William Peace and Seaboard Station

I thought that was the plan to slowly move the Cameron Village buildings towards the streets (like they did along Oberlin) and build parking decks behind/in the center of each block. I lived on Smallwood Dr in college and this was always my dream as I walked through CV every day to go to class. But with the newer development, I think/hope this is starting to become a reality. But it will take a long time for it to all be rebuilt and shuffle tenants around.

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HT really needs to figure out a reconfiguration. All grocery stores fail miserably by putting the main travel lane directly in front of the store where every single person *has to walk. With HT, the shopper to space ration is out of control. All this to stay, I hope Seaboard knows how to stitch together the downtown concepts with the very dense shopping concepts into something less than a cluster like CV is, if its even possible. It’s such a car dependent crowd, this upper class downtown Raleigh old money group.

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Not sure about this because the planning is in early stages .

Ty. I thought that was the case but didn’t want to assume.

The Oracle of Raleigh development has spoken! :wink:

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Thanks Jack ! It is a good friend of mine !

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In this location it will be hard to not make a successful project and I am happy that Raleigh is attractive to an out of town developer like Hoffman and the added density!

Personally however I did not like what they did at the Wharf. I visited during recent trip to DC for the cherry blossoms.
Although very busy that weekend it felt sterile and a bit boring, a random collection of buildings patters similar to North Hills mixed with Hibernian style bars. Little to no preservation of the gritty feel of the area that was there before

.

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Lol so looking at these pictures I’m like, man that’s actually what I wish Raleigh had. I think that every time I go to an area like this. Whole sections of modern, clean, attractive buildings with stuff going on at the ground level.

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I agree @GucciLittlePig. If you want gritty, hop over to the iron district.

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Well, the plan is make that not gritty too. Really, Raleigh has lost almost all of its grit. However new grit is materializing just OTB on corridors like Capital, New Bern, and Wake Forest. It’s just a humorless sort of grit with no redeeming qualities architecturally or historically. Just cheap rent for car detailing and ethnic food places. We also get fake grit in places like Transfer Food Hall…sure the brick is exposed but it’s shiny as hell inside. We’ll never again see the grit that was middle class businesses in urban cores. and definitely not again in Raleigh.

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As someone who grew up around “true grit” :grin:, I hate the ‘manufactured grit’ fad at overpriced restaurants and shops that are more about image than the product. Now, historic details and architecture are timeless and universal, and I’d pay above to experience it.

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I shudder the thought of Five Star’s eventually closing to make way for the bus terminal/mixed use project. It’s my favorite “gritty” places in Raleigh. Humble Pie comes in second place.

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Same. Maybe we can be guerilla grit makers and go around chipping new bricks and pouring muriatic acid on stuff

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I am sure that this is a strange question. But a serious one…:blush:
Has anyone actually tried to talk with the owners know if they plan to stay in the area? :thinking:

The nature of Raleigh’s economy, largely based on the state government and universities never really lent itself to “true grit”. We weren’t a port, or an important train hub, or even an interstate crossroads. I recall reading once that Hillsborough St was one long garden party - all the big houses were built not by folks who made their money here, but came because of the social importance of the capital. Clearly, this is not an absolute, the mills, trains & working class folks were here - but this was never an industrial or transportation center. What little was there is indeed fleeting.

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Yeah the whole railroad arc from Seaboard (including the roundhouse and maintenance shops all the way though the powerhouse and on to the old Union Station and down to the other roundhouse at Davie/Harrington was the major grit corridor. Not nothing, but not New Orleans or Richmond either. The other area was around the market house and Wilmington St which was the cotton warehouse and exchange area of town. All of that until about WWII. The car both changed the economy permanently and moved commerce and residents out of town for a whole different kind of grit…that of poverty and decay.

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The Cotton Mill will likely remain a gritty icon as everything around it gets modernized. Since it’s condos, it’s not likely to go away.

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Although I’m not a fan of the Wharf area in DC (more of a Adam’s Morgan type of guy) - I’m not sure what else we can expect from any new development in Raleigh. It will fit right in here - clean, modern, attractive but also boring and sterile. We’d be lucky if it turned out like this.

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Looks like a Site Review case for “Block A” popped up on the Raleigh Wire, don’t see anything yet on the City Development page. Anyone have more info?

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So far all I can see is that it’s for 0.96 acres and 311,400 sqft.

This is the property in question. For reference, the “heated area” of the existing buildings is 21,485 sqft.

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