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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: cradle & arts center move
  • Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 11:06:39 -0500

Heh. I hope they read the "First Person" thing in last week's Indy by the lady who moved into Downtown Durham expecting it to be silent as a fucking tomb, all about how upset she is that there's a club in Downtown Durham that makes noise after dark.

And while I sure as shit wouldn't want to live anywhere near a club, especially one with booming bass, that's one reason why I bought several acres of land in the country & built a house smack in the middle of it. Rather than, you know, buying a building right in the middle of a downtown commercial district & then moving into it.

I said this when Christa posted the previous info, and I'll say it again: I predict hasslements from people moving into the apartment/condos in this development if there is *any* noise after 10:00 p.m. from either the Cradle, the ArtsCenter, or the new outdoor amphitheater between them.

I love the idea of mixed-use developments and people living above commercial space, but it may be harder than people imagine to quickly make the transition from a suburban/small-town headspace to a more urban/mixed-use headspace. Certainly the person who wrote the piece in the Indy seemed to have *no* room in her headspace for the notion that a downtown area might be noisy after dark.

Ross

Jeffrey Herrick wrote:
I believe Christa might have posted about this awhile
back. The article below indicates that tonite 4-7PM
you can look at the plans for the big development for
the property that contains Cradle, Vis-Art, Arts
Center, Performance etc.. in Carrboro. Looks like it
will take at least a year for the town to review the
plan..

********
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/news/story/2143401p-8525123c.html

Published: Feb 19, 2005
Major Carrboro project gets public airing

By DAVE HART, STAFF WRITER

CARRBORO — Once it’s under way, the plan the folks at
Main Street Properties have in mind for the
redevelopment of 300 E. Main Street will be impossible
to miss.

It will involve removing all the existing buildings on
the south side of East Main between Roberson Street
and Bleeker Street Studios. That’s a span that
includes, among other things, Cat’s Cradle,
ArtsCenter, Amante Pizza, VisArt Videos, Bandidos,
Performance Bicycles and the Honda repair shop. The
developers said the businesses themselves, except the
auto shop, will be retained on the site in new digs.

Those structures will be replaced by new buildings,
some of them five stories tall; a parking deck and a
ramp to underground parking levels; a pedestrian
plaza; an outdoor amphitheater; and many new shops,
restaurants, offices and apartments.

The project will be, to put it mildly, significant. So
the developers don’t want it to take anybody by
surprise.

They held a meeting last September to introduce their
proposal to the public, to gather input and answer
questions.

On Wednesday, they will do it again. Main Street
Properties will hold an open house from 4 p.m. to 7
p.m. at The ArtsCenter. The developers will show the
latest site plan, which has undergone some changes
since the September meeting, along with models and
elevation drawings.

If you have two cents to throw in, they said, now’s
the time.

“This is the last best chance to look at our ideas and
let us know what you think,” said Laura Van Sant of
Main Street Properties. “We want everybody with an
interest in downtown Carrboro, anybody who thinks they
might be interested in living or opening a business
there, anybody interested in the design, to come and
take a look.”

Van Sant said the company plans to submit its
application for a Conditional Use Permit to the town
this spring. With a project this large and complex,
she said, the review process will take some time.

“One year would be very optimistic,” she said. “Two
years would be a little pessimistic. So somewhere
between the two, I would think, would be about right.
The town has a few things on its plate already — the
new high school, for example. So we’ll just get in
line.”

The plan calls for several buildings to go along the
street front with retail on the ground floor and
offices and other uses on upper floors. A pedestrian
plaza behind those buildings would run the length of
the site on a long diagonal, deliberately oriented
toward the Weaver Street lawn to encourage pedestrian
traffic between the two areas.

The parking deck would stand at the back of the site,
where the long building that houses the ArtsCenter and
the Cradle now stands.

Both those venues would shift over to the eastern edge
of the property, the Cradle in front and The
ArtsCenter in the rear, with an outdoor amphitheater
between them.

“The big three gathering places downtown are the
Cradle, The ArtsCenter and Weaver Street Market,” Van
Sant said. “We have two of the three on this site, and
we’re designing this to interact with the third.

“It’s a private development in the sense that it’s
being done by a private company, not by the town. But
it is public in the sense that it’s the most
significant development in downtown Carrboro in
anyone’s memory, and so it will matter to anybody who
goes there. In that sense, it’s a community project.
That’s why we want to talk to the community about it.”

Open house

Main Street Properties will hold an open house from 4
p.m. to 7 p.m. at The ArtsCenter to share its proposed
design for 300 E. Main Street.

Contact Dave Hart at 932-8744 or dhart AT nando.com.




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