Ok, on that subject. What do you want to see go in that space?
Movie theater? Restaurant? Bar? Performance venue (like Cats Cradle or Lincoln Theater)?

7/8/2012 7:02:29 PM

I think a performance venue would be pretty cool. It's large enough and since The Brewery closed down, there isn't any actual building dedicated to that near campus. Other than Shakedown, which is tiny and Sadlack's which is a pub.

7/8/2012 7:43:08 PM

That would be cool, just don't cater yourself to hardcore acts/angry 15 year olds like the brewery did. The Brewery seemed to have little connection at all to state students despite being right down the street.

7/8/2012 8:21:48 PM

Well, that shithole of a building wasn't really conducive to any other crowd.

7/8/2012 8:39:20 PM

What's happening to the bowling alley? Spotted some large holes cut into the facade this week.

7/11/2012 10:43:30 AM

they had some signs up when i was in there a while back about an exterior porch/deck "coming soon". Maybe they're actually doing that?

7/11/2012 2:25:21 PM

I do think a performance venue would be perfect for the former HST location. After all, it started life as a movie theater.

Hell--they could even use the marquee. It's still got neon, just replace the signage with space for announcing acts.

7/11/2012 2:28:53 PM

yes they are. they posted the pictures on facebook the other day.

7/11/2012 5:51:40 PM

Just about anything would be an improvement over the look of the former Western Lanes building. I wonder if in addition to this new porch, they will also be overhauling the rest of the facade?

7/12/2012 1:49:41 PM

If you like this sort of shit like I do it pays to check this page weekly...
http://www.raleighnc.gov/business/content/PlanCurrent/Articles/CurrentDevelopmentActivity.html

1. Looks like Valentine is positioning to build a 9 story 114 unit apartment and mixed use building (up to 110 feet tall) at the corner of Concord & Hillsborough, next to Lulu. This gives some shape to the final piece of the Stanhope Center/Valentine Commons development that was previously nothing more than a shaded box on a site plan. This is a pretty big change as existing zoning calls for a 40 foot height limit there.

http://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PlanLongRange/Documents/Zoning/RezoningCases/2012/Z-037-12.pdf


2. There is a rezoning request for some of the land near the FMW apartments at Hillsborough & Morgan but it's not really clear what's changed. Maybe they're including some more properties in the overlay district.

http://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PlanLongRange/Documents/Zoning/RezoningCases/2012/Z-034-12.pdf


3. The rezoning request for the Bell Tower Redevelopment (Sadlacks ETC) has been filed. The building will be up to 80 feet tall. http://www.raleighnc.gov/content/PlanLongRange/Documents/Zoning/RezoningCases/2012/Z-036-12.pdf

7/12/2012 3:40:31 PM

Hello Urban Planet moderator. I knew I was getting deja vu with some of these posts.

7/12/2012 4:52:20 PM

Western Lanes patio is looking pretty cheap.

7/12/2012 5:01:31 PM

I find it hard to believe you expected anything better.

7/12/2012 5:30:08 PM

I'VE BEEN FOUND OUT!!!

But seriously, I'm a real junkie for urban development.

7/12/2012 5:31:12 PM

^^ I'm not surprised, but it looks like second rate residential work.

7/12/2012 6:55:06 PM

Performance space or porno theater

7/12/2012 7:02:14 PM

Performance porno?

7/12/2012 7:37:05 PM

Ah yes, Hillsborough Street, soon to be known for our abundance of student-aimed high rise developments and bad pizza places.

7/12/2012 8:47:07 PM

The whole Valentine Commons complex is supposed to have 520 units once it's finished - a big portion of which will be 4 bedrooms per unit. All I can say is, this many more people (1500?) living right on Hillsborough Street will be awesome... I'm especially glad to see something being done to stem the tide of students migrating further and further from campus. (Tryon Road? WTF.)

7/13/2012 11:51:47 AM

^ It's extremely convenient to Centennial Campus, which is set to explode in the next 15 years.

But near campus housing is a critical issue for all of the hipster/psuedo-hipster kids who want to ride their bikes everywhere and drink coffee outside of Cup-A-Joes.

[Edited on July 13, 2012 at 12:35 PM. Reason : ]

7/13/2012 12:34:25 PM

Or people who just like to be able to walk. I lived in the first block of Dixie Trail for my senior year and it was incredibly convenient not to have to get in a car or on a bus to go to class...

