712 Tucker

Representatives for the project say that the decision to convert has nothing to do with a lack of sales as the price point was a very desirable one for many younger buyers, but it is instead a response to market demands for more rentals in the downtown area. Speaking with other industry leaders proves that this is a widely held view, and that downtown Raleigh actually does not have enough rentals to meet market demand. The Lofts will very likely add a density of younger professionals who cannot yet afford to buy but want to be a part of downtown; this should in turn add more life to the Glenwood South area on non-weekend days.

For those concerned that the project will be Oberlin Court part deux, rest assured it will be the same physical structure, the same finishes, the same amenities, and very likely the same floor plans originally planned for 712 Tucker. Currently there are 179 units planned and there is no word yet on what rental rates will be, though I imagine they will be similar to Oberlin Court. All in all, I think it’s a fantastic move by Crosland and they deserve kudos for responding to the needs of the market.

Anyone who takes the tour can expect to see not only the grand opening of the Plaza (RBC) Condominium sales model, but also Carlton Place Apartments, Founder’s Row, The Dawson, Bloomsbury Estates, a few rehab’d historic homes, the Residences at Quorum, West at North, the plans for the redevelopment of Blount Street, Village at Pilot Mill, 712 Tucker, 630 North, and a handful of other apartments, homes, and condos.  For the full map, check out the website at www.raleighdowntownliving.com.

It is a self guided (and sometimes walking) tour but now that Raleigh has rickshaws you can just grab a ride with one of them! Tickets are $10 and “proceeds from ticket sales benefit the Department’s Designing as 21st Century City lecture series. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Support Circles Program of the Plan to End Homelessness, the joint City of Raleigh, Wake County, Triangle United Way, and Wake Continuum of Care effort aimed at ending homelessness in Raleigh and Wake County.”

The new website is www.hueraleigh.com and promises to amplify the color in your otherwise gray life.  The project is being developed by Trammel Crow out of Atlanta (who is also responsible for 222 Glenwood) and is being sold by York Simpson Underwood.

Over a 100 Raleigh residents gathered to celebrate the dedication of Carlton Place Wednesday morning. Developed by Raleigh-based DHIC, Inc., Carlton Place is an 80 unit mixed income apartment community just a stone’s throw from Moore Square. As the city asks what downtown will become and for whom, Carlton Place represents a good first step in addressing the need for affordability in the city core.

Many dignitaries were on hand for the event. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, County Commission Chairman Tony Gurly, state Representative Deborah Ross, and North Carolina Housing Finance Chairman Lucius Jones all spoke. The honored guest, John Carlton, for whom the development is named, also received a special presentation. Mr. Carlton is a long time neighborhood activist and affordable housing advocate, as well as a former member of DHIC’s board of directors.

Carlton Place is the result of an effective public-private partnership. How is it affordable? The developer assembled funding from local government loans, state government loans, private loans and grants, and federal and state tax credits awarded by the NC Housing Finance Agency. The loans are below market rate, and the equity from the tax credits reduces the debt service and thus lowers rents.

Carlton Place is the first mixed income, mixed use, Housing Credit funded apartment community in North Carolina. 16 of the units are market rate, and not funded by credits. The remaining 64 units are restricted to households making 60% or less of the county median income. There is also commercial space along Davie Street currently in lease up.

Eight of the units are set aside for, and affordable to, persons with disabilities. Additionally, 4 units are fully accessible to people with mobility impairments, including curbless showers. One resident benefiting from this is Raleigh native and reigning Ms. Wheelchair North Carolina, Ms. Kelly Woodall.

Carlton Place also received a grant from the Home Depot Foundation to incorporate “Green” elements in the design of the development. Carlton Place features Energy Star appliances, low VOC paint and carpet, pervious concrete, low flow plumbing, and solar reflective roof membranes.

