There’s finally construction starting at the corner of West and Jones Street on the upcoming 200-unit apartment building called The Link Apartments. It’s not exciting to look at yet but what has been an empty lot since January 2009, should start to really fill in.
The demolition of small buildings here took place over five years ago for a much grander project called Powerhouse Plaza. The mixed-use office and hotel tower never happened and the lot sat empty for awhile.
During construction of the nearby Green Square project, consisting of the Nature Research Center and the newer Department of Environment and Natural Resources offices along Jones Street, this site was used for construction staging.
Today, it should be no surprise that the apartment boom is continuing and The Link Apartments will add more units to the downtown residential base.
Similar Posts:
- Powerhouse Plaza Flips From Hotel and Office to Apartments | October 28, 2024
- Crash of the Resident Wave, The Link Apartments Dig in on West Street (3/10) | June 24, 2014
- The Link Apartments Tops Out | May 17, 2015
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Ok, speaking of this area, I’m going to copy and paste a comment left on the Raleigh Skyline website from Greg D., he writes: “BidClerk has a project listed for Raleigh (Private sector) as Hotel/ Motel Office Parking Garage Retail Playgrounds/ Parks/ Athletic Fields Swimming Pools. The project is valued at $200,000,000. Anyone have any ideas of what this could be? I’m thinking of hotel prospects and I can’t imagine the Residence Inn adjacent to the convention center will command that kind of price tag, plus it is already with parking deck. Perhaps this will be the site across from the L? Two hundred million still sounds rather pricey for 9 stories, unless it has been scaled up. If I recall correctly the total cost of the 16 story Marriott was $115 million?” – he further commented: “I delved into the bidclerk posting a little further. Here’s what I found; 18K sq ft. of commercial space, 32k sq ft. of ground floor retail, 576k sq ft.or office space and a parking garage. I’m honestly having trouble determining if this fits the Crabtree plan. First guess is that it does not. The Carolina Row project calls for 125k sq ft of retail and restaurant space. The bidclerk project has considerably less retail and much more office. Additionally it doesn’t speak of any residential component as the Carolina Row projects clearly does.
And 700 potential wood construction apartments costing 110 million? While possible, I have a feeling that may be unlikely outside of downtown. With that, evidence points to these being different projects. Could we have a massive mystery project on our hands? $200 million is a huge number. Keep in mind Raleigh’s tallest, PNC costs $100 million and Sky House is $60.
Could this be the North Tower for Charter Square? 576k sq ft is a lot of office space.” Later in the comments he speculated that this COULD be what Ted Reynolds is planning for the old greyhound bus station right there across from Quorum Center — anyone heard anything about this?? Is Greg D on this blog as well to comment?? VERY interesting!
@Jake, I sure hope that this is a giant mixed use project to follow the Capital Blvd/Peace St intersection project. There is tons of under-developed land at that corner and it’s ripe for the sort of development that you describe.
^John – sounds to me like it’s going to be a giant office building with a built in parking deck (thank tha lawd), with retail/restaurant space along street level. And across from Quorum Center, this would start to REALLY fill the gaps between downtown-downtown, and glenwood s. Would really make for a great view coming into the city from Cap Blvd! Fingers crossed!!! Come on Mr. Reynolds, give us SOMETHING!
Across from Quorum in which direction?
Link to the TBJ article on the Link apartments: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2014/05/link-apartments-to-rise-along-jones-street-in.html?page=all
Looks like it’s going to help fill in northern DT quite nicely.
John: where the “old” greyhound station is.
This apt building in particular isn’t anything special to look at… but does anyone know if there will at least be retail/restaurant space along the street level? Doesn’t say anything about it in that tbj article….
I have read that there will be retail on the ground floor. I do not recall where, but I am more than certain.
Greg D!!! ^ anything else to add to your comments from Raleigh Skyline I have copied/pasted above??
The site plan approved by Council in 2012 makes it clear that there will be no leasable ground floor retail spaces in the building, although the space will be convertable in the future.
All this “future” and “convertable” retail space is beginning to get on my nerves. That parking deck on Wilmington Street, Quorum Center, the Citrix parking deck, and now this. Bah.
My mistake. “Convertable” is more accurate.
Jake Anthony, I have not seen or heard anything else in reference to the aforementioned.
I guess we will just have to wait. Greg D: Really glad you brought it up on Raleigh Skyline, figured the good people on this blog would be interested to read that as well. I’m with you, I’m really hoping it has to do with Ted Reynolds and that greyhound site. Would love to see that whole area right next to Glenwood S become it’s own little city walk of sorts.
Apartments are needed! But they are so expensive. My mortgage is cheaper than the new apartments!
^Arthur – I don’t doubt it.
@Arthur… Spiraling apartment rents will help rekindle the condo market. It’s an ebb and flow sort of relationship. Also, I read that apartments are starting to be overbuilt. This will increase competition and soften the rents until the absorption rebalances.
The mystery project may be the new North Hills 18-story building. It will most likely be similar to CAPTRUST Tower, but with one additional floor – remember, they don’t count the 13th floor. Of course, this is a speculation on my part.
^Ernest: interesting thought. I’m glad that Kane is keeping up with the North Hills expansion, although I’d really rather see such expansion focused on INSIDE the beltline (aka DOWNTOWN). I also really don’t like how since he’s built North Hills and most of what surrounds it, that he likes billing it as “midtown” …. LOL midtown my arse! Uptown, MAYBE, but wayyyyyy too far out from Downtown to be given such a prestigious moniker. Thoughts? Agreement? Disagreement? I just don’t understand how, if the PNC tower (the tallest in Raleigh) was a $100million project, that the far smaller North Hills building will be a $200million project…. fingers crossed it is, indeed, Ted Reynolds’ next big announcement. Either way, I’m sure he has something great planned for the old Greyhound site. Glad that Reynolds is keeping his development projects in the actual city.
