Downtown Raleigh's Future

[KJHburg]

2 state office buildings coming down and new 7-8 story building on Jones to replace them as part of the new Education campus which will have the UNC HQ, Dept of Public Instruction etc.  

Buildings coming down, offices moving for Raleigh state government overhaul | WUNC

[dmccall]

I kinda like these two buildings, architecturally. Bath is just a weird, odd building, and it was kind of nice to see a government try something that isn't cookie cutter. The Administration Building has always seemed like a handsome, well-scaled building.

One aspect of this is that Paul Coble, who is heading up the project, is a skin-and-bones spender, doing everything on-the-cheap. He says he doesn't want to incorporate any private businesses on the ground floor of these projects to keep things simple. Therefore the NE quadrant of downtown will remain a vacuole to the downtown lifestyle.  It will be functional from 8-5 weekdays, but a ghost town the rest of the time. Seems like the smarter way to use that land would be to incorporate destinations that people want in those dead hours, and share, or even profit from, the parking.

Edited January 4 by dmccall

[KJHburg]

New 17 story city hall finally starting by demo'ing the old police HQ

Demolition set for old Raleigh Police Department headquarters (wral.com)

[Blue Ridge]

Wells is leaving its downtown tower: https://www.wral.com/amp/21232190/

[KJHburg]

One thing about Wells how much space did they really have in their namesake tower downtown?  They have been consolidating space all over the country including in Charlotte.  

[Rufus]

I would not sound the warning sirens for DTR just yet. It's still very popular, and is still vibrant. I think Wells leaving is a symptom of its larger real estate overstretch than anything else. That being said, this would be a great opportunity for DRA and others to look at why corporate entities are choosing NH or elsewhere for their operations. Is it employee desire? Is it QOL? Is it accessibility? How do we address all of those? 

[KJHburg]

More on the new Raleigh city hall complex the 17 story building.

Henning Larsen | The Raleigh East Civic Tower   from the architect

East Civic Tower Project Updates | Raleighnc.gov  city update page   dust cloud cometh! 

[KJHburg]

Downtown Raleigh quarterly report and round up for the 2023 year.

dra-q4-market-report-2023-digital.pdf (ctycms.com)

[Jones_]

On 1/16/2024 at 11:17 AM, Rufus said:

I would not sound the warning sirens for DTR just yet. It's still very popular, and is still vibrant. I think Wells leaving is a symptom of its larger real estate overstretch than anything else. That being said, this would be a great opportunity for DRA and others to look at why corporate entities are choosing NH or elsewhere for their operations. Is it employee desire? Is it QOL? Is it accessibility? How do we address all of those? 

I think they are following the chain store type places and the people who like that sort of thing. Target shoppers epitomize that sector. Downtown was trending completely locally owned and grown but that encountered two speed bumps, 1) big money killing off local ventures with shareholder profit requirements and 2) the pandemic. I think too much of the old rehab -able old buildings that small and local places love are gone for downtown to ever regain that vibe. The fringe areas can sustain that if its carefully curated. 

[KJHburg]

Nothing is more important to continued growth of downtown Raleigh than Fayetteville St.  Here is a plan to revitalize the area further.

activating-fayetteville-street-report-compressed.pdf (ctycms.com)

summary story by Axios Raleigh releases new ideas for fixing downtown's Fayetteville St. - Axios Raleigh

[KJHburg]

""A Durham developer has bought the remaining lots it needs to move forward with a 12-story building in Downtown Raleigh.

Elmwood Development recently acquired three lots in the Warehouse District near the Fairweather Condos for $6.48 million, according to Wake County deed records. The lots total a little over half an acre. Elmwood already owned two of the lots it needed for its plans to build a retail and residential building with a parking deck.

The company acquired the three lots — 510 S. Harrington St., 505 S. West St. and 401 W. Cabarrus St. — from Maverick Partners Realty of Durham. Maverick Partners bought the three lots in 2019 for almost $3 million. The combined assessed value of the three lots is about $3.1 million; for all five of the lots – it's about $3.8 million.  

A timeline for construction is unclear, as Elmwood Development did not respond to multiple inquiries.

Site plans filed with the city show the project will have 298 residential units, 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and 289 parking spaces in a parking deck. There will be 222 one-bedroom units, 64 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom units.

The residential lobby, a fitness center and retail space would front Cabarrus Street with the remaining retail along South West Street.""

Developer pays $6M for half acre in Raleigh to build 12-story project - Triangle Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

 

Edited February 12 by KJHburg

[Jones_]

DTR is going to quite an odd doughnut when the latest round gets built out. It'll be very very densely populated in a loop from Searboard, around and down the east side of Moore Square, looping down south of town to Dix, and up though the Warehouse District to Smoky Hollow. Then the giant central dead zone from government and church and banks will persist ad nauseam. Office life will remain practically non-existent while work from home people are depended on support places during the day. Certainly not the end point I saw coming when when NewRaleigh ushered in its wave back in early 200x. 

[KJHburg]

Miscellaneous downtown Raleigh photos including the new NC Freedom Park and historical Haywood House and the Governors and Lt Governors homes. (and Moore Square)