Quote:
Originally Posted by snfenoc
The other side of the coin: There is only so much land available downtown. If every "historic" concrete pillbox down there is restored and quickly turned around into yoga studios, and news stands, and coffee shops, and bistros, and (insert hip urban hangout here), where will the high rise market go when (if) it actually comes calling? It still costs good money to rehab a concrete pillbox, so is it financially wise to invest in a rehab only to tear it down 5 or 10 years later when the high rise market improves?
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Some vacant places to put high-rises once the market improves:
* The Docks
* The Railyards outside of the Shops area
* 3rd & Capitol
* The parking lot where Aura was supposed to go
* The parking lot next to Heilbron House at 8th & O
* The parking lot at I and 14th behind the phone company building
* The parking lot at 16th and J kitty-corner from Memorial
* The county court parking lot between 7th & 8th at G
* The vacant southeast corner of 8th & K
* H Street between 5th & 6th (it will be available for development once the track relocation is done)
Places to put mid-rises and mixed-use residential once the market improves:
* 3rd & R
* The aforementioned docks & railyards
* R Street's vacant lots in the teens and twenties
* Assorted vacant lots along the railroad tracks between 19th & 20th
None of those places require demolishing anything (or, at least, demolishing anything that hasn't already been demolished.)
But here is a short list of buildings that I personally wouldn't miss if they get knocked down:
* Any Buzz-boxes (the 1-2 story concrete tilt-ups mostly seen along R Street)
* Westfield Downtown Plaza, with the possible exception of Macy's
* The mini storage units along 16th Street
* The vacant bank at 4th & L
If there were any shortage of vacant lots in this town, then we could start talking about what old buildings we need the least. But we've got a lot of lots, and once we get through those, there are even more cheap concrete tilt-ups that we can do without, and shoddily built buildings from the past 20-30 years that won't last long enough to be landmarks.
But we also have a lot of buildings that are grossly underutilized and could be turned into very cool places with less investment--thus spurring positive change in the near future, instead of waiting for the next wave of cranes to arrive. Adaptive reuse is more labor-intensive, less resource-intensive, and has a stronger effect on the local economy, all of which are positive things in grim economic times. It also helps create districts with unique character and feel--people like old buildings if they're kept up, and in a downtown setting they mix very well with new buildings.