In the coming months, Zely & Ritz, Sushi Blues, and all of the tenants in 301 Glenwood Avenue will close temporarily for renovations to the streetscape. This building’s current relationship to Glenwood Avenue is quite possibly the worst on this strip: it’s most prime real estate is sacrificed for nine or so parking spots. This type of planning move is a common suburban response where the building stand-alone and set back from the street. However, the original bad design now works in favor of the tenant, the patron, and the streetscape, as this strip-mall style ground story receive a 40+ foot deep outdoor dining area. Surely this will improve business for these owners, and add to the availability and number of places you can eat outside.
Development
More Changes on Glenwood South: Zely & Ritz, Sushi Blues
15005/27 12:00 PM
This is a great move. The current setup is just odd and clumsy, and adding outdoor seating will really make this a nicer venue. I’m sure those who complain that there isn’t enough parking will have a problem with this, but Mark is right, there are only a few spots there anyway, and there is usually more than enough on Lane/Jones/North streets.
Jenna05/27 02:04 PM
So exciting! I was just lamenting the lack of outdoor seating this weekend after driving by the Raleigh Times; it was already packed to the brim at 12:15 yesterday!
Also needed: outdoor seating with shade. It seems like this project will provide that!
Jake05/27 02:16 PM
Hooray for more outdoor seating. It’s sad it didn’t come sooner to handle the massive demand for outdoor eating downtown during our amazing spring weather this year.
Better late than never though.
Gary!05/27 03:57 PM
This is a great way to use that otherwise useless space. Glad to see Glenwood receive more outdoor options.
Ashton05/27 05:27 PM
I’m glad this is coming to be, the last I heard of it they were struggling with the handicap parking and where to put it. It will be an awesome addition to Glenwood!
JZ05/27 07:53 PM
When we did Helios, we were strangely blessed by the weak zoning that had allowed for parking out front…..it played well to the needs of a cafe and I’m glad to see others taking advantages of their lemons.
May there be Lemonade for all!
Dana05/27 08:32 PM
The current setup complies with older guidelines for required parking. If developers had their way, they wouldn’t have so much parking in these “suburban” buildings. In fact, the city is largely to blame for buildings throughout the city that sit back from the street.
Leo05/28 01:36 AM
That entire block will look great with all the outdoor seating from Hibernian. This is great news as Glenwood South continues to turn into one of the premier destination spots.
JZ05/28 10:31 AM
I actually have to agree with Dana (!).
But this it points to a very important issue in a broader sense: Zoning regulations are imperfect in relation to the evolution of the built environment. When they are put into place, it is as a “best guess” you could say, based upon information about development patterns at the time. As a city or neighborhood grows/evolves, new conditions naturally emerge that alter the effectiveness of the initial code.
Granted, I personally feel that it NEVER made good urban sense to allow on street parking as we have here in our Sushi Blues/Zely & Retz example. But in part, the zoning regs that allowed for it did not anticipate the “entertainment district” that Glenwood South has evolved into.
The trick is to find the right balance that ensures responsible growth but provides flexibility over the long haul for inevitable evolutions and changes in use. When conflicts arise, we owe it to ourselves to interrogate the old regulations and revise them as it is deemed necessary to aid in the production of higher quality built environments.
Ashton05/28 01:00 PM
After some further investigating, it seems that Glenwood South is a part of a seperate ‘overlay’ district that apparently has more relaxed parking requirements.
JZ05/28 01:27 PM
That’s correct. The overlay is a change instituted in 2000 due to the evolution of Glenwood South as an “entertainment” district, whose early grumblings started with the Pine State Creamery adaptive reuse project in 1998.
The Glenwood Center Building was built in 1996, hence the parking out front more in keeping with the previous era of the old Plumbers Association building (now Helios Cafe) and the repair shop (the impending Solas restaurant).
The City recognized that there was increasing pedestrian oriented activity in this district and made adjustments by creating the overlay. The parking demands on new projects are still pretty stiff, even with the discount, and I bet, if things continue to grow rapidly, you’ll start seeing signs of the city considering a public parking deck somewhere in the vicinity to relieve future investment with the need to create parking on such precious real estate. Just like the downtown core, I bet its moving toward being a parking exempt zone.
Betsy05/28 03:08 PM
As others have noted above, it’s very silly to require surface off-street parking in urban areas, since parking lots are essentially an accoutrement of suburbia, and they destroy the urban landscape.
JZ, when you wrote “on-street parking” I assume you intended “off-street” .
The city staff at the Urban Design Center brought forward a proposal last year to fix the parking requirements (reduce them) in downtown and certain surrounding areas, but the Planning Commission, which is remarkably uninterested in matters of urban design, declined to alter the regulations—even after viewing this compelling presentation by economist Andrew Stewart of Empire Properties.
JZ05/28 03:13 PM
oh yea…***OFF*** Street….my bad.
Thanks for the highlight regarding UDC vs. Planning Commission…..I wish Russ would do something about this (the slowly ossifying Planning Commission).
Betsy05/28 04:13 PM
But yes, when converted, the parking lot in front of Zely-etc. will make an excellent dining area, just as the Helios space is an asset to the street.
It’s interesting that the space in front of Helios and in front of Zely-etc. is going to prove so useful, when deep setbacks *generally* speaking) are poor practice for walkable urban areas.
I think what it shows is that the sidewalks on South Glenwood are not nearly wide enough to serve the multiple functions that urban sidewalks need to accommodate (especially on key multi-use streets such as South Glenwood):
—high volumes of foot traffic at various periods
—outdoor tables and chairs
—street furniture and street treesLook at the area in front of Hibernian, where there is a tight squeeze to pass around the outdoor seating—especially at peak periods.
Another example is just to the south and across the street—where the condos are going up—the tiny narrow sidewalk in front of the huge looming facade gives one a feeling of being wedged in rather perilously between the building front and passing traffic. I feel that site is being overbuilt considering its surrounding context and the constraints of the street right-of-way width.
Leo05/28 04:37 PM
I think the sidewalk scale is just fine on the east side of Glenwood. Once the section in front of 222 opens back up, I think that side will hold the majority of pedestrians from Hillsborough St. all the way to Peace.
What is great about this renovation is that the car entrance next to Hibernian will now be 100% for the pedestrians, as Glenwood should be. But before I keep going, I’ll wait to see the details on what exactly is going to change. There is a good opportunity here and I hope they do not half-ass it.
joshua05/28 10:12 PM
anyone know whats going in the old car service shop across from char-grill on hillsborough? they’re gutting it and i hope they make it into a restaurant!
Lea05/29 12:39 AM
Joshua, you beat me to it. I just came back to this page to ask the same thing about the old Tao Auto space. Clearly it’s on its way to a new life….
Newraleigh, we need to know the scoop!When that space plus the new Boylan Bridge Brewpub open, we Boylan Heighters will be set. Let’s see: the old Tao Auto for coffee (Tao Coffee, anyone?), Char-Grill for lunch, Moonlight or the Brewpub for dinner, all within walking distance…yeah, that’ll do.
- L
Jenna05/30 06:33 PM
Some development groups I’ve never heard of bought the old Tao Auto property in January. No idea what they’re going to do with it.
S. Matthew07/21 03:35 PM
Lea, How do you Boylan Heighters feel about the Central Prison expansion? Sounds like your getting a little more than expected.
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