Core Downtown Development by Progress Energy
The beginning of a large redevelopment downtown is starting to unfold. Progress Energy owns most of a 4 acre block downtown, bounded by Martin, Blount, Davie, and Wilmington St. This block currently has various surface parking lots, worn out buildings, and an un-appealing retail section on Wilmington St. It is across the street from City Market, Progress Energy’s newest tower, Progress II, and now under construction, RBC Plaza.
Now PE wants to develop the entire block. Plans for a 1,050 space parking deck have already been approved and will be worked into the plans, leaving about 2.6 acres for the chosen developer to work with. The News & Observer reports that the chosen developer is Gregg Sandreuter, a Cary-based developer. Nothing is for sure yet but talks of a tall office building, condos, a grocery store, a movie theater, and restaurants are in the works. We’ll just have to wait for more official information but I like the direction they are heading. It seems that this will be a fairly large project and will take a couple years to complete.
I’m still interested to find out what will happen with the two businesses that have chosen not to give in and sell their property over to PE, those two being Reliable Loans and Jewelry and Cooper’s BBQ. I think Cooper’s is great and would hate to see it go. With such a large project and much potential downtown, I believe a compromise can be achieved so that the developer can have full use of the property and Cooper’s will continue doing business in Raleigh.
The location is very important and it is imperative that downtown leaders and city officials do this right. It is a great opportunity to get some dense development on a piece of land that is in the core business district of downtown. It will be exciting to see what is announced on this project in the next coming months.
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