The Cameron Crest townhomes on St. Mary’s Street are looking sharp now that they are completed. These are million dollar townhomes that pack a lot of space in their small looks here in the photo above.
I wanted to highlight the homes’ completion but also take a chance to share that the Downtown Raleigh Alliance has this project on their next Discover Downtown Tour on February 12. Register and take a look at these beauties for yourself!
The demolition at Seaboard Station continues. The site with the former Sunflower’s Cafe is no more. Mixed-use buildings with a possible hotel, apartments and ground-floor retail are in the plans for the future.
The area looks huge after the removal of all the buildings and surface parking. It really shows you how much more you can do when you remove all the land dedicated to parking cars.
We’re tracking this development in-depth over on the Community starting with some great aerial photos.
Fencing has popped up around some portions of Seaboard Station. A demolition company has put up it’s sign around block B. I take it to mean that the central building, shown above, is about to be demolished.
Block B plans for a residential building over retail, described in more detail in this August 2020 post. Block A also has fencing around it as well. Residential is still a hot commodity in Raleigh so leading with this development over the hotel portion makes sense for this year if that’s what we’ll see take place.
The Raleigh Appearance Commission is going through the latest project in the works for Fayetteville Street. 121 Fayetteville is a 32-story tower for the 100 block that will bring a variety of uses. I thought this a good time to check out the current setup today and show off some key points from the documents submitted to the commission.
As always, you can dive right into the docs for yourself right here. (pdf link)
The site of the project currently has the Alexander Square parking deck. The deck is located on the northern end of Fayetteville Street and is a privately owned structure with retail spaces along Fayetteville and Wilmington Streets. There are about five-stories of parking with a mix of public spaces and monthly reservations.
The Wells Fargo tower is across the street and the scenic Capitol grounds are nearby. I’m not sure it gets any more prime than this and a tower of this height is in good company with PNC Plaza up the street as well.
Neighbors here include some quality structures from Raleigh’s past including one of my favorites, the Raleigh Masonic Temple building.
The submitted plans and renderings suggest that all or a portion of the Alexander Square parking deck will be removed. The new tower won’t occupy the entire footprint of the property as the southern half will consist of the tower with parking occupying the lower floors of the entire site.
It’s easier to show it rather than describe it.
The document, as well as their main website, mention the following uses for the new tower and parking deck:
Looking at the ground floor plan, their is practically continual retail space on the Fayetteville Street side, the rest being lobby space. This is great as Fayetteville should support those higher intense uses and street life.
That’s not to say that Wilmington isn’t getting some activity with some retail, it is, but on this side, there will be entrances/exits for the deck as well as a loading dock. (necessary to support the tower)
There’s no rezoning needed for this project so as these details are ironed out, construction could begin any time. I assume some solid leases will need to be in place so let’s hope the office market bounces back after the pandemic.
I’m sticking with the same Smoky Hollow location as last week. This time, we’re looking at the office tower at 421 North Harrington Street. The nine-story building looks almost complete when looking at it from the outside. Since the nearby Peace building across Johnson is open to provide parking, I would think the building could be up and running pretty soon.
Assuming companies are still wary to come back to in-person working, the office scene may stay quiet for the rest of the year. Still, this building will be among a few new office additions to downtown as we watch Bloc 83 and Raleigh Crossing rising up.
Over by Smoky Hollow, The Line apartments are really showing their presence on West Street. This is over 280 apartments in a key part of Glenwood South and part of the overall Smoky Hollow project.
Once open next year, this will project will really help solidify Glenwood South as the most densely populated area in the Triangle. It could probably use some sidewalks along West Street if that’s the case, am I right?
The blog and Community tend to focus on new developments in the downtown core, such as 301 Hillsborough or The Willard hotel, that we may be overlooking some other activity just on the outskirts of downtown Raleigh. I thought it time for another Walk Series post to show off the east side of downtown, mainly the New Bern corridor.
