I was actually reminding my wife about that when I saw the rezone request come across the wire. N&O block walkable straight to Fayetteville would be amazing!
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It would - if its active. A problem with opening up an alley through this block is it with out serious reworking of the two buildings along the sides, it would be just a cut through - no windows or shops, etc. A pedestrian dead zone of sorts. Now if they tear all of these wonderful buildings down and start fresh - its a no brainer.
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What if the new mystery building opened up to this alley. There would be people coming and going all day long.
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I donât doubt that theyâve done a terrific job, and I do like the idea of a setback thatâs deep enough that the sidewalk experience isnât affected. I am just not a fan of fake âoldâ architecture in this sort of context. Iâd rather see a quality design that reflects the best of the time that we are in now with respect for its historic neighbors in terms of scale, fenestration, etc. Now, if there is a building thatâs deteriorated to the point where it largely needs to be rebuilt, I am not opposed to restoring it to its previous state, as long as itâs done correctly and the finished product reflects the original historic design and materials.
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So my best guess - and this is just conjecture - is property value. If the land is zoned 40 stories, then its worth a great deal more, thus the owner can borrow more against the land or potentially sell the development rights back to the city.
My rationale here comes from the late 90s when Wake Co started to truly just EXPLODE and all the vast acres of farmland came under development pressure. Wakefield scared the dickens out of folks, we werenât going to have any open space at all! The proposal initially was to keep the land zoned for farming. But many property owners objected, saying the government was stealing potential wealth. For some families about to score big, you can see their argument. Other families had no choice but to sell because the development value drove their taxes sky high. The compromise was the county buying the development rights from some.
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Gonna have to say no on this one. The council better smack it down. We have very few historic blocks like this left, and there are plenty empty lots that can take 40 floor buildings.
Probably the single worst block to redevelop in the city.
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It all depends of the project, but if the owners want it, and can keep the historic elements intact, there should be no issue.
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This makes complete sense to me. Based on the re-zoning request document, I doubt they have any intention of going through with this. My final question that remains is why they thought this was the best approach to overdo that zoning limitation the city put on them. Maybe it was an FU statement.
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Hah! Two shit reactions already! I know I knowâŚjust brick boxes with no architectural valueâŚwe need skycrapers to rub our chubbys off toâŚproperty rights and all that. Not worth the fight on this board.
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There are owners serious about developing this property, with the facade preserved.
Who decides to throw their hat in the ring is up in the air.
But lets be honest, limiting part of this block to 5 stories was a mistake from the beginning.
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You got a couple hearts there too Phil. & I didnât see anyone fighting with you either. You expressed an opinion I think a great many of us share.
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Particularly considering its not the whole block!! You couldnât build A building on the block with Kimbrells not part of the equation.
And now the story is in the TBJ:
https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/05/10/proposal-seeks-dramatic-changes-to-raleighs.html?iana=hpmvp_trig_news_headline
I wouldnât mind two tall narrow buildings to replace the Kimbrellls building at each street (like the Hobgoods E Martin street designs), and then a tower at 234 Fayetteville. Other than that, too much character on this block. Even only reusing facades would be too damaging. Character of the buildings extends beyond just the facades.
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My interpretation of the situation is that the ownerâs just collectively see an opportunity to put in the request now to prop their potential resell values. No concrete plans to redevelop whatsoever. This could be a new play of the local Raleigh real estate market. Rezone it and make it interesting for developers so they donât have to go through the headache after the fact with the city council
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Didnât the owner of Boylan-Pearce add an additional story to the building for his private residence?
They arenât going to tear the whole block down!
If they opened up the alley between Fayetteville and N&O, they could turn it into an artisan alley, similar to Rue de Tresor in Quebec City. Or some other street vendor destination/cut through purpose.
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With out totally new construction - some sort of plan like this @Dave_M is exactly what will be needed to lure people. People like people, we like to be where others are (as a rule). Just a cut through will be handy, but I fear it would end up a ghost town/pedestrian desert. I do like the idea of an artisan ally though! Maybe some of those micro-spots/stalls weâve talked about before.
In general, Iâm usually pretty skeptical of historic preservation as a reason to oppose development because itâs so frequently abused by NIMBYs to try to prevent any changes at all, but even I think that this is a block with historic character worth preserving.
Iâm thinking that one really good strategy for alleviating development pressure from encroaching on genuinely historic areas is to be very generous with requests to allow higher density zoning in other parts of town with less preservation value. The more brick boxes we knock down in the Union Station District and rezone for 40 stories, for example, the easier it is to turn back efforts to redevelopment genuinely historic buildings like the Briggs Hardware Building.
But you canât preserve anything, so at some point you have to set priorities and decide what you want to protect and what should get knocked down to permit growth.
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