Year / 2015

by Leo Suarez

Moore Square Master Plan Open Houses on April 29 and 30

MooreSqOpenHouse

Helping spread the word here about this upcoming event.

The Moore Square redesign has been a controversial topic mainly because of cost. Figures in the $14-15 million range have been proposed for a complete overhaul of the 4 acre green space. At the same time, a lot change could come to the district following this refresh.

Moore Square Master Plan Open House

Date/Time: Wed., Apr. 29 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Date/Time: Thurs., Apr 30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
City Market
215 Wolfe Street
(same format and information at both sessions)

by Leo Suarez

A Walk Around The Edison Block

Polishing off Skyhouse Raleigh

A worker looks out over a balcony at Skyhouse Raleigh.

The flowers and leaves aren’t the only things that are growing in downtown Raleigh. I took a walk around the Edison block and snapped a few photos of the new and upcoming developments here. These include the apartment buildings of Skyhouse Raleigh, the Edison Apartments, and the Edison Office tower.

All being delivered by the same developer, when open these projects will add a serious injection of new residents and office space to the downtown core. It’s possible that the bump in residents might trigger more retail or counter-service food places. Nearby Sosta Cafe has already posted that they will experiment with longer hours, including staying open on weekends because of the Edison Apartments right across the street. Maybe more will follow.

Skyhouse Raleigh from Person and Davie Streets.

Skyhouse Raleigh from Person Street

Skyhouse retail spaces at the corner of Blount and Martin Streets.

Skyhouse retail spaces at the corner of Blount and Martin Streets.

Artwork being installed over the vehicle entrance along Blount Street.

Artwork being installed over the vehicle entrance along Blount Street.

The construction of the Edison Apartments is humming. The Blount and Davie corner is much farther along compared to Davie and Wilmington. Unlike Skyhouse, this building goes right up against the parking deck. That means even more space for retail along all the sides of Blount, Davie, and Wilmington.

Construction of the Edison Apartments as seen from Davie Street.

Construction of the Edison Apartments as seen from Davie Street.

Corner of Davie and Blount Streets.

Corner of Davie and Blount Streets.

Corner of Davie and Wilmington Streets.

Corner of Davie and Wilmington Streets.

The Edison Office tower hasn’t actually started yet but below is a shot of the corner of Martin and Wilmington Streets where the project will go. The latest renderings on the J Davis Architects website show something similar to the towers that are at North Hills. It is described as:

Edison Office will be a 19 story office building with 14,350 square feet of retail and 245,895 square feet of office in downtown Raleigh, NC.

Let’s hope for an increase in office pre-leases as that will help bring this tower into downtown finally.

Corner of Martin and Wilmington Streets.

Corner of Martin and Wilmington Streets.

by Leo Suarez

Construction Update, The L Building

The L Building, corner of McDowell and Davie Street

We haven’t looked at The L Building since the summer of 2014 and now this project is almost complete. The second floor offices appear to have tenants moving in and the sidewalks are being paved this week.

The southwest corner of McDowell and Davie Street look very nice in my opinion. The building’s retail spaces add some great urban form to the sidewalks. With so much morning and afternoon pedestrian traffic between the parking deck behind the building, maybe we’ll get a coffee shop here.

Should be soon before we can consider this project completed.

The L Building

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Future site of Raleigh Union Station

Future site of Raleigh Union Station

Another sunset over the future Raleigh Union Station. The planned March 21 groundbreaking was delayed and it looks like it’ll be this summer before we see any activity here on this site.

It will likely be July before any demolition or construction work begins at the Union Station site in downtown Raleigh’s warehouse district, confirms Scott Cutler, vice president at the Raleigh-based Clancy & Theys construction firm. Clancy & Theys is part of a joint venture partnership with Skanska USA in association with Holt Brothers Construction of Raleigh that will be serving as the construction manager-at-risk for the Union Station project.

*Raleigh delays March ceremony for Union Station project, construction to start in July

If you didn’t catch it, March 21 of this year was the 175th anniversary of the first train line to be completed in Raleigh. It was highlighted in an interesting article on This Day in North Carolina History.

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

Peace Street West Up For a Facelift

Intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Peace Street

Intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Peace Street

Here’s a project that’s moving forward after being on hold for a few years. Peace Street West, referred to as the street between West and St. Mary’s Street, is due for some streetscape improvements. This will include new sidewalks, burying of utility lines, consolidation of driveways, and other enhancements to this part of the street.

