If you haven’t noticed, Wiley Elementary on St. Mary’s Street is undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion. The $24 million project adds 20,000 sq. feet of classroom and administration space as well as renovations to the 1923 building.
Improvements to the grounds are being made to address erosion issues and a more efficient parking/driveway is being added to improve parent drop-off. The construction should finish in Summer 2019.
The project page has a nice aerial shot of the construction as well, shown below.
Slowly but surely, the townhomes at The Saint are starting to look finished. These beauties, shown above, along St. Mary’s look pretty much finished except for the remaining sidewalk work.
Expansion at Trophy Brewing on Morgan Street is well underway. The new space next door adds more restaurant and brewery space. A few parking spaces in front will be replaced with the new building as well as possible outdoor seating.
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.
