Red Hat, the Triangle software company, has been promised several years in free rent and huge discounts in other years as part of a sweet deal from Progress Energy to sublease its office building in downtown Raleigh.

Red Hat reported this week in a federal regulatory filing that it expects to receive at least $28 million from Progress toward its real estate rent. That represents a 32 percent discount over the life of the $87 million lease.

The terms of the real estate lease effectively mean that Red Hat will be paid by Progress, a Fortune 500 electric utility, to occupy the 19-story building for a chunk of the long-term lease through 2035..

Officials at Progress and Red Hat could not be reached for comment to elaborate on their real estate contract. However, Progress has been under pressure to find a tenant to occupy the headquarters it plans to dismantle as part of its corporate merger with Charlotte-based Duke Energy.

The new Green Square Parking Deck, opening Monday, lives up to its name. The structure touts many green features, and is the most energy-efficient deck in the Downtown State Government Complex. Among its features:

The men's homeless shelter is moving. University Square is (probably) being town down and rebuilt. Halloween is getting smaller.

I asked incoming police chief Chis Blue on Monday if all the changes downtown are coincidence or reflect a greater concern about safety, perhaps since Eve Carson was killed.

Both he and Town Manager Roger Stancil said no, there's no grand design. But both said growth, especially downtown, requires Chapel Hill to think differently about how it protects people. The town is expected to add 30,000 people by 2035. 

"That growth requires us to think differently about community safety," Blue said. 

"It's a different world then when this was the village of Chapel Hill and we were separate," Stancil added. "Regional rail will break those barriers even more."

View SEHSR alternatives in a larger map

The Raleigh City Council backed away today from taking a stand on any of the state’s proposed downtown routes for a new fast-train line from Raleigh to Richmond, Va., and it asked state officials to add other possible routes to their study.

The council asked the state Department of Transportation to analyze three alternative train paths – two suggested by residents last week and a third broached Tuesday by council member Thomas Crowder.

Each of the three new ideas involves a long railroad bridge that would carry high-speed passenger trains high over Capital Boulevard. Crowder suggested running the elevated trains north and south, parallel to the busy thoroughfare, as part of an expansive downtown development project.

The alternatives sketched last week by groups of residents would move the trains from the west side of Capital to the east side, on a long curving bridge either just north or just south of Peace Street.

Council member Russell Stephenson said the new options looked better than DOT’s proposals either to run the trains north along the west side of Capital, through a Norfolk Southern rail yard, or through a CSX yard on the east side. ... [MORE]

In the coming weeks, the town of Chapel Hill will be test-driving four new parking meters downtown to unify the town's parking payment system and make it more convenient for patrons to pay.

The new meters will accept coins, debit and credit cards and will also allow prospective parkers to add money to their meter over the phone.

"You can add time to parking while you're sitting in a restaurant and you think you're going over time," said Ken Pennoyer, business management director for Chapel Hill.

Pennoyer said the meters will be in two downtown locations and will be a part of the field test for three to six months beginning this summer.  He said the town is looking to get feedback from downtown patrons and businesses on the convenience and efficiency of the machines, which can account for the payments of up to eight parking spaces at a time.

"There is frustration with parking in the town because it's a scare commodity," Pennoyer said. "So anything we can do to make it more user friendly is a big improvement...(it's) very exciting to have various options to make parking easier."

Convenience might come at a cost, however. Pennoyer said the town council has discussed the possibility of raising parking rates by a quarter after the pilot program is completed and the new meters have been implemented.

Someone may have finally solved the epic parking problem at The Courtyard.

A company called Franklin West, LLC has submitted a plan to renovate and expand the retail and office complex at the corner of Franklin and Roberson streets, perhaps best known as the former location for businesses like Pyewacket, 3Cups, Sandwhich and Locopops. The plan would add 19 apartments, a 90-car parking deck and new stories onto some buildings.

The former owner, Spencer Young, drove out tenants like 3Cups beverage shop in part because he refused to pay rent to neighbor P.H. Craig, who owns the back part of The Courtyard's parking lot due to a strange legal arrangement that goes back decades. Craig barricaded his portion of the parking lot, putting The Courtyard out of compliance with its permits and prompting local officials to intervene.

Wachovia foreclosed on the property last year, and county records list the bank's subsidiary NFPS, Inc. as The Courtyard's owner. Franklin West LLC formed in March with John Weigle of Durham as the registered agent. The relationship between Wachovia and Weigle is unclear.
The new parking deck would eliminate The Courtyard's need to use Craig's land.

By all appearances, the town of Knightdale going to get a new park.

