Mine’s cooler cuz it has lights…
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https://www.instagram.com/p/DBgXaJ6xTo2/
pretty nice lighting setup inside. somewhat interesting location
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Is the point of these club owners to disturb the sleep of the folks in Raleigh’s downtown hotels? This place is next door to Raleigh newest hotel. Alchemy is next door to the Hampton Inn & Suites with Cornerstone is across the street. The Avenue is next door to the AC Hotel. All of these existing places are loud as Hell outside on weekends, and Aura will likely be the same.
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I’d say the point of these clubs like Aura, Alchemy, Avenue, etc is to be close to people looking for night life. That’s Glenwood South and anywhere with visitors who want to go out like near hotels and the convention center.
True there’s residents who choose to live near the night life, but I think that’s part of the draw to urban life, if I’m being honest. Those who don’t want noise and the buzz of nightlife and crowds can always still be “close to” downtown in areas like Cameron Village or North Hills, which although more “suburban” adjacent, still have walkable features.
For Aura, opening a new club 2 blocks south of Legends, 2 blocks East of Boxcar, 1-2 blocks away from Ruby Deluxe, and a couple blocks Southeast of Flex (Wye Hill) they will be georgraphically right in the middle of locations for barhopping nightclub folks. I’m eager to give it a try with friends. Quite a bit of bachelorettes and non-gays are frequenting Legends, and with Flex v2.0, even a big mix there too, vs before when it was in a basement location near Morgan Street. Much younger crowd of all backgrounds too.
This Aura location seems genius to me. Supply of people looking for fun after 10 pm with disposable income to spend. If they’re successful (and the space looks cool, and Wake County Real Estate shows its a large square footage inside), they may draw copycats over on Fayetteville Street to open or re-open. I miss WORK, when it was open for the short time it operated; I would love to see it come back as it drew a large cross section of people, a lot of whom wandered up Fay Street from staying at Marriott and Sheraton and Convention Center, it was obvious by their convention name badges and “curious visitor” looks. This kind of development, Aura, has a way to be a rising tide to lift all boats.
BTW: When does Legends relocate to their rumored new location?
Plenty of empty space in the Warehouse district or Fayetteville Street for others to open up.
Bottom line: Hotels and dense residential having close proximity to nightlife downtown is a feature, not a negative. I wish Aura well!
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Thanks for putting me in my place. Now I get it. These hotel rooms aren’t for conventioneers, business people, visitors looking to relocate or visit their children who have moved or in one of the many colleges. People are going to be filling these rooms to go to one of Raleigh’s cheap knock-off South Beach or Las Vegas party venues, and having them right next door or across the street makes it easier for them to come crawling back to their rooms.
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A Charlotte example: Our Ritz Carlton hotel was across the street from the Epicenter which had in the past lots of clubs and so forth. People really complained staying at the hotel. Well now Covid killed all the clubs so it is much quieter now and the place was rebranded as the Queen City Quarter more restaurant heavy. I travel a lot and I look for quiet areas to stay in because I value sleep LOL.
In terms of this hotel and club hopefully it does not have music blaring outside. And thanks for the insider information I will stay in a quiet suburb of Raleigh on my next visits. I love downtown Raleigh and I can drive down there from Brier Creek or Cary or Crabtree. But to each their own some like to go clubbing and stay nearby but not me.
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Not following what you meant by being “put in your place.” There was no personal attack on you; just offered an alternative viewpoint.
I mean I guess we could NOT have clubs and nightspots downtown and visitors to Raleigh could fill suburban hotels instead of staying downtown with nothing to do after 7 pm?
It’s possible you don’t fit the targeted demographic for the club, I suppose, because your sarcasm has a kind of “get of my lawn” kind of vibe to it, or more of the “Livable Raleigh” anti-string lights sort of ideas…if I am picking up correctly that you disapprove of more destination entertainment places like Aura, for visitors and residents to be able to enjoy.
But I don’t see a reason for disapproval of a new nightclub. That’s a bummer; More fun places for youthful high energy people coming downtown seems like a positive, not a negative. I doubt there’ll be super loud music outdoors.
The shipping container place with outdoor music will be near the new Hyatt House across from Peace, too, so there’s more noise coming. Suburbs are quiet though!
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A post was merged into an existing topic: General Retail/Restaurant News
John’s old man posts are even better than mine! More please!
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I honestly like it too. It just would be better if it was a real downtown block instead of the corner it currently is.
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The alternative viewpoint is a good one. I’m past my days of seeking nightlife every weekend, but every now and then I’d love to check out a new place like this.
I’m guessing it’s going to be mostly a Thursday to Saturday draw, so it shouldn’t negatively impact the business traveler that happens to be staying downtown. I also tend to think people staying in city cores expect more venues like this.
Having interesting, diverse nightlife options around the city is important. Our downtown felt more alive when you had to choose between a night on Glenwood and a night on Fayetteville.
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I agree however double brownie points for effort, creativity and beauty. Maybe they will start a trend.
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Yeah, I just mean I want the rest of the block to fill in now.
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I stay in downtown city cores and don’t want to book hotels with venues blasting music outdoors. My last stay in Denver was the Maven Hotel. I never had issues with music blasting outside. When I stayed at the Hyatt right in downtown Baltimore, I didn’t have that issue either. Even the hotels in Fells Point has at least a little distance (~ 1 block) to their bars/clubs. The Le Meridien in San Francisco I didn’t have that issue. I used to work at the Westin in San Francisco years back doing lighting for weddings/events. When I took the lights down at night, there wasn’t any major noise issues outside of road noise/horns. That late at night it wasn’t too bad.
It’s different going to a place and wanting to have loud music outdoors, which I do enjoy at times. When I’m at the hotel, more than likely I want to relax (or I wanted to save money and drink at the hotel).
I feel a little different about this one mainly because it’s not on a street that’s known to be loud. If you’re on Glenwood (aka Hampton Inn), then it’s different. In saying this: so far it doesn’t seem people have complained a lot about the noise who have stayed there yet. I think someone had complained before who lived across the street at the L Apartments. So if the noise is mainly inside, then that would be different.
We have to keep in mind that there will be other reasons people will come downtown. Not everyone is going to be wanting to be up until 2-3AM every night; Those who do still have the options of going to the bar. We have some really good museums downtown and the capital building. Some people will come in to watch concerts at Lenovo or Walnut Creek and still may not want to stay up until 2AM. We have people who come in to watch hockey, but also may want to stay downtown. It’s not that unreasonable to want to be able to stay downtown and get some relaxing sleep. I’ve been able to do it in a ton of larger cities.
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I don’t think there is any debate here. The ability to have the diversity of choosing between going to museums, shows, and nightlife of different kinds is what makes a downtown vibrant. But choice is key. I also don’t believe that nightlife in Raleigh should be isolated to Glenwood South, as suggested.
If this building was designed without proper noise insulation that allows guests to relax in their hotel rooms, that will probably be reflected in reviews for the hotel. Many, many hotels all over the country and world are built in louder cities than ours and when you step in your room you’d never know what chaos is happening outside, whether it be music from an outdoor amphitheater down the street or an indoor club at the street level.
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