Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

A Walk Around The Edison Block

Polishing off Skyhouse Raleigh

A worker looks out over a balcony at Skyhouse Raleigh.

The flowers and leaves aren’t the only things that are growing in downtown Raleigh. I took a walk around the Edison block and snapped a few photos of the new and upcoming developments here. These include the apartment buildings of Skyhouse Raleigh, the Edison Apartments, and the Edison Office tower.

All being delivered by the same developer, when open these projects will add a serious injection of new residents and office space to the downtown core. It’s possible that the bump in residents might trigger more retail or counter-service food places. Nearby Sosta Cafe has already posted that they will experiment with longer hours, including staying open on weekends because of the Edison Apartments right across the street. Maybe more will follow.

Skyhouse Raleigh from Person and Davie Streets.

Skyhouse Raleigh from Person Street

Skyhouse retail spaces at the corner of Blount and Martin Streets.

Skyhouse retail spaces at the corner of Blount and Martin Streets.

Artwork being installed over the vehicle entrance along Blount Street.

Artwork being installed over the vehicle entrance along Blount Street.

The construction of the Edison Apartments is humming. The Blount and Davie corner is much farther along compared to Davie and Wilmington. Unlike Skyhouse, this building goes right up against the parking deck. That means even more space for retail along all the sides of Blount, Davie, and Wilmington.

Construction of the Edison Apartments as seen from Davie Street.

Construction of the Edison Apartments as seen from Davie Street.

Corner of Davie and Blount Streets.

Corner of Davie and Blount Streets.

Corner of Davie and Wilmington Streets.

Corner of Davie and Wilmington Streets.

The Edison Office tower hasn’t actually started yet but below is a shot of the corner of Martin and Wilmington Streets where the project will go. The latest renderings on the J Davis Architects website show something similar to the towers that are at North Hills. It is described as:

Edison Office will be a 19 story office building with 14,350 square feet of retail and 245,895 square feet of office in downtown Raleigh, NC.

Let’s hope for an increase in office pre-leases as that will help bring this tower into downtown finally.

Corner of Martin and Wilmington Streets.

Corner of Martin and Wilmington Streets.

by Leo Suarez

Construction Update, The L Building

The L Building, corner of McDowell and Davie Street

We haven’t looked at The L Building since the summer of 2014 and now this project is almost complete. The second floor offices appear to have tenants moving in and the sidewalks are being paved this week.

The southwest corner of McDowell and Davie Street look very nice in my opinion. The building’s retail spaces add some great urban form to the sidewalks. With so much morning and afternoon pedestrian traffic between the parking deck behind the building, maybe we’ll get a coffee shop here.

Should be soon before we can consider this project completed.

The L Building

by Leo Suarez

Peace Street West Up For a Facelift

Intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Peace Street

Intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Peace Street

Here’s a project that’s moving forward after being on hold for a few years. Peace Street West, referred to as the street between West and St. Mary’s Street, is due for some streetscape improvements. This will include new sidewalks, burying of utility lines, consolidation of driveways, and other enhancements to this part of the street.

To get right into it, go straight to the project page on the city’s website: Peace Street West Streetscape

A lot of talk and focus has taken place over the last few years about improving Peace Street. The street is a major east/west thoroughfare with high traffic counts. Capital Boulevard and the railyards to the north and south have created a kind of bottleneck. No urban street grid exists in this area unfortunately.

North of Peace, the only way to cross Capital Boulevard by any mode is at the crossing where Wake Forest Road becomes Atlantic Avenue. To the south is a pair of one-way streets, Jones and Lane Streets. With so much separation and traffic counts hovering above 50,000 vehicles a day on Capital Boulevard, it’s no surprise that this area is dominated by car-centric development.

Peace Street West could be one-half of the solution as “Peace Street East” is due for some improvements also. Those are coming through the Capital Boulevard bridge rebuild and the Square Loop plan.

Diving into the Peace Street West information from the city’s project page, here are some highlights:

  • “The sidewalk areas along the length of Peace Street will be improved to increase safety and overall appearance of the corridor, in addition to repouring the sidewalks accent paver bands will be added at the back of curb.”
  • More trees will be added to the sidewalks.
  • The number of driveways will be reduced.
  • Traffic signals will be upgraded with mast arms.
  • Some of the overhead wires will be buried.

Intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Peace Street

West Peace Street

For me, the intersection of Glenwood and Peace has always felt like a gateway to downtown Raleigh. If you are driving or walking south down Glenwood, you transition out of the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood and as you approach the intersection you start to see the density, the buildings of downtown Raleigh.

The intersection also sees steady pedestrian activity so it’s a nice reminder that you’re entering a walkable, active place. The improvements here will go a long way towards transitioning single-family neighborhoods into urban walkable neighborhoods.

According to the project page, this project should be completed by Summer of 2016.