Work is underway to convert this building along West Street into office and restaurant space. Formerly the home of Auto Interiors & Tops, the building may have outdoor space and a bar facing the train tracks.
Seems like a great renovation project here as Glenwood South continues to “dense up” on the food and beverage options.
Panorama of the future Smokey Hollow site. March 2019. Click for larger.
I’m happy with this pano I took looking east over West Street into the future Smokey Hollow Phase 2 site. It shows you how large the work taking place here really is.
Buildings have been demolished along Harrington already and the space between The West (photo right) and Smokey Hollow Phase 1 (photo left) is becoming more and more ready to begin construction this year.
Origin Hotel construction along Morgan Street. March 2019
The Origin hotel on Morgan Street is close to topping out. Blocking a substantially large parking deck, the hotel creates a nice bookend to Glenwood Avenue.
Once Dram and Draught gets going at the corner of Morgan and Glenwood here and other active retail opens up nearby, this intersection may be a good southern starting point to a Glenwood South nightlife walk.
During the March 5, 2019 City Council meeting, an update to Moore Square was given and I’ve put the video here for sharing. It’s actually a good watch if you’re interested in what’s going on.
We should plan for a July or August opening based on the presentation given.
Announced in February with site plans submitted shortly after, Acquisition Group, the developers behind the 3-acre, former N&O property, have released plans that include multiple towers for office, hotel, and residential spaces.
The first phase includes a 15-story, 250-foot office tower called Nexus which will, generally, be replacing the parking deck along Salisbury Street. Plans show a new parking deck below and behind the tower with street-level retail spaces.
Salisbury Street. February 2019.
Future developments after Nexus could be situated along a new internal street for accessing more retail and public spaces. The hotel and residential towers would all have access to these new mixed-use areas.
The future plans are still a work in progress as only the Nexus tower has been submitted. No rezoning is needed and the tower is planned to open in 2021.
With a collection of buildings and new public street, this is a pretty exciting thing to see. The mix of building uses should keep the area lively at different times of the day and week.
Rendering of Nexus Tower
A street that doesn’t really serve as new transportation means the area should be more human-scale. There’s no need to speed through making the area more walkable and bike-friendly. With the right design elements, the developers have an opportunity to make it look special compared to the streets that come straight from the Raleigh Department of Transportation playbook.
Expect to see the area cleared out and demolished sometime this year.
Metal framing, including additional floors, are taking shape over at the Lumsden Bros. Building on West Hargett Street. The developers behind this project have done a great job in preserving the sidewalk character of the building while completely modernizing the interior and adding more density to the area.
Rendering of the office tower at 301 Hillsborough.
301 Hillsborough should hold a special place in the hearts of longtime readers. Exactly 12 years ago, I had a blog post about plans for a 32-story tower at the site but the impending recession basically wrecked it.
The former buildings on this site were demolished in 2007 and when no development plans took place, the site was made into a surface parking lot years later. It’s remained ever since.
Surface parking at 301 Hillsborough in 2019.
Plans have come and gone and this time, the latest owners have submitted plans for a 20-story tower with 300,000 square feet of office space. The rendering, shown above, is of the first phase of the project as the owners own the majority of the block. (minus the southwest corner where The Flying Saucer runs out of)
Later phases could include a hotel and apartments but this first phase is planned to start later this year. With no rezoning needed, the process should move quicker especially with the developer planning to build on spec. (no tenants lined up)
With the DRA’s 2018 State of Downtown Raleigh report saying that the downtown office occupancy rate is at 94.7% that probably means we have a healthy office market and developers can take some risk here.
Great to see progress here on this block. It’s been a long-time coming.
Winter 2019 has been good to the Rogers house at its newest home along East Street. An extension, side project, something from the owners of nearby Guest House Raleigh, Rogers Cottage, as it will be called, may be incorporated into the boutique hotel’s offerings soon.