Charlotte has a LOT of ground floor retail along it’s newer developments. Raleigh seems to have not gotten this memo yet that when you build a shitload of housing, people will move into it, then they’ll patronize businesses in walking distance. Seems so many Raleigh developers are short sighted with this “well there’s no foot traffic there now so no reason to build retail” … homie you are BUILDING THE FUTURE FOOT TRAFFIC.
Honestly, you bringing up Charlotte makes me want to bring up a recent trip there. It was pouring rain on a Saturday night and I wasn’t even in “Uptown” … and the streets were TEEMING with people walking around doing stuff. And when I say “pouring rain” I mean absolutely torrential downpour. Yet folks were out and about. Raleigh is very far off from this level of “real city” activity. Clown Charlotte all y’all want… it’s a very cool and very big, bustling city these days.
It’s less than 5 miles from the one on Wake Forest Rd. I feel like Trader Joe’s likes to have a lot of distance between their stores. I’m happy if one wants to go in though…
Turns out when you have sports entertainment venues in downtown plus rail transit that helps a lot. Again just think of the multi-billions of dollars that downtown Raleigh has lost so that the City of Raleigh could save a few hundred million on an entertainment venue with nearly zero development around it for nearly 25 years.
Imagine if Fayetteville looked like this at least 150 times a year (the number of events held at PNC arena yearly)?
Yeah probably nothing but there’s rumors that Trader Joe’s might be going into the new tower in downtown Durham but the closest Trader Joe’s is 7 miles away. Maybe a Whole Foods or a Harris Teeter. Anything but Food Lion or Aldi personally however I think the demographics will mean they will not even consider.
I think that this is a key metric. The Village District has prevented investment in retail downtown for decades because it’s so close to downtown. If we all remember our history, this is made even worse because it was Cameron Village that stole downtown’s retail in the first place.
Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Costco, even North Hills are all within like 4 miles of downtown. Crabtree isn’t much further. The way to battle this phenomena is add more housing and create more demand. More projects like The Weld will go a long way in creating that demand.
Oh interesting! I hadn’t heard anything about that. It’s definitely an annoying anomaly that Durham doesn’t have one. I’d be psyched because I work near downtown and visit weekly. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
It would be an interesting thing to watch if DT Durham got a Trader Joe’s because the business is historically stingy on providing parking. At Raleigh’s Wake Forest Rd location, shoppers can spill into adjacent shared lots in the center. In Miami Beach, parking is limited but a huge percentage of folks walk there due to thousands upon thousands of residences within a few blocks. How might a walk-first store like TJs fare in one of the Triangle’s downtowns? If it fared well, then we might get another one. If it fails due to folks trying to park there, it could kill urban expansion for the Triangle’s foreseeable future.
There is a big built in deck. I’d have to think some of those spots could be for retail customers. Obviously pure speculation. But you’d have all the Duke students and the tenants, which is a good customer base already built in.
There’s no actual source to this rumor – just someone on reddit saying “so I heard x. Anyone have details?” No one had details.
That said, I spoke to someone today who was given a tour by the developer a while back, and apparently ALP was courting grocers at the time. So… it wouldn’t be the most far-fetched idea if they were successful, even though the building doesn’t really seem set up for a grocer.
Agreed, we do need more housing. I’d add and say that we need more micro-retail units included in new developments (commercial, office & residential, etc.).
Agreed. It seems though that the development model is larger parcels that the developers hope land large, national brands and large format retail. I agree that we need more small/micro retail opportunities. Think the size of the 321 Coffee space.
