Yep people do just set on land. I have 5ac lot I bought 30 years ago for 19k (25k if include taxes for 30 years) and is now for sale and good estimate will sale in 180k range (listed for more). That works out as a 21% per year return.
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I agree with you totally. Rent it for what the market will pay, or hold out for you think it should be worth and in the mean time generate some income from it for goodness sakes. It only makes common sense, so why not economic sense?
My guesses: trash clean up & liability insurance. Insurance will come with lighting and security responsibilities and push the parking to where its not worth the time & money. Who knows. The only thing you can count on is that people aren’t predictable.
I would be sitting on them also in order to have a better shot at a zoning or variance change. They are prime locations for future growth.
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Jolie sneak peek! Stopped in today for a sneak peek of Jolie and for a meet and greet with some of the council candidates at Crawford & Son.
The bistro inside seats 30 and has pretty well hidden sound absorption panels in the walls to keep the ambient noise down.
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The rooftop seats another 35 and will have an umbrella with heaters and walls for all year seating.
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Scott Crawford talking about the dream behind Jolie and the incredible pains the city put he and his investors through to get to this place. What should have taken 3 months took a year and way more money then ever anticipated. His investors almost pulled out 3 different times.
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I’d love to meet up with him and get an understanding of what, specifically, happened here and then advocate for change in those areas to our electeds. Were any specifics mentioned, @OakCityDylan?
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Isn’t this the project they (led by Stef) forced him to do something crazy about a wall on the back of the patio or something?
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Wow! Those photos are stunning! We ate at The Station the other night, and it looked nearly finished. Did they mention an open date?
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Not too specific but Meeker can probably expand on it since he, Scott, and the Bida Monda folks were all going through similar pains around the same time with construction delays.
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They’re hoping to have a passing health inspection today, start training today and get their ABC permit this week. Could start serving as soon as end of next week. Keep your eyes peeled on their Twitter/Inst/web for opportunities for reservations in the coming days!
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I was there for the first tour he gave and it sounds like a lot of things came up, so it would be a great write up of things to streamline to your point. He couldn’t get approval to put any roofing even with completely open sides on the rooftop deck. So he ended up ordering a really expensive and really big umbrella from Germany. He joked that all the delays he kept getting gave him time to really get an awesome umbrella.
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My understanding is the person who lives next to Pelagic is responsible for those stupid parking stickers around there now…with times that mysteriously happen to match Pelagic’s operating hours almost perfectly. My guess is that person also be-ached about Jolie.
That’s right. Concerns, from only her, over noise from the rooftop.
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How does one person have so much power?
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I perceive things to be a result of a terribly weak city staff that has no protection from upper level management. My perception is that the city managers and his assistants do not want to upset council, becoming incredibly more risk-averse.
In my mind, it’s all council. If we had a council that told our city manager, “Make things happen faster or else it’s your job.” They would easily respond. Instead, the direction is, “We need to take in ALL citizen input, every single voice must have a say.” and here we are.
There’s something wrong with the way we’re doing public engagement. I sort of can describe it but not sure exactly what is going on.
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There are so many issues.
Council members without adequate backgrounds or temperament.
A new City Attorney.
A new City Manager after firing the previous manager.
A Planning Director who was promoted from within.
City Staff turnover, poor retention.
A UDO that relies on pictures rather than words.
None of that lends itself towards running a city growing like we are. Since we have so many new elements there is a severe lack of predictability. Hopefully we’ll end up with a better situation at the top after the next election.
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I agree to a certain extent but can’t really prove that some of those are a negative.
From my perception, it’s like mob rule. (but way less violent of course) It’s like we are giving power to every single person which results in a “death by committee” situation. If you work in corporate culture, you should know what I mean.
Now this is typically seen as a negative view. I could be slammed for saying that some residents should not have a say, should not have a voice in certain matters.
I think the problem is that we are micro-managing the city. Certain neighborhoods are getting their own special overlay districts, custom-tailored for them. (See NCODs) Councilors are meeting with individuals or small groups to put out these small “fires” across the city like rezonings or teardowns.
I’d like to see the council STOP doing this, let staff do their job, and start worrying about big picture stuff. If you don’t like how the Jolie rooftop will be designed, start working with restaurant owners on an all encompassing rooftop design guideline that applies to the whole city.
If you don’t want houses torn down for parking lots, understand why the owners desire more parking and start to support things that help reduce the building of surface parking lots.
If don’t like Smoky Hollow phase 3 because it doesn’t have affordable housing, start working on an affordable housing strategy and implementation plan for the entire city.
I’ve long thought of running a series on the blog called, “The Micromanaging of Downtown Raleigh” and I think these are just some of the examples that could be mentioned.
So far, I think THIS is the problem with public engagement in Raleigh.
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Individually those things aren’t all negative.
When you put them all together it’s a problem.
That is how elected politicians get reelected. They pander to those who vote for them in order to ensure the votes. They have no real moral compass to guide them other than to get reelected and stay in power.
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So am I just pointing out the obvious??? 
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Maybe not obvious. Just my interpretation. But maybe I am a bit jaded about politicians and why they seem to do the things they do…