The town has an option on a $2.9 million downtown parcel of land now owned by former Mayor Billy Wilder and his wife, Libby. It's done due diligence where the land is concerned going through three appraisals to assure it pays a fair price for the land.

The designs by CLH Design of Cary show a beautiful park, a jewel for any town and especially one the size of Knightdale. It will have a playground, an amphitheatre, a dog park, one mile of walking trails, two multi-purpose fields, a camp ground, gardens -- and that's just the first phase. Phase Two features a community center and a skate park.

 The price tag for phase one is about $3 million. The town will likely have to borrow $2, 145,000 of the $2.9 million for the land and about $2.5 million for phase one.

 The town has a healthy capital reserve account and has been saving two cents on the tax rate or $200,000 a year since it raised taxes two years ago, dedicating the two cents from now on, or at least during the tenure of this council, to capital improvement plans.

 And the town has conducted a recreation survey to see just what residents want in a park.

It has covered all the bases. Staff will go the Local Government Commission next week to seek approval to borrow the money. Assistant Manager Seth Lawless expects it to be approved.

Yet all this money during the worst recession since the Great One makes me nervous. Town leaders have a ready argument. Land prices are cheaper now. And they'll never get the chance to buy such a large parcel of land (78 acres) in the heart of downtown. Collections of Knightdale's property taxes remain fairly solid. It actually collected $35,000 more this year than last year, yet it probably won't meet the 97 percent of the levy which is customary, according to finance director Jimmy Overton. That now stands at 90 percent. The plan is not to raise property taxes to pay for the park.

It still makes me nervous. As a family, we aren't taking on anymore debt than we already have, rather saving our nuts for winter. The town is moving full speed ahead on the promise of a turning economy and the old days when shopping centers and residential developments were knocking at Knightdale's door.

Let's just hope Knightdale is right in their optimism.

FROM STAFF WRITER JESSE JAMES DECONTO:

At a pizza lunch celebrating the framing of the top story of its downtown Chapel Hill project, Greenbridge Developments announced $5,000 in donations today to two local nonprofits.

Half goes to Mama Dip’s Share the Love Fund, which helps Northside and Pine Knolls children and youth pay for extracurricular activities like camps and music lessons.

“This area is about the young people, so thank you, thank you so much,” said Mildred “Mama Dip” Council, who recently turned 80.

The other half goes to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Orange toward its efforts to open a new facility in the Pine Knolls neighborhood.

“This is just the beginning of a series of engagements between Greenbridge and the community,” said partner Tim Toben.

The developers have come under fire from some local black leaders and the student group United with the Northside Community Now for not doing more to help the surrounding neighborhoods.

Greenbridge partner Michael Cucchiara said the developers will ask every resident in the 98 condos to contribute to neighborhood nonprofits.

“We hope all of them contribute and it doubles and triples,” he said.

Sherril Koroluk of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill says someone has "tagged" or just plain vandalized Michael Brown's Handprints Mural on the side of 422 W. Franklin St. (Chapel Hill Cleaners).

"I am not sure if the spray painted CDU66  H6C is a gang related tag or just gibberish," she writes. 

Brown painted the mural in 1990 with the help of local elementary school students. Here's what he told us about the project:

I was struggling for an idea when an old childhood memory came to
me. I used to enjoy walking past Sloan’s Drug Store because you could
still see some faded Carolina blue hand prints put there by students
after Carolina’s 1957 National Championship win. Eureka! Even a first-grader can make a handprint

Brown is about to start restoring the Blue Steeple Mural on the back wall of 109 E. Franklin St. (still my favorite). The society hopes to have enough money left over to now help pay for the restoration of the Handprints mural.

The Painted Walls Project, which has been raising funds to restore the murals, still needs donations to pay for the restorations. The project is a joint effort by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and the Chapel Hill Historical Society.

Click here to find out how you can help.

Wintergreen Hospitality has acquired Chapel Hill's boutique Franklin Hotel for $14 million, according to public records. 

UNC grads Jay Patel, 27, brother Anup Patel and their father Pravin Patel own Wintergreen Hospitality, which has operated more than $60 million in hotel assets over nearly 30 years. The company has properties in the Southeast including Washington, D.C; Nashville; and Savannah, and currently owns and operates two Hilton Hotels properties: the Hampton Inns located in Lumberton and Selma, North Carolina.

"We will build on the Franklin's reputation for providing a premium hotel experience in Chapel Hill," Jay Patel said. "Our vision is to deliver unforgettably positive human interactions with guests, who will find their Franklin Hotel experience warm, friendly, sophisticated, highly service-oriented and casually fashionable.”