7/13/2012 12:45:01 PM

No, only hipsters like not having to drive everywhere they go and having bars, restaurants and retail within walking distance of where they live.

7/13/2012 12:45:55 PM

It seems as though everyone other than myself is associating hipster with a negative connotation.

7/13/2012 2:23:13 PM

I don't necessarily have a negative connotation with it personally, but I think most people do. Either way, I don't like marginalizing things like bicycling or high density living as something only hipsters or some small demographic does.

7/13/2012 2:26:57 PM

Quote :

"Western Lanes patio is looking pretty cheap."

Holy crap, yes, it is. Drove past there today and it looks utterly ridiculous--an obviously plastic/vinyl neoclassic-ish railing in the middle of a giant hole in the facade. Not only does it look cheap, but unless they redo the entire facade, the clash in styles with the modernist look of the building is just absurd.

7/13/2012 3:04:32 PM

i was hoping they were going to take all the panels off, but with the addition of that top part here: http://www.newraleigh.com/article/wtf-classical-additions-to-modernist-building-on-hills-st/

my guess is that they're not

7/17/2012 11:50:43 AM

ROFL

7/17/2012 12:06:08 PM

haha a bunch of hipsters getting bent out of shape about a RAILING.

7/17/2012 1:16:30 PM

Everyone who worries about Hillsborough St looking like shit is a hipster.

7/17/2012 2:16:34 PM

Never realized I was a hipster before now, good to know.

[Edited on July 17, 2012 at 4:44 PM. Reason : d]

7/17/2012 4:44:36 PM

Maybe the bowling alley is ashamed of the silly railing covering that giant hole...they put up an equally ridiculous banner today that now covers up that whole area. The only word I can make out on it (from the 8th floor of DH Hill) is EXPLOSIVE!

Now that I look at the rest of this thread though, it says something in yellow below that, and says Melvin's at the bottom I think.

7/17/2012 5:02:52 PM

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/19/2206624/charlotte-developer-has-ambitious.html

Quote :

"Charlotte developer has ambitious plans for Hillsborough Street Given its track record of successfully assembling large tracts of land in Charlotte, it’s not surprising that developer FMW Real Estate is quickly becoming the most important player in the redevelopment of Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street. With the first phase of its apartment project at West Morgan and Hillsborough streets expected to be complete early next year, the Charlotte-based developer is already planning several encores. Last month, FMW filed a rezoning petition for an adjacent 1.6-acre site that it also plans to redevelop. The site could be home to as many as 175 apartment units. That would be in addition to the 249 units and 10,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and office space now under construction. FMW is developing that project, currently called 925 W. Morgan, for Faison & Associates, which acquired the 3.5-acre site last year. FMW still owns 4 acres along Morgan and Hillsborough streets, and expects to close on an additional 2.5 acres by the end of the year. That includes land and buildings surrounding Charlie Goodnight’s comedy club."

7/20/2012 3:22:26 PM

http://www.newraleigh.com/article/the-alleys-classical-additions-continue-reportedly-only-temporary/

Railings over The Alley are only temporary.

7/20/2012 4:48:19 PM

"Nine-story building now part of Stanhope"

RALEIGH – A Raleigh developer is thinking bigger in his plans for a mixed-use project along Hillsborough Street near N.C. State University – bigger as in a nine-story building instead of a three-story structure envisioned 10 years ago.

The high-rise would be the focal point of a three-building project called Stanhope Center that would include a parking deck proposed by developer Melton “Val” Valentine. Slated for completion in August is a fourth building, a 277-unit student housing complex called Valentine Commons.

By making the building taller at the corner of Concord Street, Valentine says he’ll be able to add more ...

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/print-edition/2012/07/20/nine-story-building-now-part-of-stanhope.html

7/26/2012 6:56:56 PM

^If done well, that sounds like more good news. The only beef I have with it is that it will block the yellow bulldozer sign from view from the east (campus side).

^^Glad to hear the hideous railings are temporary. The cornice caps still look out of place though.

7/27/2012 12:27:23 PM

Quote :

"Given its track record of successfully assembling large tracts of land in Charlotte, it’s not surprising that developer FMW Real Estate is quickly becoming the most important player in the redevelopment of Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street."

I've heard about them before. They got off to a rough start, built a building but it sank into the swamp. So they built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So they built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up.

7/27/2012 1:35:56 PM

Quote :

"Glad to hear the hideous railings are temporary."

They look permanent to me. I just drove past and they now have some cheap residential french doors from Home Depot mounted behind the rail.