The New Bern corridor interests me mainly due to some key observations and upcoming projects:
Loosely defined, for this Walk post, I’m focused on New Bern and Edenton Streets between Tarboro and East.
With the implementation of the 1/2 cent sales tax for transit in 2017, higher-capacity transit, among other improvements, are being planned all over the county. Along New Bern and Edenton Streets, bus-rapid transit (BRT) will be rolling through in a few years if everything stays on schedule.
Being one of four planned BRT routes, high frequency transit will be flowing in and out of downtown Raleigh to the eastern parts of the county. Read more about the plan for BRT here.
The corridor may see dedicated bus lanes, expanded bike lanes, and new sidewalks on both sides of the street. It’s a big upgrade for the same corridor that currently runs the GoRaleigh bus route with the second highest ridership in that transit system.
Tarboro and New Bern/Edenton is loosely planned to get a BRT station on this upgraded route. The next stop inbound would be downtown itself.
Last reported, before the pandemic hit, plans were to be rolling buses in 2023-2024.
Historically, the corridor consists of many larger lots with single-family homes. You can still get a sense of the character going back to the early 1900s with the bungalows and larger houses facing the street.
However, it’s not hard to spot some newer homes, mostly of modern architecture style, sprinkled throughout the area. These homes were popping up between about 2008 until today. These homes add a stark contrast to the area as you can see in the photos.
And if you really look more, the modern townhome seems to be making its way into the corridor as of recently. First, the ten-unit project named 10 Arros completed along New Bern within the last few years. Construction is currently taking place at 625 New Bern where 18 units are planned. Similar modern style as the former.
Finally, across the street from 625 New Bern is Oak City Overlook. This development plans 20 modern townhomes and land has already been cleared at the site.
Could more be coming? I’ve seen plans submitted for more and you have for sale signs like this one at 914 New Bern which advertise, “Townhome/Condo Site for Sale.”
And there’s no shortage of space along this corridor. As I mentioned earlier, the single-family houses are on large lots that could easily be subdivided.
You also have the North Carolina State government vacating a large site at New Bern and Tarboro. The long-time site of the NC DMV is being vacated soon and that’ll put 5.4 acres of land a stone’s throw away from a rapid transit stop. Any development here, plus the adjacent surface parking that supported the NC DMV, could greatly change over if the state decides to sell it.
We also have 8 acres of undeveloped land at New Bern and Swain. Currently, the lot is only partially used by the Exploris school in temporary buildings but 8 acres offers a ton of flexibility, capable of a pretty transformative project. Just look at the map above, it’s that empty lot in the middle. That’s huge!
From my perspective, you have two forces that are about to collide. The development is coming. Should transit only serve the single-family and new, high-end townhomes being built here?
To get more people access to the future transit network, an awkward conversation is soon to come, Raleigh. It’s time to talk about re-zoning the area.
This is a good time to revisit a collaborative post I did about a zoning tool called the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District (NCOD) and it just so happens that this area has one right in the middle. Below is the New Bern – Edenton NCOD and you can see, almost everything mentioned so far sits right inside it.
In short, the NCOD applies additional restrictions on height, setbacks, and is a tool to encourage new development be consistent with the current character. This NCOD was put in place in 1992.
To make transit more effective, these townhome developments help but we’ll need some larger projects in here to ensure additional office and residential density as they will be within walking distance of a high-frequency bus stop. It is a prime opportunity to get Raleigh residents on a car-less lifestyle at a variety of income levels.
I feel that the NCOD implemented in 1992 needs a revisit and with the current talks of more affordable housing around transit, it would be better to deliver hundreds (thousands?) of new units here rather than status quo townhomes near transit.
The land is still available but the development is starting to pick up. I’m hoping the city can start purchasing land for affordable housing as well as pushing for new zoning updates to match our 2030 and beyond goals as a city.
More conversations on this topic are sure to come.
Raleigh Crossing has really started to really climb. The lower portion, predominantly used for parking, has been poured and now crews are building the office portion of the tower.
According to the developers, the project should be finished next winter so maybe another year or so until opening.