A lot of land has been cleared around Kindley Street. If you drive around downtown, you most likely have seen it going up and down Western Boulevard and MLK Boulevard as the big hill near the 401 cloverleaf interchange used to be pretty green but now it’s showing that red clay of barren earth. Right now, an automated parking garage, the first of its kind in the state, is being built. We’ll also see the extension of Kindley Street connect to MLK at a new interchange. We’ve talked about this extension before so I walked down to the site to check it out.

If you can’t recall where Kindley Street even is, it’s understandable because the street dead ends on the southern end of downtown and you either use it or you don’t. That may change for some drivers as the future connection from 401 makes it pretty easy to get in and out. This will make the upcoming City Gateway development attractive, if developers pull off some of the plans they have for this area. As a reminder, here is where I’m talking about.

The City Gateway project is highlighted in the aerial map above, south of the train tracks with Kindley Street somewhat bisecting the site. The street will continue south and connect to the cloverleaf, allowing drivers access from 401 into Kindley and the future developments here, and vice versa. We already have an apartment building here, Mira Raleigh, which is situated on the eastern side of Kindley Street.

Above is a YouTube Video showing how the automated parking garage will work. These have been around since 2012 and allow almost double the amount of cars to be stored. The entire thing is automated, meaning there will be no need for staff, and using a smartphone app, you can request your vehicle to be returned to you. Give the video a watch, I’ll admit, I’m kind of excited for Raleigh to get something like this. (and first in the state, too!)

The parking deck will be topped off by a public plaza and should be the central hub around which future developments occur. The new deck and Kindley Street extension should be completed this Winter. (2026/2027) Visitors to the Convention Center or Performing Arts Center could use this as an option to park nearby. It should be a 5 minute walk to the front door of Meymandi so this is a nice option for drivers. At night, it might be a dreary, dark walk but over time, hopefully the area is developed, offering better sidewalks alongside new buildings adding to the urban fabric.

That brings us to the future of City Gateway. The mixed-use district is zoned for buildings up to 40 stories in height and space for office, more residents, and a hotel are in the plans. The development group behind the project has a website if you want to see even more but this visual gives us a flavor of what they are thinking.

We talked about the parking but this suggests adding more than a thousand homes, retail spaces, a hotel, and a charter school. That’s pretty incredible when the land previously had a one-story office building with surface parking. They even reclaimed land from the state, chipping away at the footprint of the MLK/Western/401 cloverleaf. (which should be demolished in my opinion)

As usual, the Community is always on top of this development so you can get more frequent updates on this thread. I’ll be interested to see if they could get some kind of unique connection to Dix Park from here as driving is easy enough, but walking or biking to Dix from City Gateway would be quite challenging. That’s something I hope the city can work with them on.

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