Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

Bloc 83 Has Never Looked so Good

Have you been to Bloc 83 yet?

By Bloc 83, I mean the collection of new buildings along Hillsborough and Morgan Streets on the southern end of Glenwood Avenue. The Origin Hotel, One Glenwood, and Two Hillsborough form a node of office space and hospitality that is sure to see some activity as companies move in and programming starts in their new plaza space.

The name actually has a nod to the block numbers on the old insurance maps of downtown Raleigh. I guess at the time, it was just “Raleigh” as Block 83 was near the edge of the city limits back then. You can see all the downtown blocks numbered here from 1896 or see it in person thanks to this slick mural along the plaza showing a portion of the map.

The plaza between the two office buildings is now the Gold Standard for public spaces in Raleigh. There’s room to stroll and various nooks to sit at with a variety of views towards the small stage. Two kiosks are inside the plaza which I hope have some new local businesses. I can imagine small scale performances, popup markets, and art shows taking place here. Even late night parties and corporate events could use the space as it looks wired up with speakers and a large screen.

The exterior construction seems completed and if you walk the block, there’s plenty of retail space to keep things interesting. We already have spots filled in One Glenwood as they opened over a year ago. Two Hillsborough and even the parking deck across Boylan have retail spaces on the ground floor. Don’t forget about the restaurant, Good Day Good Night, in the hotel also.

Looking to the future, there may be more coming to this immediate spot as a plot of land at 615 West Morgan has been rezoned up to a maximum height of 20 stories. This is at the southeast corner of Morgan and Boylan and initial plans suggest even more office space with ground-floor retail. The Bloc 83 formula seems to be a hit so far.

We’re tracking Bloc 83 progress on the Community to great depths and some of our contributors have already toured the new building and shared photos. Jump on over to follow in the conversation. Perhaps a future DTRaleigh Meetup will take place at Bloc 83 one day.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

The sky’s the limit over at the Marbles parking lot along Morgan Street. As long as the sky can be reached with only 30 floors.

The city council recently approved a rezoning request for 40 stories at the triangle shaped lot shown above. However, the request had a condition to max out the floor count to only 30. This goes to show you that a new zoning request floor count of 30, in between the current 20 and 40, may be needed in the future.

No definitive plans have been announced but I’d love to see an expansion to Marbles, an already big-time attraction to downtown. With that kind of height, mixed-use would also be great to see. As downtown adds density, I think it allows Marbles to expand without moving or demolishing parts of their existing buildings. These structures are in, what looks like, decent shape so it’s great to see an addition to downtown buildings rather than a replacement.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Shown above is Raleigh Crossing on a gray, Spring day. More and more glass is starting to appear on the largest office tower to be built in recent history. I’m loving that upward curve going along the eastern side!

Raleigh Crossing will primarily house Pendo, a local software firm that’s growing big time. The renderings show their name on the crown and with their primarily pink branding, might look quite nice when lit up a night.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Have you been by Smoky Hollow recently? It’s looking almost finished and real polished. Above is a shot looking into “the hollow” (or so I’m calling it) with the office tower on the left and The Line Apartments on the right. Retail and lobby spaces are on the ground floor and this pedestrian-only plaza may make for a nice spot this summer.

I saw some chatter out there about any retail announcements and so far, I haven’t seen any but let’s hope residents start moving in soon and some unique offerings take hold here in the Hollow. (and that the closest R-Line stop is renamed to that too)

by Leo Suarez

Glenwood South Townhomes Planned for Boylan and North Streets

16 townhomes are planned for a corner spot along Boylan Avenue and North Street. The fantastic corner location, as seen in my brilliantly picturesque photo above, is just a block away from the bars and restaurants of Glenwood South.

Some of the combined properties are currently empty but two existing single-family homes will be demolished for the new townhomes. One includes a smaller home from 1900 with a fantastic collection of palm trees out front. If you know me, I have an eye for our frondy friends around Raleigh. It’s sad to see them go.

The townhomes will be 3-stories tall with rooftop terraces. The rooftops are definitely what’s in these days, becoming almost the standard of any new townhome built in and around downtown in the last five years.

The developers of this project are White Oak Properties and CityPlat. JDavis Architects are the designers and Glenwood Agency is the realtor.

by Leo Suarez

400 Apartments and Retail planned for West Morgan Street

Plans for more apartments popped up on the city’s website, this time on the 800 block of West Morgan Street. The sites are mostly empty now, parking lots really, except for the building that the Goodnights Comedy Club currently occupies. The plans would lead to the demolition of that existing building.

In the future, around 400 apartments and ground-floor retail would be built. You can see an artist’s rendering of the project above. The site is a little more interesting with it being along that “curve” where Morgan shortly travels North/South and then changes to East/West.

Articles are stating that Goodnights is looking for a new home which is good to hear. Let’s hope they stick to downtown Raleigh.

It’s unfortunate that a building in downtown with a more interesting facade couldn’t be saved or incorporated into the new development. Even just saving the front doesn’t seem to be in the plans but we’ll have to wait and see. Raleigh doesn’t seem to have a track record of doing that kind of thing too much, although there are some examples. See the Lumsden Bros. Building as well as the nearby Raleigh Industrial Bank Renovation.

I still see a lot of positives here with a future with 400 apartments and more retail spaces along a walkable, urban street. The development is still in the early phases at this time and I’m not aware of a zoning request either. The Goodnight’s property is zoned for seven stories max while the adjacent lot along the Morgan Street “curve” is capped at four.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

I wanted to get a photo up of the northeast corner of Hargett and Harrington as development plans are in the works here. The Legends “block” may see a rezoning request for up to 40-stories according to this TBJ article. That intersection looks to be pretty significant in the future if any kind of building takes place there.

When I look around, I see The Dillon apartments with Weaver Street on the ground floor. The apartments are on two corners actually with the third being a gravel parking lot, also in a holding state for future development.

The Warehouse district has got a lot of potential.

by Leo Suarez

Video of the Week

Above is a short but really nice video showing off the progress over at Chavis Park. It looks quite different from a year ago, about the last time we checked in.

I’m hoping energy and positive experiences in the near future could drum up support for bringing the other aspects of the master plan to bear. I still believe that Chavis could be the park for downtown Raleigh residents as it plans to provide services and amenities that nearby destination park Dix won’t have. (or at least won’t have for awhile)