I honestly don’t know one person outside of this forum who feels this way.
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Well, it’s not city-owned property, it’s owned by Capital Realty Group, and they’ve signed a contract to continue operating it as affordable housing, and in fact they’re investing in the addition of 18 new units. 
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You are correct about not being city owned, but the city did pay $3 million to the new owner to help restore the building.
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To keep the building subsidized senior housing.
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i do not feel that any of the people i’ve seen outside this building have ever enhanced downtown
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Can’t always get what you want.
Funny how the conversation in this regard changes over time. When Fayetteville Street got pedestrian malled, nobody wanted to be there. Making the hotel into senior apartments was a way to keep a well-remembered but dowdy old hotel from getting knocked down.
Fast forward to a hot downtown real estate market, and the conversation turns. I’ve had patients I’ve cared for who lived there and Glenwood Tower (same conversation). And, they felt fortunate to be where they were being close to transportation and their families who often lived nearby.
So, I’m pleased that they weren’t dispersed.
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That’s what I say when people want “affordable” housing on every project. Side note, downtown has like a 93% occupancy rate for apartments and condos. So obviously the housing prices are affordable for many people. Those who can’t can always live where they can afford and travel the couple miles downtown. Like I do.
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In Nashville for the week, staying at the Hermitage Hotel…which looks an awful lot like The Sir Walter.
And yet The Sir Walter continues to be underutilized for our City. I can’t believe the City agreed to pay the current owners to continue to subsidize low-income housing in such a prime and historic location.
What a complete travesty for the City…and before you get on your high horses about "how I’m being insensitive to poor people’, I never said to put them on the street…just move them somewhere that isn’t as historically valuable to our City Center and potentially significant contributor to the vibrancy of Downtown…
Just look at the images and try to imagine what the Sir Walter could bring to Raleigh’s downtown:
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I think that sometimes the city acts like it has tweaked the state motto for its own purposes:
“To try not to be, rather than to seem insensitive”
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Totally agree. But you forgot the qualifier stating that you personally have a plan for the current residents after the hotel is refurbished for “rich people” .
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This. By not submitting a detailed plan, you are clearly ok with immediately tossing the elderly tenants to the curb.
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you do realize alternative housing already exists around the city for these folks…today? it just may not be in the absolute center of the city on some of the most valuable real estate.
I’m not sure why some feel that poor people have a god given right to live in the most valuable real estate in a city…a “plan” I haven’t seen actually written anywhere. The fact that they are poor does not entitle them to live in a 40 story penthouse…or even a historic building that could be converted to a higher and better use for a larger percentage of the population.
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It’s a joke from a previous thread.
I think they were being tongue-in-cheek. At least I know I was.
OK. My bad. I’m a dog person so I missed the sarcasm in the ‘kicking puppies’. 
I’m not sure if I am the person being referred to but not @'ed here, but anyway, yes, I too love to joke about displacing low-income senior citizens from their homes. It is indeed quite the rapier rib-tickler.
Anyway, having now caught my breath after that chuckle, I will again point out that this is not a public-owned property, it’s privately owned (by Capital Realty Group), so folks are free to pitch this money-making idea to them or pool together money to buy the hotel and renovate it, but until then, not only are we dreaming about how awesome it would be to evict these folks from their homes, but we’re also putting out our ideas about how we’d like to renovate someone else’s private property, and I feel like these are both things that we would find annoying if other people were doing them to us.
And in conclusion, I would like to take this time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a story that literally begins with a poor family being told to go sleep in the streets because all the hotel rooms were occupied by wealthy out-of-towners.
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Here’s another take on The Birth. It’s a long article but pretty interesting from the sociological analysis of travel and hospitality at that time.
Apparently there were no hotels there anyway, and the birth happened at Joseph’s family’s home.
Regarding the Sir Walter building, Now I’m content with housing the elder folks that are there now. If you want diversity, then this would help balance the growing younger new residents. (age diversity)
But it is one of the few historical residential buildings of note downtown. If we can talk about annexing ‘for the greater good’ then it’s consistent to advocate for this building to get better use as a vibrant hotel in the heart of downtown.
Reminds me of a $65M reno to convert this Nashville apartment into a art deco style hotel; Holston House Nashville. The seniors moved into newer digs outside of downtown, and the city got a boutique Hyatt property.
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I’m only familiar with kick the baby from SouthPark.