To get right into it, go straight to the project page on the city’s website: Peace Street West Streetscape

A lot of talk and focus has taken place over the last few years about improving Peace Street. The street is a major east/west thoroughfare with high traffic counts. Capital Boulevard and the railyards to the north and south have created a kind of bottleneck. No urban street grid exists in this area unfortunately.

North of Peace, the only way to cross Capital Boulevard by any mode is at the crossing where Wake Forest Road becomes Atlantic Avenue. To the south is a pair of one-way streets, Jones and Lane Streets. With so much separation and traffic counts hovering above 50,000 vehicles a day on Capital Boulevard, it’s no surprise that this area is dominated by car-centric development.

Peace Street West could be one-half of the solution as “Peace Street East” is due for some improvements also. Those are coming through the Capital Boulevard bridge rebuild and the Square Loop plan.

Diving into the Peace Street West information from the city’s project page, here are some highlights:

  • “The sidewalk areas along the length of Peace Street will be improved to increase safety and overall appearance of the corridor, in addition to repouring the sidewalks accent paver bands will be added at the back of curb.”
  • More trees will be added to the sidewalks.
  • The number of driveways will be reduced.
  • Traffic signals will be upgraded with mast arms.
  • Some of the overhead wires will be buried.

Intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Peace Street

West Peace Street

For me, the intersection of Glenwood and Peace has always felt like a gateway to downtown Raleigh. If you are driving or walking south down Glenwood, you transition out of the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood and as you approach the intersection you start to see the density, the buildings of downtown Raleigh.

The intersection also sees steady pedestrian activity so it’s a nice reminder that you’re entering a walkable, active place. The improvements here will go a long way towards transitioning single-family neighborhoods into urban walkable neighborhoods.

According to the project page, this project should be completed by Summer of 2016.

by Leo Suarez

Municipography, City Staff Responds to Downtown Vibrancy and Raleigh Union Station

Municipography is a summary of current issues going through the Raleigh City Council and other municipal departments in the city. The point is to try to deliver any video, photos, and text associated with the discussions happening at City Hall or elsewhere. Since this is a downtown Raleigh blog, the focus is on the center of the city.

I recommend email readers click through to the website to see the embedded video.

At last week’s city council meeting, city staff presented a high-level overview of some of the city department’s challenges and positives that our recent growth in downtown Raleigh has created. This is in response to downtown developer Greg Hatem’s comments about the vibrancy in the city center.

Also discussed was Raleigh Union Station and a plan to cover cost increases.

Downtown Activities Update


If the embedded video doesn’t show, jump to the city’s website to watch. It starts at 1:15:22.

From the agenda:

During the January 20, 2015 meeting the City Council heard comments from Greg Hatem (Empire Properties) regarding vibrancy in downtown Raleigh. Staff was directed to prepare a plan evaluating the various elements involved in the growth and increased activity downtown. A presentation will be provided by staff outlining efforts currently underway and proposed next steps to address the issue.

Recommendation: Receive as information.

I really enjoyed this presentation by our city’s staff including City Manager Ruffin Hall’s introduction. Sure, Greg Hatem may have made a claim that downtown Raleigh is “unlivable” but the report shows that there are many factors going on here and his story could be just a small piece of the downtown pie. It seems like staff and the council recognize that collaboration between many entities is necessary to move downtown towards the adopted vision, the one being discussed in the latest downtown plan.

This is why I love downtown. It’s a place with a highly complex fabric of services and uses that should be enjoyed by all Raleigh denizens and visitors through variety and balance.

This conversation questions the downtown Raleigh nightlife and whether it is in balance with the rest of her uses.

From the city’s point of view, there are concerns. If I was in a wheelchair, how would I get across a sidewalk that’s packed with bar patrons? When Fayetteville Street is packed with taxis and cars, how does an emergency vehicle get through to treat someone? Is the trash that’s leftover healthy for our air or water when it runs off? How do you balance all that but not stifle growth and economic development?

In my opinion, these side conversations need to be taken into the new downtown plan and documented. That way current and future city leaders have a reference to work with as downtown grows and new issues are presented. There isn’t one clear cut answer for each challenge but the answer becomes easier when all parties are working together.

Raleigh Union Station Update


If the embedded video doesn’t show, jump to the city’s website to watch. It starts at 1:47:20.

The council unanimously supported spending more money on Raleigh Union Station in order to make up for rising utility costs and property values. Staff did find ways to reduce costs of the project, some being cutting the planned stormwater garden and changing up the platform, in order to keep things moving forward.

Raleigh Union Station rendering