According to Gregg Warren, Executive Director of DHIC, the first residents are employees of The City of Raleigh, Wake County Public Schools, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Capital Area Transit, retail businesses, state government, and Wake Med. Many are now able to walk to work. DHIC is also the developer of Murphy School Apartments and the Prairie Building in downtown Raleigh.

• 111 Seaboard – ? units, planned
• 222 Glenwood, 120 units, under construction
• 510 Glenwood, 36 units
• 630 North Street, 42 units, planned
• 712 Tucker, 179 units, planned
• Bloomsbury Estates, 110 units, under construction
• N. Blount Street Area – planned
• Boylan Flats, 14 units, planned
• The Cotton Mill, 50 units
• The Dawson, 66 units
• The Glen on Peace, 18 units, planned
• Gregory & Parker Apts.? – ? units, planned
• Hobby Properties Condos – ? units, planned
• The Hudson, 64 units
• The Lafayette Hotel/Condos – planned
• The Nash, 208 units, planned
• Palladium Plaza, 66 units, under construction
• Park Devereaux, 46 units
• The Paramount, 82 units
• The Quorum, 44 units, opening this month
• RBC Plaza Condos, 140 units, planned
• Reynolds Tower – ? units, planned
• Site 1 – planned
• West at North, 170 units, planned

Take a look at the comprehensive map of these projects at Google Maps. To open the map in Google Earth, click Earth’s link at the top of the list, download the kmz file, and open it in Earth.

map them

Functionally the building works quite well. The market is demanding smaller units, and these condos will likely be smaller than other new alternatives; somewhere around the 800 square foot mark (Note: This is not confirmed, just my own estimate. The point is the building’s focus is on small units.). A downtown overall development map (which has disappeared from the downtown alliance site) showed Hargett and Martin as important East/West retail corridors linking the Eastern portion of downtown to the TTA train stop in the Warehouse District. The alignment of five or so retail outlets works well in space that normally wouldn’t sell easily as residential.

Unfortunately the parking garage access is placed at the left end of this retail row. Perhaps integrating the service alley on the north side with the Dawson’s service ally would allow parking garage access from a lesser traveled sidewalk.

During the meeting Commissioner Betsy Kane addressed the redundant vehicular accesses that will be side-by-side on the Dawson Street margins of both properties. She pointed out that the service and parking garage access issue is so common with these new developments that the city should consider an ally system within the block to allow for common access and minimize pedestrian disturbance. Good idea! A shared access for the Dawson and The Nash’s service and parking areas would be an efficient use of space and offer an unbroken retail strip along Hargett.

Nash Square is a special block in downtown Raleigh, and surrounding buildings should acknowledge the public square. The Victorian Park Hotel once sat over on Martin Street diagonally across the square from the site of The Nash. Even then architects knew that the feature corner of the building should address the formal park with its best feature. So kudos to the architects for getting this dramatic element right.

While the building serves many great purposes, preliminary sketches appear to make it look cheap, though. The plain treatment of the windows, EIFS skin, and partial blue color scheme hold little promise for the public’s love of this building in the future. Perhaps a  style that hasn’t been used in downtown Raleigh like French, Gothic, or something else could make this building a classic for the ages for relatively the same cost. Given its prominent location, it is important that this building be one that adequately coexists with its neighbor, Nash Square.

Planning Director Mitchel Silver showed several images of the project’s impact on the neighborhood skyline. At 7-stories this project adds mass, but not height like the nearby Reynolds tower "projected at 30 stories". Silver showed alternative massing for this project at 14 stories and showed how only half of the property would only have to be used. While 14-stories creates more of a landmark building, I’ll take the 7-stories at this point. Downtown Raleigh has nearly 150 unbuilt lots, so we’re not even close to having a land scarcity.

The project still must gain acceptance by the Raleigh City Council, however, because if its size, scope, and downtown location.

