Evolve Tours

In case you would like to get a look inside the Evolve/Carbondale Flats complex, the facility will host a ribbon cutting followed by tours this Friday at 11 a.m.:

Ribbon Cutting for Evolve Set for 11:30 a.m., Friday, August 7
The Carbondale Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of Evolve at SIU at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, August 7, 2015.
The new mixed-use facility includes 121 high-end, modern apartments for students and young professionals.  On the street level, restaurant and retail locations will open at a later date.
Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, tours of the facility and refreshments will be available to attendees.
Media, city officials and the community are encouraged to attend.

Rental Signage

Have noticed quite a few "For Rent" signs in the area between S. University and S. Poplar, and I would venture to guess well over half of them are for Home Rentals properties. Normally, that is not unusual given this time of year but I wonder how many will remain after summer ends and the fall semester starts.

The Carbonale Flats/Evolve project should open by then and last I hear, was over 50% rented, taking potential renters out of the pool for those properties. I also have not heard anything about a high expected influx of new students for the fall, though it could happen, which means that the local landlords are competing for the same slightly smaller pool of potential renters.  My guess is we see more students migrating to the Carbondale Flats project since it has "New" written all over it, while most of the properties in the Poplar/ University area have not had much improvements made on them in years.

710 Building Demolished

Construction crews leveled the old 710 Bookstore building today to make way for the new Carbondale Flats complex.

Blocked Off Parking and 710 Building

If you haven't been downtown in the past few days, the entire old 710 building and parking area are now fenced off, pending demolition of the building and construction of the Carbondale Flats complex. In case you didn't know, most of that parking area west of the 710 strip belonged to the building owners. They had entered into an agreement with the city several years ago wherein the city installed parking meters and maintained the property in exchange for sharing the revenue from the meters.

The size of the parking area was far larger than needed most of the year for 710, Varsity Barber Shop and other occupants of the strip mall. Instead, students would use it to park free, rather than paying for a campus parking sticker, as the area sat across the street from the SIUC campus. Eventually, 710 decided it might as well generate revenue, as well as keep people from using it for long term parking at no charge, and in went the meters.

This will certainly affect a number of the businesses in downtown. While many of them have access to parking, much of it is shared with other businesses and can be difficult to access. The 710 lot is readily accessible from several directions and never filled, except during the first week or so of classes.

Carbondale Flats Project

The city announced that Tartan Realty has closed on the 710 Bookstore property. Construction of the 360 bed Carbondale Flats complex was scheduled to start yesterday and expected to finish in 14 months, roughly fall of 2015. 710 Bookstore, the last remaining business in the block, has moved about a block south to the vacant UniversiTees building, near Kaya and Harbaugh's Cafe.

One problem that may impede the development has been the refusal of the owners of the now vacant Attitude Designs building to sell in order to include the property in the development. Another difficulty, which I have not seen addressed yet, is the parking for the complex. 360 beds means 360 residents which means, unless college students change a lot in the next year, 360 additional cars needing parking in the downtown area, as close to the apartment as possible. I see no way to fit an additional 360 parking spaces adjacent to the Carbondale Flats development.