Downtown's Next (Pretty) Big Thing

It may not be the huge, $200 million-plus project that's all the buzz in Greensboro these days, but Brown Investment Properties and Kavanagh Homes are moving toward building Murrow Station, a residential/office project in the northeast corner of the downtown business district, about 200 yards from my house. It's a $42 million development, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

It looks like it will have about 132 condominiums and townhouses, along with office or retail on the first floor along Lindsay and Murrow, and (I hope) Summit Avenue.

Chester Brown III was kind enough to e-mail me these preliminary architectural sketches and a proposed site plan, and he asked me to circulate it among my neighbors; he also said it was fine with him if I posted it on my blog, so here it is.

I showed it to some planner friends, and they dubbed it a "pretty good" project, which lines up with what I thought of it. The architecture is urban-looking, with flat roofs, brick facing, and metal details. The siting is pretty urban, too, with the larger, mixed-use buildings fronting the major streets without much of a setback. Parking is in the rear or beneath the buildings, which makes for a better pedestrian experience.

I had some concerns that the sidewalk connectivity wasn't very good from the inside of the complex to the major thoroughfares, and also that the large building facing Summit should have some kind of entrances -- either offices, storefronts, or residential -- to the sidewalk, and not just first-floor parking. Without that, the building would just be like a big battleship next to Summit, rather than a real building that has a relationship to its environment.

Chester was receptive to all these ideas, and to a few more that came from my neighborhood association board. He and the Kavanaghs have done a good job of letting the neighborhood know what they're planning. I hope this project succeeds; it's very similar what our neighborhood's recent corridor study called for.

The only downside is that the old Pet Dairy and the Peacemaker building will be demolished. Those are both good buildings, and the Pet Dairy is one of the few remaining Art Deco buildings left in Greensboro. It's not the most beautiful building of its kind, but it's hard for me to feel good about a demolition.

But you have to pick your battles.

Update: An astute reader asked whether there's a market for these new units, since there's been so much development downtown, and not all of it is selling quickly. Chester Brown told me that Murrow Station will be considerably lower-priced than what's on the market now, with the target demographic being young professionals and empty-nesters.

Update II: Kim asks the price range. I'm not sure, but I think they'd be starting at about $120k. You can see the townhouse floor plans if you click here and increase the PDF doc to about 200%.