Also, that’s not to say that within a few years, the city won’t be big enough to include North Hills as “part of the city” … but right now there’s just too much empty space between dTown and North Hills (I’m never giving in to calling it “midtown” LOL)
The NHE tower looks to have 300K sq ft of office. This mystery project is 570k sq ft. Something could of been scaled up or different entirely.
Jake Anthony, I thought about it shortly after my last post. It is very unlikely this project is in North Hills, although the proposed Tower Two building may be over 550,000sf if we count the parking deck. Kane favors large floor square footage because it is easier to lease, so it is possible to get 30,000sf per floor… but the mystery project is probably something else.
A few years ago I found a rendering of a mystery tower and asked around, but nobody knew anything about it. I even contacted the designer and the architect, but got nothing back. This mystery tower is definitely above 500,000sf and it is a gorgeous building!!! I even tried to find where this might be, but couldn’t. It was definitely NOT One Glenwood, which is about 39 floors, but the mystery tower seemed to be nestled between low-rises.
Quite honestly, I doubt this is going to be a Reynolds project, since father and son took separate directions, with the father (Ted) remaining more active in the area of new development. It is not impossible, just unlikely.
Bear in mind this hypothetical development could be a suburban office park. It could be a project for Centennial Campus as well. And thirdly it could be a real proposal for a 35+ floor tower downtown, but it may also fail to materialize just like the others.
Until we see firmer plans I’d shy away from getting our hopes up.
I agree with Vatnos. This project could be anything, go anywhere, or even fail altogether. Since we haven’t seen anything substantially large in downtown since PNC Plaza, I would love to see a high-rise above 30 floors, but in the last few years I have adjusted my attitude towards such developments. Unless I see a high-rise making its appearance in the skyline, I won’t believe it until I see it.
In the meantime, I am glad to see some progress in Glenwood South, Blount Street North and Eastern Downtown. We need the smaller infills to create human-scale urban districts that will serve as transitional areas. As long as we don’t waste the CBD real estate on small things, I am fine with waiting.
Ernest , I have heard that the city lot with their garage @ Capital Blvd ./ Peace St. / West St. location will be sold to become a park . Do you think that this site , & lots toward Mr . Reynolds lot could become the large project of BidClerk ? Dwight Nipper
no, it is in the flood zone. Park and greenway or if we are lucky river walk etc. That would take visionary thinkers which are lacking at city hall. They are more interested in blowing 15 million on Moore square and feeding the homeless.
A Riverwalk vision has been discussed for over 10 years now – I heard about it before it was publicized – along with the interest by several developers to create an urban area along West Str. Unfortunately, it would take a huge load of money and none of those developer has such amounts.
I know that several discussions come to light every now and then, with great visions presented and mention of the desire to make Raleigh a “world class” city… of simply offer “world class” amenities. As BC said, it takes vision and we don’t have that in the current city council. It is tough to make decisions on how to spend public/tax dollars, but there are people in the city council who love to waste our time, too. Between fighting the Rockford’s sign and ensuring that a building on Hillsborough Street cannot be above 80ft, city leaders demonstrate that little things are more important than big things. Maybe 20 years from now…
^Ernest – what’s the story with the Rockford’s sign? Are you talking about “The Rockford” painted up on the side of the building? I LOVE that! Is that what city council has a problem with? Also, wtf is the problem with building taller buildings on Hillsbro… we are a CITY. I get sick of reading about the resistance against building taller on hillsbro, as I’m sure you are.
The Hillsborough Street issue is because of NIMBY’s who are using the new UDO to try and keep a new apartment building from being built where Two Guys is now. The developers want a 7 story 75 ft. tall building. 75 feet is the max height allowed in that area, but the floor count is capped at 5. Some of the “urban development police” in the area are upset that the developers are trying to get more floors out of their building while staying within the 75 ft. height restriction.
This is a Change.org petition to allow the owner of Rockford to keep the sign. http://www.change.org/petitions/city-of-raleigh-north-carolina-allow-the-rockford-to-keep-their-signs
@Brad: The issue with the 7-story building I was referring to was for a lot across from Cup-A-Joe… As you obviously know, the developer wanted to build a shorter 7-story apartment building, but the NIMBYs didn’t like the number of floors, so the developer came back with a slightly taller 5-story office building. So, the problem was the number of floors. In other words, damn if you do, damn if you don’t…
Thanks for the link about The Rockford sign. It makes me sick how city leaders are messing things up these days. After the idea of charging – $5(???) – for after hours parking in the parking decks was brought for discussion, this story comes to prove that the fight for our downtown’s image is not over. Google for the N&O article “Glenwood South restaurant fights to keep hand-painted sign” and read more.
Ugh…. just reading about the Rockford sign is PISSING me OFF. I signed the petition, of course. Though we all know how “useful” petitions are when trying to change the mind of American government. Here’s some unique and creative that gives our growing little city some real character…. let’s destroy it. What’s happening to NC government………. I mean really
*something unique and creative….
Having visited San Antonio recently, I’m actually completely against an artificial riverwalk at this point. I found myself totally underwhelmed with the experience there. Felt less like a genuine nightlife area and more like a disneyland ride.
I think Raleigh’s creeks (particularly along Capital Boulevard) are better utilized by returning them to as natural a state as possible and keeping parks and greenway corridors around them. This is what Austin has done and having those creeks running through the city adds a great natural contrast to the built-up nightlife areas that they link up.