It’s it disappointing, but give me grass, a remediated site, remediated Pigeon House Branch, and Greenway and I’ll be happy. Sounds like that’s the plan now
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Honestly this might get shelved for a couple years. Prepare for a lot of belt tightening on all projects across the whole city. The Six Forks rd corridor project is being delayed once again (approaching 10 years) with almost $30M in funding gap.
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Yes during the council meeting they decided to reduce the amount for the park formerly called Devereaux Meadows from 18.5mm to 13.5mm, and for it to just be to pay for land/water restoration, and a greenway trail. They’re hoping they can get some public-private partnerships to cover the rest and use those funds to pay for the rest of the park concept (plazas, art walk, etc.).
Basically they all seem to agree that the land/water restoration is a necessity, and that the connection from North Raleigh via a new greenway trail is also necessary, but that the park/plaza stuff can hold off.
I was disappointed, as I don’t think a $275mm price tag versus a $280mm price tag for the bond is going to change any voter’s mind, so might as well go all out.
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Maybe a wealthy person with business interests in the area (cough Kane) will decide that this park is important enough and fund it.
Look at the Beltline in Atlanta, its basically been donation funded.
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Maybe someone get in touch with the Epic games billionaire guy as I’ve read him spending millions buying land for greenery/conservation?
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I’m good with making 75% progress on this and leaving the finishing touches to make it a true park down the road. Beggars can’t be choosers and this will leave some time for revisions and potential private partnerships. Let’s do it!
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Some clarification from 
on this:
- The original full build was marked at a tier 3 priority (meaning not as important to get completed)
- As a part of this concession, the remediation and greenway connectivity will now be Tier 1 to get done asap
- The original full bond was $300m and they agreed to cut to $275m, only $5m was pulled from the park formerly known as Devereux Meadows
- Staff is still looking where to cut the additional $20m
- Given the location of this park, it’s likely a private party will sponsor the $ gap for naming
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This was my takeaway from the council meeting as well. I just still think they could’ve done a $300mm bond and it would’ve been as likely to pass as a $275mm bond, but maybe they have polling data that suggests something different, I don’t know. And there’s no reason they couldn’t have made it Tier 1 either, even if it was still at the full build-out, if that was the priority of council.
I’m just truly hoping they have some nibbles already for private sponsorship… if so, then I think this is a good idea as it eases the burden off of the taxpayers a tad.
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Pendo is valued at a few billion and is home based in downtown. Would love to see a company like them to make a contribution in improving our downtown, like helping fund Devereux.
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Hearing reports he might have his eyes on another mall property in Raleigh
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Only one that would make sense is Triangle Town Center, but I feel like that’s just slightly too far north compared to the bulk of his developments. But I also second @atl_transplant’s suggestion that it might be worthwhile to put the idea in his and his team’s ear, since it’s quite literally across the street from one of his biggest downtown developments (Peace Apts, The Line) and would only increase its value to have a really nice, well designed public park right there for residents and guests alike.
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I was hoping he had eyes on some parking lots around a pretty significant arena
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Yeah, why not just keep the original bond amount? I’m voting for it whatever they make it. My property taxes keep going up, may as well get a park I might actually use out of it…
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I guess that we will wait for birds to plant tree seeds to get something other than grass planted soon?
Pendo Park? Extra characters
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You type what I think.
Edit: We have to reserve that for the MLB Stadium.
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That’s actually a pretty good name for a ballpark. Beats the heck out of Truist. 
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Imagine the horror of it being named Fifth Third Bank Park.
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Sounds similar to Seven of Nine Ball Park 
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I hate that so much 
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