suppressed housing demand so much that apartments are guaranteed to fill up.
But yeah this sucks
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What would suck is losing the entire project. Just keeping some balance to the discussion. In the end, I think that we will all be thrilled that we will have this project.
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It’s official: Raleigh simply cannot have anything nice 
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This might be an even worse bait-and-switch than the initial Park City South proposal
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That parking deck podium better have the nicest greenery or best mural in Raleigh in order to mask it’s ugliness lol.
For reall… gonna be a CANYON of blank concrete/metal siding parking deck down West, from the street level. How fun and unique and interesting and not at all bland!
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Can someone send these images to City Council people to show the comparison and bait and switch that is happening? At least maybe get some kind of pushback on this, besides us complaining to ourselves? Twitter or whatever. I’m not well versed in that world or I’d do it myself
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I hate that it comes to this, but is it really worse than a warehouse that has sat empty for nearly 19+ years? I moved here in 2004 and the only thing I can remember occupying any part of the building was 5 Star in the one corner.
I still think as Raleigh grows and land becomes more scarce we will then see more though-out architecture and better pedestrian street level experience. I personally will take almost any new high/mid rise building over a whole block which is just a dead zone.
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When will that be? Because almost every. single. project. that has been coming out of the woodwork has featured awful street-level experience and walls of blank parking deck. Minus perhaps 400H.
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Maybe when there’s a single developable lot left? So we might get a single tower with decent street level activation and architecture? LMAO (half kidding … but only half)
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I wouldn’t call this a bait & switch. It’s still two towers (although I hate that middle part that makes it look like one building), 500+ units, and 410ft in height. The base isn’t great compared to what was proposed, but it’s better than the warehouse that was there.
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That’s a fair question, especially when we have developers tearing down buildings like the Holiday Inn or GoodNights instead of opting to purchase a flat parking lot. Given the amount of undeveloped land downtown, I think it’s still going to be awhile, land holders like City Plat and others certainly don’t help our chances. I am happy weren’t a dead city and still have active construction and possible projects in the pipeline for years to come.
Btw, anyone on here know why developers chose to pick lots where a tear down is necessary especially when there is a lot close by that is essentially empty and also up for sale? It’s a head scratcher for me, they obviously have the additional costs of a demolition crew, trucks, other equipment, etc.
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Don’t worry we use to that here in Raleigh when it comes to cutting corners with building design and features that grab the mind smh, wouldn’t be happening in Charlotte USA as far a project like this is concerned, but hey just my opinions and thoughs.
Agree with all of this. It’s so much better than an empty warehouse.
I don’t love the bait-and-switch vibe, but we were all laughing about how this was going to get value engineered when the renderings came out, it’s hardly a surprise.
The more dense, energetic and desirable downtown gets, the more pressure there will be for good design. It’ll also pencil out more easily as a smaller portion of the project cost.
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