That vanity project is going to have unintended repercussions; mark my words.
With just a limited streetcar system and a sprawling city limits of over 600 square miles, you can rest assured that folks coming to the building will be coming by car. Where will those cars go, and how will their need to run on the streets and park affect how land and infrastructure around it get developed?
While OKC is growing, it’s certainly not growing at a clip to absorb that amount of real estate. How will this affect the rest of the local sub-market in the near term and long term? To fill up a building of that size, they are going to need some big players taking a lot of space, and those sort of clients are fewer and fewer since the pandemic. Or…and even worse…are they going to have to cannibalize their existing sub-market to fill this thing?
Housing in OKC is cheap, but any housing in a building like this is likely to not be cheap, and Oklahoma County’s average household income is only about 2/3 that of Wake County. Who’s going to occupy those expensive units? Sure the developers may have deep pockets, but their market isn’t a deep pocket market in general.
Good luck to them. I don’t think that having this building and bragging rights is going to attract growth and development.
I just came across a Youtube video (from a national/international focused channel no less!) that discusses why the Chapel Hill to Durham LRT line didn’t happen. I was living in Chapel Hill at the time and remember the whole saga, but there was still some good info in this video I didn’t know about. Unsurprisingly, it made me even more pissed that this never happened.
Not quite as crazy as the OKC tower proposal, but still pretty wild for its location. Lansing Melbourne Group is floating what looks like an 18 story apartment tower in Kannapolis. This will definitely soar above the rest of K-town but I think has a pretty decent chance of actually being built. I believe they already own the land and seemingly have financing arranged. LMG is wrapping up a 7 story mixed use apartment building next door, and in Kannapolis alone they have a second 7 story apartment building actively under construction and two more 7 story apartments in planning phases. Plus their existing 6 story apartment building that kicked off the downtown Kannapolis building boom, and three midrises in nearby Concord nearing completion/recently completed. LMG will also potentially be building a mixed use apartment complex in downtown Garner which I believe will be their first project in the Triangle.
Yep it would overlook the stadium along the first base line. They already have a pretty good track record of delivering what they propose, and I anticipate this being something of a signature project for LMG. I suspect this won’t start construction until after they finish 200 Main (currently u/c), Stadium Lofts II, and 216 West though. A few years ago they proposed this as a 12 story tower.
Went to Madison, WI this past weekend. They have the County Farmers Market in their Capital Square. This picture was taken 30 mins before it closed down, but during my morning run at 08:30 am it was packed (and the temp was 34F). Tents lined the entired sidewalk surrounding the capital building and had sections of the street closed down for tents on either side. I was quite impressed with the number of vendors and customers.
Mass timber residential building being developed next to the Moxy we stayed at. The ceilings look awesome from afar. Reminded me of the one in DTS that we are hoping comes to fruition.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening with the amount of church-going community that would bitch and moan about something like that down here (which has already happened when someone was trying to turn an old, smaller church into a bar on the East side).
Their campus is huge! Has a lovely lakefront walkway that leads to the student Union where you can drink beers and eat brats lakeside. Highly recommend! I would have gotten nothing done in college if NCSU had that kind of amenity.
The Amenities at NC State are now pretty insane if you ask me. I probably would have still gotten done what was needed though because I didn’t have any money back then. I suppose that I would have spent more time in the gym though.
Supperland in Charlotte is in a former church. I haven’t been yet as it’s a little pricey, but it seems to be doing well. I don’t remember there being a ton of pushback when it was first announced, there are several nearby churches so maybe they all just decided to coexist.
Even after 16 years, I still miss the River City. But overall glad to be back in Raleigh again. It is close enough for a quick day trip a few times a year.
