227 — this is where from 227 This Is Where on Vimeo.
Here’s a promo video for 227 Fayetteville Street, a renovation job that will bring new office space to small startup businesses and entrepreneurs.
Minus all the advertising for the building itself, the video shows off some renderings of what the spaces will look like as well as a new facade for the building. The renovation has already started and should be completed by Winter 2014.
Want to see a rendering of the new Raleigh downtown building at Charter Square? http://t.co/KvfcjpdSkj @RaleighWake @DowntownRaleigh
— Raleigh4u (@Raleigh4u) April 11, 2013
There’s some high-level info at the N&O and the TBJ but I’m sure more details will come out soon if, according to the TBJ, the groundbreaking is in the next few months.
Here is some great news for the core of downtown Raleigh. The former Wachovia bank building at 227 Fayetteville Street, the building shown above, was recently bought up and renovations are underway for 110,000 square feet of office space. On top of that, Innovate Raleigh, Raleigh’s public/private partnership in fostering innovation, hosted an event last night to show off the building and how it will be built for technology companies and new startups.
I went down to the event and found a packed house with the usual players and more in our city’s ever growing startup scene. Jesse Lipson, founder of ShareFile, was showing off the new Citrix offices being planned for West Street. Adam Klein talked about American Underground in Durham. These speakers and others told stories to a crowd of close to 200 about what startups are doing across the entire triangle.
We’ve discussed coworking space, a real incubator for startups, within downtown Raleigh but 227 is a step up. The people behind this building seem to be really tied into the community and this is a perfect spot to pipeline the rising startups out of the small spaces and into real offices. The Fayetteville Street location provides easy access to all of downtown’s services and is a great location to set up shop.
So on to the building itself and the renderings. Key points to notice in these renderings.
Surprise, surprise. Another on-hold project, Powerhouse Plaza, goes the apartment route. The once planned 11-story mixed use building for Glenwood South, at the corner of West and Jones Street, was planned to have retail, office, and possibly a Hyatt hotel. The rendering for the old building still exists on Cline Design’s website so take a peak before it’s updated.
A preliminary site plan was submitted to the city back in December and reveals just a few details about the 203 apartment building, called Link Apartments at Glenwood South. Search the city’s website for “site plan 057-12” or get it direct here. (pdf) [1-31-14 – UPDATE: broken link]
No renderings are included and the overall site plan, of just the first floor it seems, doesn’t show anything too exciting. It’s still early in the process though.
203 apartments directly in Glenwood South is a nice boost of residents and a great way to use the under-utilized space. I’ll be following it.
2012 wasn’t the most exciting year for Downtown Raleigh in my opinion. When looking back, there were no signature moments that really made 2012 stand out. The only fireworks were over Fayetteville Street on July 4th and on the internet the day after.
I will say that 2012 was the year of the Resident. Residential plans and new development boomed in relative terms this year. Several new projects broke ground or were approved targeting the hot rental market. Developers are responding with more apartment complexes in the rest of the city but in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, construction has begun on a dense, more urban product.
Union Station took its largest step forward this year, with an announcement of the project being fully funded. Plans are to have the new train station up and running around 2016/2017 time frame.
In 2012, we also saw the city sign a 75-year lease on the Dorothea Dix property to the southeast of downtown. The city plans to turn that into a signature park.
Honorable mentions this year also go out to these stories:
Residential Projects
Increasing the foot traffic in downtown is one of the best ways to bring on the “urban” in Raleigh. It’s great to see these residential projects moving foward, creating neighborhoods, and spurring businesses to pop up along the sidewalks.
The most dramatic announcement in 2012 was probably Skyhouse Apartments, which plans to bring 320 apartments to Martin Street near City Market. The tower will be 264 feet in height and be one of the densest buildings in the city. The plans for the building are not unique though as Atlanta currently has the exact same building.
Glenwood South has been busy building new apartments with the 425 Boylan and St. Mary’s Square projects. These two structures will provide around 400 apartments about two blocks from the Glenwood South strip. That’s a nice injection of residents for those businesses there.
The one project I’m rooting for is The L Building, the once planned office tower on McDowell Street that has been stalled for years. Now turned residential, the project may have some legs and we’ll finally cover up the hole it has left around the Wake County Parking deck.
2012 had great news for the residents at the West at North condo tower on West Street as the building is sold out. There was also news of a seven-story apartment tower planned for the surface parking lot right next door. Add that to Glenwood South’s rise in being a future neighborhood hangout versus entertainment district.
Union Station Funded
To re-live the Union Station announcement in 2012, watch the video below.
Other Notables
In addition to a great new site re-design, that I had way too much fun building by the way, here are two more articles that I liked posted this year.
Cheers, 2012!
A crane is up at 425 Boylan. This is one of two cranes in the area that are bringing about 400 apartments to Glenwood South.
Photo taken July 2011
I noticed this small update yesterday on the city’s development activity page. The people behind The L, the still yet-to-be built office tower on the corner of McDowell and Davie Street, are looking to change it to a residential building. This five-year-old project keeps getting extensions from the city. That’s a good thing as this project is the missing piece that goes next to the Wake County Parking Deck.
With new residential projects being built and office space more in the renovations category, this may be a good move to build on the commitments previously made, ride the hot rental market, and finally be done with this project.
The site plan shows a lot of retail space on the ground floor and lists 100 apartments for floors 2-6. That should adequately cover up the walls of the Wake County Parking Deck, now only covered by colorful banners.
The 400 block of North West Street.
The Raleigh Planning Commission’s agenda for today’s meeting contains some new details worth sharing on the blog. The West Apartments is up for approval and may one day bring about 150 apartments to West Street in Glenwood South. The building, being designed by the same JDavis Architects that brought us the West at North tower, will sit adjacent to the same building you see in the picture above. You can see from the site map that the new building will remove the sales office along Harrington Street and the rest of the surface parking in the surrounding lot.
Screenshot from Google Maps
There’s nothing too exciting in the agenda as the 85′ tower will consist of two levels of parking (one above and one below ground) and five floors of residential. No rendering is included. The tower isn’t taking out anything anyone might miss but is bringing some retail space with it. The new development therefore brings upgraded 14′ sidewalks to West and Harrington Street. While not a requirement, 10 bicycle spaces will be provided. Check the agenda for floorplans also.
Private development is moving closer and closer to the county’s land along Capital Boulevard and while it will probably take awhile, I’m still hoping for Tucker Street to extend to the east towards Capital one day. I hope to see the east side of Glenwood South become a grid again so the neighborhood has room to grow.