Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

Blount Street Commons Makes Moves On New Apartment Building

Blount Street Commons

This will be short as details are a bit light, as far as I know anyway, on this project. There’s movement on one of the apartment buildings planned for the Blount Street Commons project. The current parking lot near the NCAIA building and along Wilmington Street is being broken up.

I did some digging and this tract of land is referred to as “Block 2 Tract B” of the Blount Street Commons project. In early 2012, the Raleigh Planning Commission recommended the approval of a height amendment that was in place here. It was to go from 45′ to 62′. This was probably the beginning of plans for the upcoming apartment building.

By the way, the details are all in MP-3-11 on the city’s development approvals archive site.

I haven’t found much yet about it but the property owner, according to Wake County, is Elan Raleigh Property LLC. Their website, elanapts.com, shows some slides of some decent looking developments. The Elan Uptown project in Minneapolis looks pretty cool.

It’s taking a little more effort to find details here so I’ll post as facts come up. Please share if you have any insight to this potentially significant new residential project for the northern side of downtown Raleigh.

by Leo Suarez

Construction To Begin on Skyhouse Apartments

Future site of Skyhouse Apartments

Construction fencing is up for the Skyhouse Raleigh project. This confirms some reports last week that the 23-story apartment building at the corner of Blount and Martin Streets is finally starting.

For those new to this project, Skyhouse Raleigh is basically a copy of the same building being done in other cities such as Austin and Atlanta. In fact, I was in Atlanta in summer of 2012 and have some photos, taken for the Raleigh Public Record, of their building during construction.

Expect this building to be done around early 2015. Cheers and bring on the cranes!

by Leo Suarez

The West Apartments Invites Big Brother West II To Downtown Raleigh

Map of the West Apartments sites

Map of both West Apartments projects alongside the current West at North tower.

I love local blogs. Last week, the DLA blog talked about a new proposal on the table for West Apartments II and then the major media jumps on it. Nice.

We’ve talked about West Apartments before, about a year ago, with no new details since but now there are plans for more according to the city’s development website. Another project from local developer Gregg Sandreuter, West Apartments II plans for 177 units (1 and 2 bedroom) right along Harrington Street in a ~100 foot building.

Rendering of the West Apartments II

Harrington Street elevation rendering of West Apartments II. Click for the full width rendering.

The elevation has a bit of a dip on this section of Harrington so the building looks to be about four floors on the highest end of the lot and six on the lowest. The plans on the proposal show some open space for retail but not much, maybe 6,000-10,000 square feet.

An interesting detail that I noticed while looking at these plans is that there is a space on the ground floor labeled ‘Bike Shop.’ If I recall correctly, this is a result of the new Unified Development Ordinance and this may be a common amenity built into these new, denser developments. Below is a screenshot of it.

Proposed plans for West Apartments II

Proposed plans for a bike shop/storage in the West Apartments II

West Apartments II looks like phase 2 of the overall West Apartments project as the two buildings seem to integrate together. As more residents move in, perhaps we can bring back the name of the old Smoky Hollow neighborhood that once was this area.

Harrington Street as seen in October 2013.
Harrington Street as seen in October 2013.

Current buildings along this side of Harrington Street

by Leo Suarez

The Glenwood South and Carolina Ale House Saga Looking Positive

500 Glenwood Avenue, soon to be demolished for the new Carolina Ale House on Glenwood South

You almost don’t want to believe this until you see it. The story that has really turned me, and others I talk to, into pessimists is the one about the upcoming new building at 500 Glenwood Avenue. It is planned to house, in addition to other businesses, a Carolina Ale House and after almost five years, it looks like this project will finally get started.

In the coming days, we should see the building at the corner of Tucker and Glenwood Avenue come down and make room for a new, three-story building for a rooftop Carolina Ale House restaurant and additional retail space in the other floors. Some construction fencing is now up and even the R-Line stop at this corner has been moved down a bit along Tucker Street.

I have no doubt that the Ale House here will do some pretty good business as the brand has over 20 other locations to bring experience from. If you’ve never been, the Ale House is a sports restaurant with a “something for everyone” menu and an extensive beer list with enough choices for safe beer drinkers to try something new but not enough to satisfy the craft palate.

500 Glenwood Avenue, soon to be demolished for the new Carolina Ale House on Glenwood South

The beginning of the demolition to the building.

Let’s hope for smooth sailing ahead on this project so that doors will open in late 2014. Jump to this link to the Triangle Business Journal for a rendering of the upcoming building.

by Leo Suarez

Plans For 220 The Saint Bring Condos and Townhouses To Glenwood South

Rendering of 220 The Saint

There’s a development plan on the city’s website that shows some new residential in the works for Glenwood South. 220 The Saint as it’s called has a combination of 49 condos and townhomes for an awkward lot on the block bounded by Jones, Lane, Boylan, and St. Mary’s Street. (see the map)

Map of the proposed 220 The Saint

Indeed, the tetris piece you see there is one lot and is currently very underutilized. The development will replace two houses along St. Mary’s street in exchange for on-site parking and 49 units spread across three buildings, some being condos and others townhomes.

The renderings in the submitted site plan are very preliminary but do show something that’s less dense than what we may have been used to in Glenwood South. I’m referring to the nearby apartment buildings at 712 Tucker and St. Mary’s Square.

Rendering of 220 The Saint

If you look at the proposal on the city’s website, you can see that a new driveway on Lane Street will be built for access into the development, the larger building includes the parking underneath.

Other things to note from the development proposal are that the units will be 1 bedroom and the density is now raised to about 30 units per acre. (up from just 1) There are two houses that will be demolished for the development that front St. Mary’s Street and no historic significance seems to exist.

Houses along St. Mary's Street

Houses currently along St. Mary’s Street.

While not too exciting on paper, this is infill development that Glenwood South continues to attract and we may see more and more of this if the larger apartment developments continue to be successful.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week


The new North Carolina State Bar headquarters building has been completed on the corner of Edenton and Blount Streets.

What was just a surface parking lot a few years ago is now a building with classical architecture. The state bar moves out from their offices on Fayetteville Street to this new building a few blocks away. You can see a before photo of the site at this 2011 blog post when ground was broken.

New NC State Bar HQ Construction Begins, Deals Final Blow To Former Baptist University

by Leo Suarez

WUNC’s Piece on the SECU

SECU Tower by dtraleigh, on Flickr

Here’s a good article about the North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union, something readers are probably familiar with as their new tower, shown above, will be opening soon.

State Employees’ is considered a big credit union on a national scale. It is approaching $27 billion in assets and has a membership base of 1.8 million people.

*Down Economy Equals Growth At State Employees’ Credit Union

The article also claims that employees will start moving into their new offices in late September.

I’ve said it before, the SECU tower is my favorite modern building in downtown Raleigh. It’s kind of a surprise from a ‘sleepy’ institution in town but their building, as well as millions of dollars of investment in the nearby museums, should not go unnoticed. I liked this article cause it shares some history of this growing presence right up the street.