Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

The Four Sides to The Lincoln

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of East and Martin Streets

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of East and Martin Streets

Here’s a construction update on The Lincoln, an apartment building being built to the east of Moore Square. Some parts of the project have topped out, giving you a sense of how big it will be. The Martin Street half is busy finishing the parking deck and the units surrounding it will follow.

Enjoy the photos taken from each corner. A sign on the site says The Lincoln will be completed in Late Spring 2015.

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of Bloodworth and Martin Streets

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of Bloodworth and Martin Streets

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of Bloodworth and Hargett Streets

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of Bloodworth and Hargett Streets

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of East and Hargett Streets

The Lincoln Apartments, corner of East and Hargett Streets

by Leo Suarez

More to Charter Square Than Just a Tower

Charter Square construction site November 2014

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Here’s a nice Fall photo of the Charter Square construction site on the south end of Fayetteville Street. The southern tower has topped out and siding is starting to rise up along each side. You can also see the space for the future northern tower to the right in the foreground.

What I kind of wondered about was the low-rise section being built along Wilmington Street. In the past, I had actually assumed that the building footprint was to go from the Fayetteville Street sidewalk to the Wilmington Street sidewalk but that’s not the case here. I’ll admit to overlooking this when presented with the one rendering back in 2013.

Digging out the site plan from the city’s website we have this screenshot below.
Charter Square site plan 2013

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This site plan shows that there will be a one-story building along Wilmington Street with about 9,000 square feet of retail space. Between it and the southern tower of Charter Square would be open space. The text on the site plan calls it “Flat roof (possible future plaza)” Indeed when looking at what is being built now, a roof seems to be going in.

To the immediate north of the tower and retail spaces is a pedestrian plaza cutting the block in half. The northern tower, which is still in the planning phases as of today, would complete Charter Square.

The plaza adds some nice complexity to this block as it aligns with the existing Fayetteville Street crosswalk and the pedestrian entrance to the Marriott hotel. The site plan also shows retail/restaurant space on the northwest corner but mostly facing the plaza. I wonder if this is the space where Eschelon Experiences’ new restaurant may go?

The building should be done by Summer 2015.

by Leo Suarez

301 Hillsborough, A Review

The parking lot at 301 Hillsborough Street

The parking lot at 301 Hillsborough Street

This story is as old as the blog itself so it is kind of exciting to revisit an “old” development. Articles in the news have reported that the city is in talks with interested developers to build on top of the city-owned property at 301 Hillsborough Street. From the North Raleigh News:

Raleigh staff have received at least two “substantial and serious offers for the property,” 1.2 acres of parking located two blocks west of the Capitol, according to a staff report.

Worth an estimated $3 million, the southwest corner of Hillsborough and Dawson streets soon could attract another sizable project.

“Whoever builds there, it’s going to be a fairly good-sized building,” said city attorney Tom McCormick.

*City again ready to sell 301 Hillsborough for high-density development via www.northraleighnews.com

Nothing is out yet so a little refresher to this story is appropriate at this time.

301 Hillsborough in February 2007

In 2007, plans for a 25 to 32-story tower named ‘The Hillsborough’ were out by the father and son developers, Ted and David Reynolds. This is the same team that brought us The Quorum Center.

The new tower was planned to be mixed-use with hotel, office, residential, and ground-floor retail. Plans and height flexed a little bit during that year but planning moved ahead enough to demolish the current building on site, shown in the 2007 photo above.

The cleared site sat empty for awhile. There were no changes about 12 months later as 2009 came upon us.

As with a few other downtown projects, the 2009 recession affected The Hillsborough most likely and no progress was made after this. Later that year, the city filled in the hole and it eventually became a parking lot in order to generate some revenue. Campbell Law School, located across the street, uses this lot for parking today.

Speculation on the site’s future could go in all sorts of direction here so this post acts as an open thread for RalCon commenters.

I’ve always seen Hillsborough Street as a central location to downtown districts so a hotel could be an option. There’s easy vehicle access to the site using the Dawson/McDowell pair and it’s a short walk to the state government district, Fayetteville Street CBD, Warehouse District and Glenwood South.

There currently isn’t much office space along the Dawson/McDowell corridor but that doesn’t mean new space couldn’t be built.

Residential, as in apartment rentals, are never off the table it seems these days. Either way, a large parking component will likely be built here.

More to come in the near future.

by Leo Suarez

Demolition Taking Place, Making Room For The Gramercy Apartments

Boylan Avenue, future home of The Gramercy Apartments

A project that has been a long time in the planning stages, since 2011, may soon start construction. The site for The Gramercy apartments along North Street is being cleared for the future apartment building. This involves demolition of the church at the corner of Boylan and North as well as the office building at the corner of Glenwood and North Street.

If the site plan hasn’t changed since we talked about it in 2011, the building will have 209 units and ground-floor retail all along Glenwood and some of North Street.

The resident wave just keeps crashing.

Boylan Avenue, future home of The Gramercy Apartments

Boylan Avenue, future home of The Gramercy Apartments