It seems odd that the alleys are accessed from a driveway on the adjacent empty plot instead of from Clifton Street.
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Also interesting that the giant empty plot next to it is having a lot of their space taken up by this new road.
Might be a concession to East Mordecai residents, not putting 48 more car trips per day on Clifton.
It’s a subdivision application made by a contract purchaser, they want to see if they can do a subdivision before buying the property from the current church. The current church, btw, is apparently working out of the bigger church to the south, according to their web page. This may be like a phase 1 plan and phase 2 is another set of townhomes on the empty property to the north.
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Awesome! This is exactly the sort of infill development, with more townhomes, that we need more of in Raleigh. Very exciting proposal.
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The large area of green is listed on Wake county records as being owned by “Northgate Properties LLC”.
The plot the townhouses are being built on, are currently still owned by Christ The King Presbyterian. The church’s website says they now meet at Temple Baptist (the larger church on the south side of Clifton). Apparently they outgrew the smaller church. (I had heard that when Milner Presbyterian closed on New Bern, the remaining members joined CTK.) Maybe they’re selling this land to potentially use it to buy or build their own building someplace.
I wonder if the new drive is being aligned with Courtland on purpose, but I recall when I lived in Mordecai that intersection having LOTS of accidents. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out. The design so far definitely implies to me that further development will be forthcoming.
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Yes, definitely a blind curve on Wake Forest Road there.
No, CTK has taken over ownership of Temple Baptist next door. It will be their name officially hear soon once Temple leaves. Luckily the property is in good hands for the foreseeable future.
I believe the Meeker’s purchased the CTK property for around $3M if I’m not mistaken.
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Where is Temple Baptist moving? I have a hard time picturing them moving the large day school program they have there.
Not moving necessarily, but Temple’s congregation alone doesn’t have enough members or new joining members to sustain. The day school will stay, that was the issue with the original church (capital community) that wanted to take ownership, they wouldn’t keep the day school. CTK was willing so an agreement was made.
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I have a kid at the day school so appreciate the insight. You must have some insider knowledge!
Potential denser development for a group of 7 properties near the Idlewild cottages, Falcon Point and some other townhome projects.
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@evan.j.bost - curious to see where this goes.
Several of these parcels have been marketed to developers for over a year, and the two located on Oakwood were sold earlier this month for $785K with RX-3 zoning. The assemblage shows potential, and with the mixed-use zoning, there’s hope for some commercial space to be included. However, Stuart’s previous projects tend to lean toward lower-density developments.
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The other house on the Casitas Aqui lot is down.
And two new houses replacing little Levittown homes within a block as a bonus
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Everytime I see these large new homes replacing modest existing homes, I can’t help but think that we are creating the next generation of NIMBYs.
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Everyone knows upper middle class people who grew up in nice neighborhoods close to city centers never become urbanism fans 
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Have you driven down Ridge Road lately?? It almost makes me sick every week when I drive to church seeing these monstrosities that keep replacing modest sized older homes.
It just makes me think, how are these people affording these houses? What do they do as a profession?
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Yeah, I’ve been watching Ridge for the last few years and have seen the transition to these mansion sized houses. The difference there is that Ridge Rd. has always been an expensive address, and it’s like the rich eating the rich there.
When I was in college, I dated a girl whose family lived on Leonard St. (off Ridge near Wade) At that time, it was a very middle class street and that area of Ridge Rd. was modest sized homes built in the 1950s. Now there are teardowns happening there too. I now see a small house on .31 acre for sale on Leonard that’s being marketed as a teardown for $800K
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The mansion that was built on 625 Glascock Street makes me laugh. It was for sale for well over a year for $1.6 million (or something) and no one bought it. I went to check and it’s been taken off the market, and the listing’s been replaced with pics of the original 900 SF home from the 50s like it never existed. And I don’t think this is an isolated incident. The market can’t support this nonsense.
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I always thought the city should have a huge demolition fee to avoid that from happening, maybe like 5x the tax value of the building or something like that.
The environmental impact of those tear downs is probably pretty bad as well with everything going in the landfill and all the heavy machinery needed for new construction. This really doesn’t happen in other parts of the world. I guess to much money here!
Demolition of old houses to make way for redevelopment is a nature cycle of a cities growth. Making it difficult to demolish historic homes only adds to the affordability crisis because it creates scarcity. Even the most gilded mansions in New York City have been torn down to make way for much higher density (see Cornelius Vanderbilt II House).
Over time, anything that avoids demolition is often deemed “historic,” which suggests that homes constructed by DR Horton in 2024 might require preservation a hundred years from now. I once heard a historian argue that no more than 5% of a city’s buildings should be classified as historic, with those historical building classification remaining changeable.
Having lived in Charleston for nearly a decade, I witnessed the city’s approach to historical preservation, which some might say is taken to an extreme. This has contributed to significant increases in housing prices due to the resulting scarcity. It raises an interesting consideration that while Charleston’s historic charm draws people in, does the restrictive housing market risk turning the city into more of a “theme park” reserved for the wealthy (hotels at $500+ a night and homes costing $1M+). If residents are pushed out and forced to commute to access the region’s benefits, is that truly in the best interest of the broader community?
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