Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

Wake County Justice Center Opens Today

Wake County Justice Center

Today, the Wake County Justice Center officially opens. If you’re nearby, you can catch the ribbon cutting at 11am and parts of the building are open for public viewing following it. This building will greatly compliment the Wake County Courthouse, helping to offload a lot of activity that takes place there. They say the building was planned for growth, with an entire unfinished floor in case it’s needed for more services down the road.

I like to do this with projects when I can. Here’s a photo of the same Martin/McDowell Street corner, shown in the photo above, but in February 2008.

Corner of Martin and McDowell Streets

by Leo Suarez

The L Shows Off Updated Renderings

June 2013 rendering of The L.

There’s lots of momentum behind one of downtown Raleigh’s longest stalled projects and The L may finally break ground.

Above is the latest rendering of The L, not the final but pretty close, and it shows how it will wrap the Wake County parking deck at the corner of Davie and Cabarrus Streets. This mixed-use project will consist of 93 studio, 1, and 2 bedroom apartments and 8,000 square feet of office space above 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

Ground breaking is planned for this Fall with a project completion around Fall 2014.

by Leo Suarez

Raleigh Industrial Bank Renovation On Salisbury Street

If you haven’t been following along in the news and other blogs, there’s a fantastic building renovation, more like restoration, going on at the intersection of Salisbury and Hargett Streets. The modern facade that glossed over 200 South Salisbury Street is coming down and look what was underneath all this time.

I didn’t have a photo of my own but here’s the Google Streetview image dated April 2012 followed by my own similar view taken in May 2013.

Google Maps

200 South Salisbury Street, May 2013

In addition to the corner building there is another smaller one on West Hargett that has been restored, shown in this photo.

Building on West Hargett Street, May 2013

What once was a small office building will now have ground floor restaurant space with renovated office space above. Cheers to developer James Goodnight and his team for making this happen in downtown Raleigh.

by Leo Suarez

The Lincoln Will Bring 224 Apartments To Emo Raleigh

Corner of Hargett and East Street

Corner of Hargett and East Street as seen in March, 2011.

Emo Raleigh (East of Moore Square) may be getting a big influx of housing units if a new development gets approved by the city. According to a newly submitted site plan, The Lincoln is a full-block apartment building for the mostly empty, grassy lot bounded by Hargett, Martin, East, and Bloodworth Streets.

Currently, just a single house sits on the lot and for years the developers behind The Lincoln have been working to acquire property, move houses, and get everything ready.

The site plan tells us that the 70′ high building will be designed by JDavis Architects and offer one, two, and three bedroom apartments. Looking at the preliminary site plan we can see that there will be apartments along all four faces of the block with an enclosed parking deck and pool.

If I’m looking at this map correctly, the deck entrances look to be on Bloodworth and East Streets. See for yourself on this extracted image I created, posted below.

This is great for the Moore Square area as well as the adjacent Thompson-Hunter neighborhood. This side of town has been quiet on the development front. If successful, The Lincoln could raise more interest in new projects for East Raleigh as there is relatively cheaper land here.

The Lincoln Preliminary Site Plan

by Leo Suarez

Rendering of The New Holy Trinity Church on Peace Street

Rendering of the Holy Trinity Church on Peace Street.

Rendering of the Holy Trinity Church on Peace Street.

In addition to doing a wonderful restoration job to the Jordan House at the corner of Peace and Blount Street, the Holy Trinity Church of Raleigh is building new digs.

Above is an architectural rendering of the new building which will be located along the 100 block of East Peace Street. The land was just surface parking for more than 20 years to the best of my knowledge and adds some diversity to what could be a heavily residential area if the Blount Street Commons project is ever fully completed.

by Leo Suarez

Edison Office Shows Site Plan For 225′ Tower

Corner of Wilmington and Martin Street in April 2013.

Corner of Wilmington and Martin Street in April 2013.

Looking at the latest update at Raleigh’s Current Development Activity page, there’s a new entry for The Edison Office tower. The site plan sheds more light, and hopefully a sign of progress, on The Edison, a multi-tower project planned for downtown Raleigh.

In addition to the Edison Apartments and Skyhouse Apartments, The Edison Office tower site plan shows a 225 foot tower with retail over office across 310,000 square feet. These preliminary plans are just a sketch of what’s to come so hopefully with plans at the city, progress is being made behind the scenes.

At the same time, the website of JDavis Architects has a rendering, on display for The Edison Apartments and not Edison Office, that shows a concept of the entire block built out.

Edison block conceptual drawing by JDavis Architects.

Edison block conceptual drawing by JDavis Architects.

If you’d like to analyze the floor plan, take a look at the image below and make sure to view it large to see the entire northern side of the Edison block.

Preliminary Site Plan for The Edison Office tower.

by Leo Suarez

A History of Charter Square

Corner of Lenoir and Wilmington Streets

Photo taken on April 14, 2013 at the corner of Lenoir and Wilmington Streets.

A few days have gone by so I think it’s a good time to look back over the evolution of Charter Square now that the confidence level is higher and we may actually get a building on this site.

As far back as 2006, the city labeled this piece of downtown as ‘Site One.’ On top of site One was the former Raleigh Civic Center which previously bookended Fayetteville Street. But with the revitalization of downtown underway, the roof of the civic center was blown up, literally, and the site demolished to make way for the current Fayetteville Street, Site One, and the now open Marriott Hotel.

Charter Square site location

Charter Square site location

Charter Square site rendering in 2006

Charter Square site rendering in 2006

The first round of renderings, that I could find back in the photo vault, is the one above. Two towers were planned at Site One, an office tower on the north half and a residential tower on the southern half. With ground floor retail space, the project was mixed-use all the way.

The plan was to start building the towers after the city completed the underground parking deck that would support the Marriott Hotel and the new Raleigh Convention Center.

Charter Square site rendering in 2007

Charter Square site rendering in 2007

Things went quiet for a little while and in 2007, new designs popped up. The same two tower project was planned as well as a larger ad campaign to start leasing the spaces. The north tower came in at 358 feet over 20 floors and the south tower at 182 feet over 15 floors. Other towers were on the planning board for downtown Raleigh in 2007 and things seemed positive.

What was most likely due to the economic recession in 2009, Charter Square then stalled.

The underground parking deck was finished and the Charter Square block has been wrapped in a chain-link fence with advertising for almost four years now.

To The Present

Last week, there was an announcement by Dominion Realty Partners and Charter Square that they were bringing a building to the site. The south half of Charter Square would consist of an 11 story, 225,000 square foot building with class A office space. The glass covered building will seek a platinum LEED certification and cost around $50 million.

According to the press release, 35,000 square feet has already been signed with a ground floor restaurant by Eschelon Hospitality, the good folks behind Sono, Zinda, and The Oxford. The press release also says, “Construction is scheduled to begin in Fall 2013 and be delivered in Fall 2014.”

Skyline fans first nit-picked the height of this tower last week but astute readers noticed that this tower is actually taller than the one previously planned for the southern site. The 11 story office tower will be 215 feet tall compared to the previous 15 story, 182 foot residential tower. Yes, office floors are taller than residential floors in most cases.

On May 2, the developers will submit their site plans to the city for approval. Here’s to smooth sailing until groundbreaking!

Charter Square site rendering in 2013

Charter Square site rendering in 2013