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Aug
7
North Hills East - Will Kane be Able?
Written by J. Chavis and filed under Real Estate
If John Kane has his way, North Hills Mall could be expanding – both out and up.
Kane Realty has purchased roughly 50 acres of land across Six Forks road near the current North Hills shopping mall, an area he hopes to develop into North Hills East. Like the existing North Hills area, this new development will be mixed-use (they’re even partnering with Duke to create an on-site continuing care retirement home). Unlike the existing North Hills though, the new development will be more vertical and will feature more green space around the planned buildings.
Due to the vertical nature of the development, a lot of the actual land space will be reserved for parks, plazas and fields. In fact, the proposal calls for an area called “The Green” which will include more land-space than two football fields.
The proposed development will cost over $800 million to complete.
The controversy that made the N&O last week, is that Kane Realty wants Raleigh tax payers to cough up $75 million to help pay for all of their parking decks to be hidden, or built within or under planned buildings so that they can create this green space. Kane points out that the tax revenue generated from the development should more than pay back the investment.
I think it’s important for the city to continue to support developments like North Hills because I believe they truly can benefit the city as a whole. But on the other hand, where do you draw the line in terms of tax payer contribution to private developments and what type of precedence would this create?
Voice your opinion in the comments and place your vote in our newest web poll (located in the right side-bar).
Links:
North Hills East website/development images
N&O story
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8 Responses to “North Hills East - Will Kane be Able?”
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In reading Kane’s comments, he’s pretty much threatening to build a lame strip mall unless Raleigh shells out $75 million. I don’t like his tactics, but I think the City Council should work with him to make sure this is done right. Raleigh has way too many lame strip malls.
Also, speaking of North Hills, can we quash the campaign to refer to it as “midtown”.
Ridiculous. Kane will make a fortune off of the deal, with or without 75 million. If the city doesn’t give it to him, and he builds a *lame* strip mall, then just don’t go. Let it sit empty. I grow tired of cities and towns being strong-armed and bullied by developers. It’s getting old.
It is rediculous- I don’t understand how 75 million of our money allows him to get $600 million more. Meeker is against it- lets hope he holds strong.
Hopefully people won’t be duped by the tax revenue angle. First, where do the business tax revenues come from? Are these businesses that will fill the location from out-of-town, moving in only because the new development exists? I would wager that no, they are relocated businesses from elsewhere inside the local area (and thus are not adding any taxes to the base). Furthermore, I doubt any business that goes into the location will ADD tax revenue by spenders. The locals that shop here will be shopping here out of added convenience. Thus, they would otherwise shop somewhere else locally if the place didn’t exist, thereby not contributing one cent toward the tax revenue through sales. Third, people aren’t going to move into the condos/apartments just because they are there: “Hey look, honey! Condos in North Hills! Let’s move to Raleigh so we can live in one!” No, they’ll be picking these over other alternatives LOCALLY, thereby not really contributing to the tax base any more than if they had bought downtown or somewhere else nearby.
It’s not the same as a large (or even small) corporation moving into the area bringing in employment and a real source of tax revenue. Those sometimes (often) get tax breaks as a general incentive for choosing this location over that. Kane is just trying to set another precedent for getting something for less. Although there may be nothing wrong with that from the business angle, let’s just hope our leaders don’t fall for it.
I’m all for the development. I think it will be a great investment by Kane and his supporters. However, let it stand on its own merit. After all, if the *free* money is what makes or breaks the development, maybe it shouldn’t be built?
This isn’t a run-down poorer part of the city. If a community uses tax money to help clean up a bad area and build development where there would otherwise be no funding, then I’d be more for it. (For example, when Durham helped pay for the parking decks at American Tobacco complex…which was a renovation of an abandoned historic building.)
But North Hills? The area is booming….something will be built there regardless and Kane will make a fortune regardless. To blackmail the city and say, “Give me money or I’ll just produce more suburban sprawl” is so lame.
He forgets–this development is still suburban sprawl no matter what. Sure the current North Hills is Better than most suburban sprawl, but it’s still not like he’s renovating old abandoned downtown warehouses into new use. It’s just another shiny new North Raleigh development. No matter how he builds it, it’ll have a bunch of traffic and probably more chains than actual local businesses. The question he’s got to consider is–does he want something there that the city can be proud of, or something that’ll just put his name lumped with every other strip mall developer?
Raleigh has better things to do with $75m. Why not continue to focus efforts on the Hillsborough corridor, better public transport, and quaility low income housing closer to downtown. Kane will more than make back his money on this development, and i’m certain that there is a bank out there that sees dollar signs all over this.
I agree with the posts about calling the North Hills area “Midtown”. From what I know that description goes all the way to Crabtree. So how about a walk around “Midtown”?
I also think the city could use the $75M for much better purposes. There is money to be made in that area, Kane knows it, and he knows that building yet another strip mall would not bring the same returns as a higher density project.
This is my first post on this site. I like what I see so far - thanks!
^It’s funny, but the definition of “midtown” would probably always shift as the city limits grow. When I first moved here, if someone had asked me where “midtown” is, I would’ve guessed (appropriately) Five Points! So it just keeps creeping upwards I guess.