Always thought if we ever get a north/south light rail system that Logan’s would become a station. Hopefully the redevelopment doesn’t prevent such a thing from happening.
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would be nice to convert the old platform to a greenway path and continuing along the tracks and then a pedestrian bridge over to five points.
maybe incorporate some of it like the Atlanta Beltline shed area near Ponce.
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Yea, it’s actually called Seaboard Cafe, but Rick’s the owner and they’re only open 11am-2:30pm Monday through Saturday. I used to sell him produce and we mentioned he should adjust his hours slightly and even open Sundays, but he seems content with those hours.
Honestly if Logan’s got creative with the current space they have now, they could easily make it work. There’s space behind the building to go vertical with their storage instead of occupying the needed floor space that could be used for additional parking. That seems to be their biggest handicap is the limited parking and storage, both could be solved by constructing something similar to what you see in Lowe’s garden center.
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Sounds like it will be status quo for a little while, but the property will eventually get redeveloped. I have shopped there many times and enjoy the historic feel.
It would be nice if they would keep the old structure. I’m doubtful that will happen, but we will see. Would definitely be a shame to lose that piece of History.
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Oh what a shame, that’s one of Raleigh’s bits of unique personality I always talk to people from out of town about. Seaboard is a good, needed development, but that’s an unfortunate part of a trend to a mini-Charlotte vibe (even though it’s a DC developer).
A pedestrian bridge to Five Points would be a gamechanging piece to tie neighborhoods together instead of the islands of disparate development we’re seeing just north of DTR. Capital Blvd. is such a physical and mental wall right now.
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Hmm. Honestly, the idea of Logan’s leaving is sad, but I actually don’t shop there. I use ACE a lot and actually prefer Atlantic Garden bc their prices are a little fairer from my experience. Now if Peace China and Ace are forced out, you’ll see me up in arms!
I’ve thought about this and there are a couple of ways this could work. If you’re going to do it just as a bridge, go from the cul-de-sac at the end of Haynes St, to the corner of Bickett and Hanover. The elevation is high on either end, so creates a relatively flat route that carries you over both railroads and Capital Blvd. You’d want to connect to the Pigeon House Branch trail in the middle, but the bridge would be 30 feet in the air at that point, so the connection wouldn’t necessarily be an easy one to make. It would be 1700 feet long, which is three times as long as the pedestrian bridge at the Art Museum.
Eastern end of the bridge:
Western end of the bridge:
The second option would start from the intersection of Mulberry & Marshall, and go through a tunnel under the CSX RR. At perhaps 200 feet, this would be a long tunnel - though perhaps not quite the longest pedestrian tunnel in the area: it would be comparable to the tunnel that carries the Rocky Branch greenway under McDowell/Dawson. Next, it turns south, heading that way for about 500 ft, climbing (perhaps along the edge of the RR’s embankment) up a relatively gentle 3% grade. Next it curves back west, onto a bridge, continuing to climb, up and over Capital and the NS railroad tracks, ending at the same spot as the option above (Bickett & Hanover). The route is longer, and the tunnel would be expensive (though not especially challenging) to build, but the portion on a bridge is shorter (1000ft) and the connection to Pigeon House would be much better this way.
Eastern tunnel portal (Mordecai side)
Western tunnel portal (Capital Blvd/Pigeon House Branch side)
Western end of the bridge would be the same as option 1 above:
I feel that this vicinity is the right place for a connection across the Capital Blvd chasm because there is a 1.5 mile gap between the Peace Street and Wake Forest Road crossings, and this is right at the halfway point.
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A third way that I just now thought of is, since Raleigh has been making noise about closing the Fairview Road ramp onto Capital Boulevard, just leave that embankment in place, and build a bridge connecting from there to Haynes Street as in option 1 above. The upside is that this is shorter and simpler than either option above, and connects more directly to five points; the downside is that this is contingent on closing Fairview and would require a grade crossing of the Norfolk Southern railroad, or a tunnel under it.
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This is the winner. And I don’t necessarily think it requires closing the bridge to cars. Maybe just close the southbound lane since that route is redundant (and also dangerous). And just have the path as a separated lane there (maybe full concrete jersey barrier separation and not plastic bollards).
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The buyer is Turnbridge Equities. The same NY developer working on the Creamery project. So we should see some good action happening on this property when they decide to make a move.
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J Betski’s too! At least that one is moving elsewhere.
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You’re quite right. That southbound, left-hand onramp is redundant, unnecessary, and possibly dangerous. Tying this connection in with the east end of the existing Fairview bridge over Capital Blvd reduces the length by 100 feet (to 900 feet) and entirely eliminates the dependency on closing Fairview.
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I couldn’t believe this route wasn’t even considered during the Capital Blvd planning study in 2012. They did do the analysis on similar routes to your other two.
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True, but most likely given this property abuts train tracks most likely to end up a two level parking deck… 
The Logan property is 2.92 acres. I wonder why Hoffman didn’t snap it up, if for no other reason they could control what goes there. They already own 7 parcels totaling 6.95 acres, so maybe they didn’t need the additional acreage or it wouldn’t fit into their plans. Or they could have been outbid by Turnbridge.
Parcels with red circles are owned by Hoffman. The Logan parcel is indicated by the blue circle.
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As an aside, I enjoy walking around Logan’s but nurseries like this pump their plants full of fertilizer. When they go in the ground, they may or may not be able to adapt to actually drawing nutrients from the soil. You’re not starting with healthily prepared plants. It’s a different shopping experience but I like fieldtocottage.com or curenursery.com. Cure is a trek down a long gravel road in Pittsboro but I’ve had great luck with both.
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Progress update while getting my Christmas tree at Logan’s. It looks remarkably imposing coming up the hill from the entrance to Seaboard.
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That tower is only 40 meters tall
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When was the last time the City gave a developer a hard time about demolishing an historic structure?
Well they’re either landmarked or they’re not, right? Giving a non-specific “hard time” isn’t really something goverments do.
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