Our Raleigh-based developers sure love passing on local projects for Nashville ones for sure. lol
3 Likes
I wish we could send some your way. We currently have a lot more Under construction and proposed and in planning than most any mid-sized city in the country. I have the list as I call it and there are 116 high-rise projects, and I would say 80% have a high chance of happening. Some of those are long range mixed-use projects by big time developers.
I think Raleigh can get some of those types of projects and there is room to grow around the downtown area. Nashvilleās curse and blessing is there are large parcels of vacant land on the East bank of the river that is about to be developed.
The key is building residential high-rise projects downtown and the demographics will demand more buildings of that nature.
Raleigh has Charlotteās problem is that there is no river running through the downtown area and a river front is a huge plus for any city.
The advantage Raleigh has is a grid on the East side of downtown that can be open for development, IMO. I canāt remember if there are a lot of historic home there or not. If not, that area can be a natural area for growth of the downtown.
Now is the time to save your historic buildings as Nashville did not save many of theirs, and the ones on lower Broad have been bastardized with rooftop bars and additions and that was allowed by out Historic commission.
The other problem Raleigh has is they are competing with Durham and Chapel Hill a little, but Raleigh is by far the dominant city. You have a lot going for you with being the state capital!
If the city council is smart, they will try and keep as many of the large developments close to the core as possible and get the height of the buildings taller.
We have been round and round with that here in Nashville as well. What was not allowed 10 years ago in some parts of town is all the sudden allowed because of the growth, so if any of you have any influence with the council, the restrictions need to be lifted now instead of later. Where a 20 story was barely allowed, it is now surrounded by some 4 & 5 hundred footers out of necessity and land values.
24 Likes
This is good info, thank you Ron!
1 Like
Youāre preaching to the choir here, Ron. Iād file most of this under the āNo shit!ā category, but unfortunately Raleigh has proven to be a āwait till it becomes a problem, THEN do somethingā city.
1 Like
On the east side of downtown, itās a tale of two cities with regard to saving historic structures (mostly homes). On the one hand, the Oakwood historic district is a fully matured historic neighborhood with a strong history of preservation. On the other hand, the east side also has a large swath of rapid gentrification going on thatās most remaining lower density residential. Thereās certainly not tower type development being discussed in this gridded residential/neighborhood area.
I may be wrong in this presumption, but I canāt actually think of any site east of the one in this topic (222 E Morgan) that has any towers proposed. Most of the tower energy seems to be focused on the west side of downtown within an already mixed use context. Of course, thereās also a focus on the so called Downtown South development just a mile or so south of downtown proper.
2 Likes
We do have a lot of great developments currently under construction or on the way but many of them are still in the planning stages.
2 Likes
Guess it could be worse. We could be Richmond and get 1 new tower every 7 years haha.
5 Likes
The former DMV site would be an excellent candidate if we can get the state to play ball. 
Also, the area around WakeMed (see: the site behind the Walgreens thatās been discussed on another thread here and was recently shopped).
6 Likes
I did find out; The Post Road Group has two more projects for Tampa, and I did a little research and found their money source. It looks as if they have some big NYC money behind them.
1 Like
Yes, the somewhat gridded area south of downtown, between MLK on the north, Lake Wheeler on the west, I-40 on the south, and Hammond Road on the east, is the most likely target for expanding downtown.
6 Likes
I think our council pro-development and Iām gonna paste this and send it to one of the council members way.
2 Likes
Cool,
Some of our Council is pro-development, but the Nashville council is very large at 40 seats which sometimes makes things hard to get passed. We are a Metro Govt., but even at that, it is large. The biggest hurdle is from the rural members that think all of the money is being spent downtown, but they need to realize that is the economic engine of the city or in our case the state. We are sort of the Charlotte here with no other city growing unlike what you have in NC. The hardest issues that have had to pass were funding for incentive packages for Amazon, Oracle, the new MLS soccer stadium and now will be funding for a new 2.2 billion NFL stadium. Those are the ones that raise the big stinks such as the new convention center that was heavily criticized, but now looks like a genius move.
The biggest problem we are having right now is infrastructure not keeping up i.e., water lines, sewer lines, and the worst is our codes department.
Sewer projects, water projects, electric, and worst of all codes is running around 6 months behind.
So, there are cost to a lot of development. Itās just a matter of getting them all through the pipeline. They can pile up on you. Too much development can be a curse.
7 Likes
We need to urbanize MLKJr Blvd between downtown and the South Park area. Letās be real it was originally designed to red line. Now itās a barrier between downtown and the downtown south and Dix Park areas. Itās time to make that part of the road compact (4 car lanes) and offer generous walking and bike lanes and protected medians. Especially with the BRT coming. Realignment of Wilmington Street would be great too but not sure how to go about it.
