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If you've ever seen the traffic circle at Hillsborough and Pullen, in front of NC State University, that is a traffic circle but they have right turn lanes too for traffic not going through the circle. Works great. I hope they consider that model.
Those traffic circles on Hillsborough seem way too small for the amount of cars that are on it every day. When traffic is heavy, you can barely see if the car is turning or continuing on through. The Firetower/Portertown circle is pretty large. I imagine there won't be a huge difference now. Plus, I believe they are keeping that extra turn lane that goes from Portertown to Firetower. That will help with traffic flow greatly.
Environmental cleanup of the historic theater building on Fifth Street is nearing completion, and the city soon will turn the property over to a development group.
Tom Wisemiller, a planner with the City of Greenville, presented an update on the remediation project during Tuesday’s meeting of Greenville’s Redevelopment Commission.
“We are under budget and on schedule with this project,” Wisemiller said. “The remainder of the work should be completed this week.”
In March, IMEC Group LLC of Columbia, Md., was awarded a contract by the city for the project, which included putting a roof on the building.
Wisemiller said the original budget for this phase of the project was $290,000. The city received a $125,000 subgrant award from the Eastern North Carolina Brownfields Coalition, and the remaining $165,000 was allocated from City Center bond funds.
However, Wisemiller said additional environmental cleanup and structural stabilization work — which included replacing deteriorated roof beams — was necessary. The city obtained an additional $50,000 from the Brownfields subgrant to cover the expenses.
“The additional structural repairs added up to about $30,000,” Wisemiller said. “Our revised budget for this project was $340,000, and we came in right at $300,000, which put us well under budget.”
The city is using a portion of the unused project funds to conduct a design study on the city-owned Washington Street parking lot to make it more service-oriented to accommodate tour buses and delivery trucks for the theater and surrounding merchants.
After the remediation work is completed, the city will sell the property to Raleigh-based developer CommunitySmith for $20,000. CommunitySmith also was involved in the redevelopment of the Superblock complex at Contanche and Fifth streets, the Dickinson Avenue Public House and Trollingwood Taproom & Brewery on Dickinson.
CommunitySmith intends to remodel the theater and rent it to an established private operator, Raleigh-based Lincoln Theater. The building will be designed as a flexible performance theater capable of accommodating various sizes of crowds, music, events and public uses.
Under the agreement, CommunitySmith will spend a minimum of $1 million on the project, use it for a live performance venue for at least 10 years and complete redevelopment work by March 2018.
During its Aug. 3 meeting, the Redevelopment Commission approved a resolution authorizing the sale of the property through an upset bid method in accordance with state laws pertaining to the sale of public-owned property. The Greenville City Council approved the sale during its Sept. 8 meeting.
“We have to close the deal within 60 days after the City Council approved the sale,” Wisemiller said. “The city will have satisfied its requirements for that arrangement well before that.”
Potential issues with GO Science center?
Quote:
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the Redevelopment Commission agreed to form a subcommittee to negotiate a lease between the city and the GO-Science Center on Dickinson Avenue.
The center is a private, not-for-profit organization to serve children, adults, schools and teachers through interactive, hands-on educational programs and traveling exhibits. The new facility houses these programs and exhibits, allowing the center to serve as a hub of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the eastern part of the state. The facility is supported by investments from local businesses, individuals and philanthropic leaders and organizations.
The site at 729 Dickinson Ave. was purchased by Greenville's Redevelopment Commission in 2010 for $378,000, using 2006 Center City revitalization bond funds.
“The city purchased this property with the purpose of supporting GO-Science,” Jeremy King, the commission’s chairman, said. “I don’t feel like the city got a good return on its investment.”
In 2013, the city entered a two-year lease with the GO-Science Center for $1 a year. A three-year lease proposal was presented to the Redevelopment Commission on Tuesday. Under the terms of the lase agreement, GO-Science had the option to terminate the lease during the three-year period, but the city did not.
King said he did not want to agree to a long-term lease with GO-Science without a termination clause for the city in the agreement. King cited “false representations” of the center’s progress and performance by its leadership as the reason for his view.
“This project is getting the least amount of return for our money,” King said. “As a commission, we picked the wrong horse.”
The Redevelopment Commission approved a motion to form a subcommittee composed of commission members and GO-Science Center board members to negotiate a lease that would give the city the right to terminate the lease if certain performance goals are not met by the center. The subcommittee will present an updated lease proposal during the Redevelopment Commission’s meeting on Nov. 1.
GO Science was pretty much the first to move into the Dickinson Ave area. They did some remodeling, but there has been very little activity that I've seen since it "opened". I'm sure the city will want that piece of land back soon so it can redeveloped. A museum is definitely needed, but It may have to go somewhere else. That's a prime piece of property!
Go Science still looks like it did when it was a garage. They fixed up the outside a little bit but it's empty when you look through the windows. Do the police still keep their SWAT trucks in the garage bays?
Not sure what's going on with Go Science. I guess the city wants a higher paying tenant. Since opening, they've greatly increased their operations and are a much needed part of the community. Much of what they do is outreach away from the building. I can see why some people might want something else, but I hope they stay there. We badly need more STEM education in the area.
Not sure what's going on with Go Science. I guess the city wants a higher paying tenant. Since opening, they've greatly increased their operations and are a much needed part of the community. Much of what they do is outreach away from the building. I can see why some people might want something else, but I hope they stay there. We badly need more STEM education in the area.
I believe the city may have assumed (or been led to believe) that the Go Science center would become something different from what it currently is. I'm sure they thought it would be more of a museum-like experience that would bring families & other visitors to that location on a daily basis. Right now, they only operate 4 days a week and are closed on the weekends.
I don't mind them being in the Dickinson/Imperial area. STEM education is definitely needed in the East. Right now, I think the city sees $$$ for that patch of land. It could easily hold the GO science center on the bottom floor with apartments and/or offices in a 3 or 4 story mixed-use building. I think they feel like they could get an immediate return on that patch of land they purchased. I don't blame them. Ultimately, I think GO Science will move (with the city's help) to a different location close by and that place will be sold to a developer.
There's a comment on that article that I found interesting:
Quote:
While I am no fan of Barber, I am someone that will be impacted by this so-called merger. Our management tells us its great and necessary but they are also the ones that will keep their six figure salaries and state benefits. The reason we lost so much money that year was due to the state implication of NC Tracks not to mention our management's brilliant idea to piggyback off a system (EPIC) that we have no rights to and Vidant controls it all. One could also point out failure of the Brody leadership to adopt to the changing healthcare landscape. They knew they were losing money and yet they refused to make any changes to how they do things because "it had always been done that way." Sounds to me like instead of a merger the should be holding the people who made these poor decisions accountable and not at the expense of those of us doing the actual work.
So August 2018 is the scheduled finish date for the Gather Uptown project (400 residents)
Here's a review of the events of the past few months...
Renovation of Old Attic Bldg on 5th for ECU offices in future
Safe to say, by the summer of 2019 Greenville will look A LOT different.....just look a the highlighted projects that will be completed by then.
Is this the building that was most recently Club Phoenix? Right next to the Sup Dogs parking lot? That will great to have that block (almost) completely re-done.
I hope that with Uptown Brewing taking action more empty space on Evans St. will be filled. Bisset's dresses just moved and there's one (maybe 2) more between 5th and 4th that are empty. Not sure whatever happened to Courtside at Evans/3rd, they briefly opened as a convenience store for ~1 week then closed. I would think a cafe would do great there. Although Coastal Fog just opened to fill that niche. There are no breakfast places downtown besides the Scullery, which is closed on Sunday. Always wished there was a Sunday breakfast spot.
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