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While I agree with the article, the Valley is inundated with a plethora of golf courses I am not sure the best use of Shawnee is as an aquatic center. If the goal is the new Aquatics and Sports center is to provide a recreational past time and sporting outlet for all ages then I think the best location is the block bounded Quarrier, Lee, Dickenson and Leon Sullivan.
The city is currently working to build the ever-diminishing hotel there and the Kanawha County Library bought property there as well. Since it is mostly a parking lot the demolition is done. A center such as this would be adjacent to the Clay Center and one block from two dying hotels that could use the added boost in travelers to that part of the city.
But, this is a woulda coulda shoulda thing and will not happen...sigh. Shortsighted leadership in this state.
Absolutely this should be downtown. It would just make too much sense to put an indoor aquatic center and athletic sports facility down where the hotels, restaurants and shopping are. They talk about bringing housing downtown and making it more attractive but then when the "rubber hits the road" nothing worthwhile is truly done.
It would be nice to have a small downtown soccer stadium to compliment the ball park, also have an indoor soccer/lacrosse training facility that could also be used to train football players year round too. One thing this area is sorely lacking is indoor on turf training for middle/high school/college athletics during the winter months.
But we are dealing with folks who have no vision and don't really take the time to care about what is going on in other places and are stuck 50 years in the past. I guess we should just be glad that the blvd will be closed again for some old cars.
CURA will reissue requests for proposals for the lot. The article also name-checks a previous competing proposal that would have seen some kind of mixed-use development on the property.
I don't know whether to rejoice or be concerned. I'm hopeful something much better can be developed there (looking at you, Wendell), but it remains to be seen if anything can gain traction there.
This provides a great opportunity to get out of the "another hotel" train of thought. I would think a multi-use facility with some downtown living combined with some offices and retail to make it a multi-use is better long-term thinking.
I agree. I hated the fact that the hotel didn't have any street-level retail at all. If, say, Wendell does develop the site, we could see an actual shopping corridor down Quarrier, to complement the existing shops and services (and hopefully spur more) there and on Capitol and Hale.
Awesome news. Hard for me to fathom that I'm actually against development.
Now here's what needs to go in place instead. The Haywood Project was a mixed used highrise structure proposed in Asheville, NC before the 2008 market crash. I've pasted a link to the building below. Something like this would really be a booster for Charleston's image and morale. Therefore it probably could never happen but it would be great if it did. It was hotel, condo/apt, office and retail. About 30 stories total.
I think any new hotel is a bad idea and a non-starter until the new Convention center is complete and the bookings for the coming year consume the available bunks in the valley. The problem with doing mixed use is who would really want to move downtown? Charleston's downtown is not cosmopolitan enough at this time as it lacks basic essentials. It is the chicken and the egg paradox. The essentials will not be built until there is a demand but people will not move in until they can fill their basic needs. This was the problem with the convention triangle - hotel expansion - civic center expansion - airport connections. Flights would not start landing here that connected to new places, unless there was traffic demand, the traffic would not demand it because the civic center was outdated and the hotels would not expand because the few conventions we could book did not need large blocks of rooms on a regular basis. No one side of that leg was going to move on its own, until the city backed the CC expansion, now the other three react and a new hotel will come in time and with that new connecting flights.
The best use for that site is in my opinion a mixed use campus of several smaller buildings that build on what has been set up already. An aquatic center, a children's discovery center, and my personal favorite, an aquarium. It does not have to be a huge one, there is a nice sized one in Newport Ky across from Cincinnati. Something on that scale would work very well. Schools systems across the region would come to use it. I would also add an outside plaza with a central fountain that is turned into a skating rink in the winter, perhaps a small amphitheater for summer productions, a sort of playhouse in the park, make it a small festival area with many possible activities and then use it like a living room for the city. A pet park would be nice too and of course some form of parking, maybe an all underground garage.
That is the sort of thing that makes people want to be there, maybe even live there. Then you can start getting mixed use and boutique hotels and executive rental suites.
I mean, street level retail and activity does make for a friendlier street!
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lol