7/27/2012 3:27:55 PM

Move in day at Valentine Commons is August 11th, in 2 weeks. When I went by about a week ago it looked like they still had a way to go. I guess they will be pulling all nighters every night until then. It will be interesting to see whether 900+ new students living right there will make the sidewalks on Hillsborough seem any busier.

Supposedly Val Valentine has been sitting on the Valpark land for over 40 years, so it's really nice to see something FINALLY being done with it other than (1) a complete lack of maintenance and (2) a crappy parking lot.

[Edited on July 27, 2012 at 4:44 PM. Reason : abc]

7/27/2012 4:43:43 PM

I noticed today that it has M.E. VALENTINE HALL written above the front entrance.

7/27/2012 5:11:12 PM

Move-in day is going to be an incredible cluster fuck. I'm having a hard time imagining how they could be finished by then, but they'd kept a pretty amazing schedule (hopefully they didn't cut too many corners). Will be interested to see what how foot-traffic is affected.

Once the school year starts... I pray for the CupAJoe workers, it's going to be crazy.

7/28/2012 7:06:48 PM

So how long from start to finish will this thing take? Maybe they've been working on it longer than it felt to me, but dang the thing seems to have gone up way fast.

7/29/2012 12:42:01 AM

It seems like the longest part of building an apartment complex is laying out the base. It's so far back from the road that we never noticed that part. Then all of a sudden one day we notice this building being built and since they're working so hard it was getting done pretty quick.

7/29/2012 3:18:51 AM

wait

Mr. Joshua is John H. Guth?

7/29/2012 6:22:09 PM

wait

what?

7/29/2012 7:08:39 PM

Who is John Galt?

7/29/2012 10:50:00 PM

so the roundabout has been redone. i like it.

7/30/2012 10:44:53 AM

What Hillsborough Street really needs is a Hooters to revamp its image.

7/30/2012 7:32:19 PM

Quote :

"Supposedly Val Valentine has been sitting on the Valpark land for over 40 years, so it's really nice to see something FINALLY being done with it other than (1) a complete lack of maintenance and (2) a crappy parking lot."

oh don't worry, there will still be a shitty parking lot right along the hillsborough streetscape. the new apartment building's site limits stop like 50' in front of the building...so basically right on the other side of what will be (or is, maybe by now) the driveway off friendly st. so you'll have this nice new building & landscaping/paving, fronted by a dusty dirt & gravel parking lot where the construction trailers sit right now. at least, that is, until everyone's buddy val valentine sells off his land (not likely) or develops the next phase of the project.

7/30/2012 9:03:42 PM

He's been saying that the next phase, a big parking deck wrapped by six or seven stories of apartments, should start soon after the first phase is complete -- the site plan is already filed and approved by the city. Supposedly there are already tenants lined up for the third phase, a 5 story office building at the corner of Hillsborough & Friendly. But you're right, developers are masters of spin - always eternally optimistic cheerleaders about their projects' timelines. It may in fact be a while until they break ground on any of the follow-up projects. One clue would be whether or not Valpark is renting out parking spaces for Fall 2012. (I don't know.)

Bear in mind, though, that the site plan approval from the planning department expires after a couple years so he probably would not have submitted the site plan unless he planned to build fairly soon. He may continue the arrangement with Capstone for the remaining phases, which would be great since they clearly have the project management experience to pull it off, or he might use the money he got from selling the land for Valentine Commons to Capstone as equity and try to develop it himself (in which case we should probably be prepared for a long wait.)

But the important thing is, Valentine Commons has made me to think of Valentine as a developer who actually gets things built, rather than just a land banker who has no intention of ever doing anything with his land other than letting it appreciate and passing it on to his heirs. I guess he was just waiting for market conditions to be right - and with the continuing growth of the university and the complete lack of new dorm construction on (main) campus, I guess they were. There was Wolf Village in 2004, but the last new dorm built on campus was Wood Hall in 1983. (Avent Ferry was added in 1993 but was not new construction.) One dorm per decade clearly isn't enough to keep up with growth.

7/31/2012 9:57:33 AM

Seems like if he wasn't at least considering starting on the next phase, he wouldn't have bothered to knock down The Brewery, Farmhouse, etc. - could have still been collecting rent instead. Though I suppose the rest of the buildings on that block will need to come down first, so we'll see when that happens. Most are vacant with the exception of Kathmandu and PB's (unless it's moved completely across the street already).

7/31/2012 10:02:18 AM