I agree with John’s comments. North Hills will be an uphill battle and a great example of missed opportunities. I do not know who is responsible for this mess, but many of our city leaders promised things they do not seem to deliver. Better urban guidelines are not their priority, I can say that much.

Regardless of how you feel about John Kane’s work, he seems to have found a good balance between the area’s past (suburban) and future (urban) identity. Too bad he is alone on this

I am not 100% certain I understand the question, but I will try to answer, at the risk of being off-topic. North Hills East pretty much allowed for what Kane wanted to deliver, both in terms of density and height. The latter is limited to 365ft/35 stories (the combination of height and floors count may be for residential buildings and/or hotels). I am sure that some changes had to be made, but a high profile project such as NHE is hard to resist if you are a city leader.

A big debate was created when Kane tried to get incentives for building a parking deck, something that some could see as long-term benefit for the city, but coming up with $75 million isn’t exactly ideal for times like this. Considering how other cities throw money left and right to offer incentives – Durham and their doubling of incentives for the redevelopment of SunTrust building comes to mind – what Kane was trying to get was more than reasonable, IMO. Besides, the county would also participate. I did not support this TIF, but Kane got more negative comments than he deserved. The fact that his project (NHE) remains the largest one in Raleigh under construction, in tough times like this, says a lot. Not to mention that it begin to look pretty nice.

Back to the topic, I wonder if Kane could do a swap in the future with BB&T. Or better, do that before they break ground. Offer them some space in North Hills (West), or North Hills East and be done with it. Easier said than done, I guess