Thereās no reason this strip of road needs to be a stroad. What are car driving saving? 15 seconds?
This section of Wilmington Street is just dumb and a legacy of car-only thinking of the 20th century.
14 Likes
āoriginally designed to red lineā - could you source that for us please?
I just recall the Western extension being a big deal - dead ended into Boylan Heights was crazy, lol - and where it connected being renamed MLK. This was back when many N. Ral roads were realigned so we we had some real crosstown connections. (I am sure @John has many a driving story about how crazy N. Ral was in this regard). I thought what became MLK was there for a long time before, under a different name and hardly was a barrier to residential purchases. But I never tried to buy a house in the last century.
To your greater point, I agree completely. Greater density and walkablity along this road seems a no-brainier.
Wilmington will be dieted with a cycle track soon. MLK could use some urban upgrades but thereās no ROW in the residential section. Even taking a lane would be hard to get a median, cycle track, and better sidewalks.
A big help is coming though with the stroll way on Lenior which will connect Dix and Chavis.
4 Likes
The point of redlining is that you donāt say the racist part out loud. But with the highway that never got built in the east it would have basically blocked the historically black areas (South Park. East Raleigh) near downtown Raleigh completely from downtown via high speed road barriers and making easier for financial institutes to discriminate by looking at a map.
6 Likes
Ah, I understand now how are you using. My thoughts went more to something like the N/S freeway in Chicago where African Americans could not buy west of, red lines draw by banks/insurance companies/realtors that kept these areas off limits. The southern states really didnāt need de facto set ups like red lines because they simple enacted them into law.
I did not know that this route was slated to be a freeway. It certainly would have split Black communities. You can certainly see the effect of this in Durham.
Thanks for your clarification.
Not saying the racist part out loud? Goodness, there were plenty of people who would say the racist part not out loud in a yelling voice!!
1 Like
While I havenāt seen any old redline maps for Raleigh, I know that they existed like they did all over the nation. Banks created loan risk guidance that was āsurprisinglyā tied to race. Essentially if you lived in a black neighborhood, it was considered a high risk and the banks wouldnāt loan to you. One might then say āwhy wouldnāt a black family with means then just move to a white neighborhood where they could get a loan?ā. Well, the problem there was that those neighborhoods had covenants that prevented black families from living in them. So, if you were black and needed a loan to buy a house, you were pretty much screwed. You couldnāt get one where you lived because the banks saw the location as a risk, and you couldnāt move into a white neighborhood where you could get a loan because covenants kept you out.
I do remember when Western connected into Boylan Heights before Western bypassed it to the south and aligned with MLK. You can still see where Western transitioned if you know what you are looking for. As you head east past the prison, look to your left through the trail that leads to Cabarrus St. That used to be where Cabarrus connected to the east end of Western.
MLK was another road that was made up of connecting and rerouting existing streets. When MLK and Western were fused, there was a lot of discussion about the name(s). Needless to say, they landed on keeping 2 different names like they did for connected stretches in north Raleigh.
I remember all of the alignments and pre-alignment days of north Raleigh as well. East/West connections through north Raleigh used to be zigzag affairs that also passed through neighborhoods from time to time. Millbrook used to zigzag just to stay on the same road, and Shelley was a much more heavily travelled corridor. A similar story can be told for Spring Forest/Lynn and Strickland Road that my dad used to take to get to IBM in the park in the pre-540 days. They were all a mess, and they all have markers of yesteryear with the confusing road name changes that seem to be completely random today.
15 Likes
This was a fascinating read. Thanks!
6 Likes
Let me recommend a great read call āArc of Justiceā by Kevin Boyle (Owl Books, 2004) that looks at this issue in Detroit in the 1920s. A black doctor tries to move his family out of the āBlack Bottomā section of Detroit. Because of redlining he has to pay about 3x the houses value and in cash. Naturally a doctor moving into the neighborhood caused a riot, and someone in his house fires into the mob, killing one and wounding another as the house was stormed. Boyle does a great job using this story to discuss the emergence of de facto housing segregation in the North during the 1920s, and the NCAAPās effort to fight segregation from moving North. This case actually provided the fundraising to establish the NCAAPās Legal Defense Fund, which is so instrumental to the destruction of de jure, if not de facto, segregation. I use this book in class, it won the Nation Book Award, and think all many of you would both enjoy it and find it a rewarding read.
Sorry for hijacking @Francisco initial point on urbanizing MLK Blvd!! And to everyone who thinks there has been some news on the Marbles parking lot!!
3 Likes