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While we are excited to get more depth to the skyline and more contiguous office space downtown, I have to say this tower is too bland. With its location, it will stand out from the rest of the downtown buildings, but the design appears to get getting too watered down as each revision occurs (see previous rendering). I can’t imagine anyone visiting here and remembering "The Raleigh" as it appears in the current rendering. What are your thoughts?

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This is the project we previously relayed from a Jack Hagel article over a year ago. At that point word was that Trammel Crow and York Ventures were teaming up to build a 7-story, 160 unit building with 10,000 square feet of retail. That proposal had 22 units on each floor. If the same general design is used, we are now looking at a project that is roughly 9 or 10 stories. We have no word on whether or not the key players involved are the same.

More on this one as it develops… (Should we put an "RIP Bradshaw Realty" banner up when they raze that architectural gem for this project?)

map it

The building will finally replace the parking lot with which First Citizens Bank graced us after imploding their gorgeous 11-story, 1914 tower. Perhaps the most interesting element of the RBC building, though, is its 139 Plaza Condominiums (warning: music) stacked on the building’s top 11 floors. Each unit will have at least one private balcony and much glass on it’s exterior wall(s). Floorplans range from 1 to 3 units and feature 883 to 1987 square feet.

The shape of this upper third of the building has been much maligned already at this site and at others for being too predictable and uncreative. Today we learned more about the section’s shape, however. Instead of being a perfect rectangle, the section’s improved southern face will have an asymmetric bow shape to it.

This offers a nice, surprising visual element to the building’s overall form, but does present problems with the balconies of a couple of prime units on each floor. Each level will contain 14 units (one three-bedroom, six two-bedroom, and seven one-bedroom) featuring private balconies. Twelve of the units will have balconies with three open sides. However because of the bowed facade, the two southern corner units on each floor will be tucked into corners, compromising the view.

Close examination of the floorplate (.pdf file) shows overall excellent use of each floor’s space. The architects have done an excellent job of making each unit’s view an easily appreciated feature is as much of the unit as possible. The building does have its quirks, though. A few units, namely 2, 3, and 8 with somewhat unfortunate placement of the building’s supporting columns, potentially compromising the units exterior vista . Let’s hope that the elevator and garbage chutes are well insulated for noise, or units 8 and 9 will be a nightmare in which to live. Unit 11 is an interesting little one-bedroom unit. The nook to the west of the entry door is apparently large enough for a twin bed, futon, or a small office.

My personal favorite, however, is Unit 1. It is a 1835 square foot, two-bedroom unit in the building’s NW corner, so it will feature the best view of Raleigh. It will get afternoon sun, should be fairly dark in the morning, has a living area with two scenic, glass walls, and seems to use its space the best of all of the units.

Hopefully the HVAC systems are designed to handle the sun’s bias on the the RBC tower. Condos and offices on the building’s SW corner will be difficult to keep cool in the summer and the lack of light in the northern units, over the years, will allow mold growth – this is Raleigh, after all.

The website advertises a private storage unit and parking space per unit. One of the greatest amenities at the nearby Paramount is its dedicated storage area for each unit. It’s good to see this amenity offered in another first-rate property. Presumably the storage units will be on the structural transition floor, not coupled with the parking bays.

The best feature of the Plaza Condominiums is the 23rd floor pool and courtyard. It will apparently be the highest perch for a pool in the State of North Carolina (that is, until the Lafayette is completed, perhaps?). Each of the seven units on the building’s southern face will have a fantastic view of the pool, which will be a major selling point for this group of units which, because of the southern view, would normally have less market value than their across-the-hall neighbors.

According to WRAL, units are preselling for $200,000. If that refers to the smallest unit, 883 square feet, then the unit is only $226 per square foot. Given new construction, the view, and the panache of living in Raleigh’s tallest building, that’s a pretty fair price. Surely the larger units are more per foot, but these prices are quite competitive with comparable projects in southern residential towers.

The RBC tower will have an enormous impact not only on the Raleigh skyline, but on life in Raleigh’s core. Construction is expected to be completed in 2008.