Tag / Charter Square

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Charter Square south tower completes construction

Click for larger, wider view.

The south tower of Charter Square is having a grand opening today. From the press release:

The latest addition to the Raleigh skyline, Charter Square, officially opens this week. Located at the south end of Fayetteville Street, one of the most prominent addresses in Wake County, Charter Square is welcoming its new tenants to the building with an official grand opening celebration.

Eleven stories of stunning Class-A office designed for Platinum LEED certification, Charter Square towers above a sophisticated mix of premier retail, restaurants and metropolitan nightlife in the heart of a downtown district shining with a vibrancy.

There are still some construction fencing and barrels along Wilmington and Lenoir Streets as part of the final cleanup. The Lenoir Street closing notice isn’t on the city’s website anymore so hopefully the street will be open again soon too.

by Leo Suarez

Charter Square Accident

Downtown Raleigh will keep moving along but I wanted to put something up here for those that were injured and lost their lives putting together a piece of something that we keep an eye on constantly here on the blog.

Please take a pause or a moment of silence sometime soon for the families and friends of those hurt or lost.

  • Jose Erasmo Hernandez
  • Jose Luis Lopez-Ramirez
  • Anderson Almeida
  • Elmer Guevara (injured)

3 dead, 1 injured in downtown Raleigh construction accident via WRAL

by Leo Suarez

More to Charter Square Than Just a Tower

Charter Square construction site November 2014

Click for larger

Here’s a nice Fall photo of the Charter Square construction site on the south end of Fayetteville Street. The southern tower has topped out and siding is starting to rise up along each side. You can also see the space for the future northern tower to the right in the foreground.

What I kind of wondered about was the low-rise section being built along Wilmington Street. In the past, I had actually assumed that the building footprint was to go from the Fayetteville Street sidewalk to the Wilmington Street sidewalk but that’s not the case here. I’ll admit to overlooking this when presented with the one rendering back in 2013.

Digging out the site plan from the city’s website we have this screenshot below.
Charter Square site plan 2013

Click for larger

This site plan shows that there will be a one-story building along Wilmington Street with about 9,000 square feet of retail space. Between it and the southern tower of Charter Square would be open space. The text on the site plan calls it “Flat roof (possible future plaza)” Indeed when looking at what is being built now, a roof seems to be going in.

To the immediate north of the tower and retail spaces is a pedestrian plaza cutting the block in half. The northern tower, which is still in the planning phases as of today, would complete Charter Square.

The plaza adds some nice complexity to this block as it aligns with the existing Fayetteville Street crosswalk and the pedestrian entrance to the Marriott hotel. The site plan also shows retail/restaurant space on the northwest corner but mostly facing the plaza. I wonder if this is the space where Eschelon Experiences’ new restaurant may go?

The building should be done by Summer 2015.

by Leo Suarez

Charter Square South Tower Groundbreaking

Charter Square construction site

It was about 11 months ago that an announcement by Dominion Realty Partners stated that they were bringing the first of two towers to the Charter Square site on the south end of Fayetteville Street. Yesterday, the “groundbreaking” took place for that building.

I say “groundbreaking” because this site doesn’t have any dirt that needs to be worked on. The Charter Square site is over an underground parking deck so parking is ready to go.

Expect to watch construction on this LEED Platinum tower up until around Summer 2015.