Planning Commission A-OK with University Marketplace

With all the attention that Heritage Square has gotten as a potential mixed-use development project, the quieter University Marketplace project down by the old South Square has gotten less attention. It cleared its first hurdle last night at the Durham Planning Commission, with a unanimous vote of support from the members.

For those folks who haven't attended this board before -- lest you think it's a rubber-stamp for development, a la Raleigh's infamous version of the same body, the Crosland proposal to rezone land at Infinity and Roxboro for a big-box/shopping center came in for a beating from board members concerned that there's too much vacant North Durham retail already. The board seemed ready to recommend against the rezoning before grudgingly allowing a continuance for the next meetings, since the developer's reps didn't make the meeting.

Anyway, back to University Marketplace. This project is set for the old Regency Square shopping center down by South Square, where a Kroger used to be the anchor tenant. These days, Sitar India Palace is the only real business of note there (and a great one to check out, too, if you don't feel like driving to Morrisville's Saffron for good Indian food.) By the end of the year, the plaza will be 95% vacant.

In its place is proposed a vertically-integrated mixed-use development. The vertically-integrated for all practical purposes means residential units on upper floors with ground-floor retail and commercial space. This is a fairly new trend in the Triangle and in Durham, though the Duke area has a couple of projects now in Erwin Terrace and the Lofts at Lakeview.

In three of the six buildings at University Marketplace, three stories of residential units will be built over ground floor retail. A couple of retail-only buildings will be set on the south side of the project. In the shown site plan concept, these are the large buildings to the left of the image. The Shannon Road-side fast food restaurant pads aren't part of the redevelopment and stay in place. Moving north on the property are two retail/restaurant mixed-use buildings and a parking deck with some integrated residential units.

Unlike some other MUDs proposed of late, which often tend to ignore the outside world, the developers here are orienting some of the building features to the outside of their property. The new traffic-circle design for the University Drive entrance is also an upgrade over circulation in the existing classic-form suburban strip mall.

Although Kroger's long gone and a big-box grocery store isn't likely to come back into the new project, one would assume, the developer's attorney did mention during the meeting that the owner's hope would be to attract a smaller, high-end grocer to the space. (Given that Trader Joe's is setting up a beachhead a couple miles down 15-501, my money would be on Fresh Market for this space, which is conspicuously absent from the Bull City.)

Planning Commission chair Don Moffitt probably summed up the feelings of the entire board in his comments in favor of the rezoning: "The bar of, 'It's better than what's there now' is a very low bar -- so I will be supporting this project tonight."

It's not hard to imagine that, once built, a lot of Tar Heels and Dukies will support the project, too. The site is terrificly situated for Duke student and staff access to campus, and UNC is a fairly short drive down 15-501. As one member of the planning board pointed out, this project is close in intensity and design to what a Downtown Area Designers charette proposed for the South Square Mall site next door -- which of course transformed instead to a Target/Sam's Club combo.

Next stop for this project is City Council.

Comments

[JDC]

Though mixed-use projects are certainly better than stripmalls, this project, like Chapel Hill's Meadowmont Village, is an island of sorts. They're great for the people that live there, but to outsiders they're treated like any other mall or "lifestyle center." These developments, in my opinion, would be more suitable if they were stitched into the urban fabric, maintaining the street grid, especially if they could condense all the parking to a one-block garage, preferably with bottom-floor retail. What you have here is Brier Creek with homes on top.

Anyone else feel like it's only a matter of time before Whole Foods swallows "whole" Fresh Market?

[Bull City Rising]

Joe -- I agree in theory that what you're proposing is the ideal outcome where it is possible. On this site, though, I don't think it's possible... because this site is already a victim of suburban development patterns. It's bounded by 15-501 Bypass on the west and University Drive on the east, neither of which are conducive to street grids. We're living with the hangover after the suburban shopping mall party from 40 years ago.

Michael Bacon proposed doing exactly what you're talking about here for Northgate when/if it eventually is redeveloped (BCR's bookie puts the over/under at 2013), where you could run Watts, Dollar, Edgewater, maybe Lancaster, etc. onto the property. That seems to make more sense to me for an example of what you're talking about -- if you can figure out a way to deal with Club and Guess.

An interesting case study is Baldwin Park, built a mile from where I grew up on the site of the old Orlando Naval Training Center. (Why have an NTC inland? Why, indeed?) They have built a nice new urbanist development there with an active street grid... with a pretty good linkage back to the street grid on the west side. Problem again is a four-lane-plus-turn-lane road separating it from the nearest neighborhood...