New Planning Commission presentation up for July 13. Four items for next week - several of them substantial:
1.
RIDC is ready to get started on Phase C (the final phase) of Mill 19. We know what we're getting by now - another three-story tech/flex space built within the shell of the mill. Still, it's very smart design - almost a shame that it's hidden so much from public view (both due to being inside of the mill, along with being in an area which gets basically no passers by.
2.
CMU is constructing a new health, wellness, and fitness center on the site of the existing building. The new building will be four stories, and 200,000 square feet. The design is fine - typical tan CMU blandness that will mesh very well with the core of their campus.
3.
A new nine-story, 243-unit apartment building in the Strip. This is not the first we have heard of this project - which will replace
an entire block of industrial buildings on the 3100 block of Smallman - but it's the first we've seen in great detail. The basement and part of the first floor and mezzanine are set aside for parking (259 spaces in all). The building also has almost 14,000 square feet of first-floor storefront which could be used for retail or tech/flex. I think the design is fairly smart - modern, but harkening back to the large warehouses of the Strip District, which is a good typology since this will be occupying an entire block. If I have any criticism it seems a bit too overly windowed, which gives it kind of the vibe of an office building rather than something residential. But this at least means they're defying modern convention on what a residential building should look like.
4.
A request to demolish the (now long-vacant) block of rowhouses at Bates Street. This was also recently covered at OPDC meetings, which provided the context that Walnut Capital acquired the site and is doing the clearance. They purportedly have no plans at this time for reuse of the site, but it's almost certainly just a matter of time.