William Peace and Seaboard Station

At one time, and maybe still, MAB lived in The Cotton Mill.
I suppose that I should have said “what would you like to see accomplished”.
I’ll reiterate that the specific location isn’t all that conducive being a 3rd place because foot access isn’t the best for large numbers of people. It’s isolated by major roads and a railroad.
IMO, I’ve always thought that the old mill building that houses Mulino was an interesting opportunity for what you seek.

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BRT is coming to Peace Street, if everything needs a mega parking structure what’s the point of BRT or downtown?

Mulino already a good example of active use of a structural asset that is open to the public.

Reminds me of this recent meme on Reddit:

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Agreed about parking, but I’m even more interested in putting more people in the walk shed of downtown amenities and assets so those residents can be the foundation of patrons to keep these sort of places financially afloat. IMO, we should rely less on bringing people into downtown to make businesses viable. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t bring people downtown; I’m just saying that businesses should be able to rely more on people who are in their immediate locations.

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Agreed. Downtown should be self-sustaining.

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Seaboard Ave getting redone this week. I’m sure the retailers can’t wait for this to be done. I’m optimistic Seaboard Station will be better than ever.

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We went to Logan’s the weekend before last and it’s a complete cluster over there. Not even signed appropriately, just a free-for-all. Glad to see it’s getting closer to being done.

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I wonder how long the small single story strip center across the street remains unchanged?
Even if they didn’t raise that strip and replace it with something taller, it would be cool if they could figure out how to provide outdoor rooftop space to at least part of it.

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I HOPE that they offer these newly available spaces for the existing businesses along that strip to move into - and for the same lease price they currently have - and once all businesses in that strip have either relocated or just canceled their lease, THEN they redevelop the strip. I would really hate to see them start kicking those businesses to the curb without some sort of fair and reasonable plan in place.

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With the huge caveat that I like many of the businesses in that strip and would like them to survive, what is “fair and reasonable” for a business with a year-to-year lease?

Wouldn’t just not renewing it at the end of the term with decent warning ahead of time be a fair thing?

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I’m saying that, since this development would be actively displacing longstanding local businesses, I’d like to see the developers offer them new leases in their newly built retail spaces but for the same or at least as reasonable a price as their current leases.

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If you’re talking about the strip immediately behind Shell with Bad Daddy’s, et al, I’m not sure that’ll happen because I think that strip has a completely different owner.
OR, if you’re talking about the strip with the O2/Ace, then yeah, that would be the way to go, however I think any change to that building is far far down the line of their plans.

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:point_up: This is correct. The (newer) Hoffman stuff is all set up under phased LLCs but the strip along Peace (by the service station) is owned by a different FL based group…

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Things are starting to appear at Seaboard. The eyeglasses store is actually open right now.

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I am happy to see these opening, and shall yield my remaining time to my aforementioned comment about milkshakes bringing boys to the yard.

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the hell are those things? they look like light + speaker hybrids or something

5g mind control devices, of course

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Bollards and awnings, oh my!

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They’re just lights. This appears to be a signature of the developer as they have them on the DC Wharf as well.

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Not to be a downer but I’m starting to get Fenton vibes. We’re headed for a dark place when even developments in the downtown core start looking like fake simulated cityscapes.

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That’s not a downer to me. I wish we had more stuff downtown like Fenton, Iron Works, and North Hills. There’s a reason so many people like them, and why they’re doing well. If we’re not careful, our downtown could easily lose out to them as they become safe havens with better options.

So many cities have these new, modern, somewhat fake (compared to old bones urban) districts. Seaport in Boston, LoDo in Denver, the Barcode in Oslo… But they all attract a bunch of young and middle aged people with money. I don’t think that’s a bad thing for a small but growing downtown like Raleigh.

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