N&O picked up on the new development at 517 S. Blount St.
Says they will begin construction in the next two months, but something I did find interesting was:
“Boarded up for several years now, the white building at 517 S. Blount St. came into the ownership of the city in 2003, after it was condemned and the city bought it for $168,000.In the fall of last year, the city deemed the property to be surplus and put it up for sale in a bidding process”
Cool! Thanks for the info. It’s always nice to have these resources for our own research. It can be very fun and interesting to hunt stuff down on these kinds of sites.
Good observeration about the city sitting on this lot for a decade and half. At least they made about 400K on it, although I don’t know if they were paying taxes to the county.
This will be great if this becomes a thriving restaurant with the rooftop deck. That area could really use this.
Just a thought… will this money go towards the new City Hall Campus? Was this one of the City Owned properties that needed to sold to finance the new construction?
No, they will be using it towards affordable housing, how exactly that will be used is unknown.
From the meeting minutes :
“The proceeds from the sale of this property, less the cost of appraisal, will be used for affordable housing efforts provided by the City’s Housing and Neighborhoods Department”
Just saw this hit the wire and I think it’s new. Current zoning is IX-3, going for Planned Development zoning. There’s a mention of some resi and retail.
What kind of amenities is the neighborhood missing? Aside from a grocery store, what other kinds of businesses would fit well and see a good return in this part of town?
A local coffee shop with a drive through would be nice on the Person St side of a lot, plenty of drive-through traffic during the morning commute. But what the neighborhood really needs is hard to say, because the neighborhood is changing so much. Grocery store obviously but that’s not going to happen any time soon unless somebody can stitch a bunch of lots together; Cargill would be a lousy site from the neighborhood perspective for a grocery. (Could we get an Aldi maybe? Something that would actually appeal to the wealthy hipsters moving in and also be accessible to the current residents? Plus it’s pretty small. Anyway it’s a pipe dream.)
It’s been mentioned above that there are a couple of bodegas in the immediate area but what might become of those properties I can’t imagine. At least there are little commercial lots in the neighborhood and hopefully nobody will come in and try to turn them residential. The little grill at Blount/Bragg is zoned residential (effective 2016) and probably can’t be redeveloped, at least not as long as the owner wants to keep running the business. OTOH the store at the SW corner of Branch and Person is zoned neighborhood mixed use, as are a few lots at the SE corner of Bragg and Bloodworth.
We could use a decent drug store, something LIKE a Walgreens or CVS but please god not another Walgreens or CVS. We could also use some restaurants, small take-away places, inexpensive. We don’t need anything fancy or high dollar unless we’re committed to just eliminating the entire existing population of the neighborhood and still pretending that gentrification is cool. A little takeaway place on the south side of Bragg across from the little vest-pocket park there would do well.
What we don’t need, emphatically, is a nightclub, or another “skill games parlor.” Jesus anything but that.
Mark me down as a voice against drive-thru anything in a rapidly urbanizing corridor. I’ve seen the effects of drive-thrus on small parcels in moderately dense urban neighborhoods, and all they do is clog the streets around them.
But a drive thru for a pharmacy can be critical for some with mobility limitations. Consider handicapped drivers, or elderly who can drive but not so easily walk and stand; or a parent who has young kids and a baby strapped in a seat. It really helps for this class of people to get drive up service.
Just throwing out this data point that drive-thrus aren’t all bad as we build our hipster friendly car-free walk-able neighborhoods.
I get that but those problems can be solved with curbside delivery or 15-minute only parking in front of the door. Curbside delivery exists today and can use the existing street rather than dedicating more of the property to a driveway that’s not as needed. (and just not compatible with the urban form of the neighborhood)
If somebody with mobility issues needs a drive thru pharmacy, I don’t really have a big problem with sending them up to the Walgreens or CVS across from WakeMed. They are in their car anyway. It may make them drive farther but that is reasonable IMO. No new drive thrus in walkable areas should be an absolutely firm policy with no compromises whatsoever. People drive much further than that all the time to get to their favorite grocery store anyway, so I don’t see it as a big deal.
If we are going to make drive thrus an equity issue or an ADA requirement or some such, then all retail everywhere would be forced to install drive thrus and cities as we know them would cease to exist. There needs to be a district in the city where drive thrus are not allowed.
Drive through for people getting coffee on their commute in should be out. Traffic already backs up from MLK to Branch St almost every morning. Also, the goal I believe is to turn Person and Blount in to 2-way streets to bring back more of a neighborhood feel. My hope is this would make the area less of a cut through.
People drive 60mph down those two streets, and there are regular collisions. We should be working to limit traffic and speeds in the neighborhood.
Oh I agree, but I’m using the big govt approach back at the people that advocate for these policies, such as mandated handicapped parking that takes up so much space but often is unused. Or that every Post Office even in the most remote locations have to have wheel chair ramps at great expense… instead of ‘ring this bell and we’ll come out to assist you’. All to help a non existent or very small group of people.
But I"m glad you guys support rolling back some of this over reach. Progress!
