Category / New Construction

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

by Leo Suarez

227 Fayetteville Going For ‘Most Desirable Address’ Award

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.

by Leo Suarez

Innovate Raleigh Opens Up 227 Fayetteville Street, Renovations Underway

227 Fayetteville Street, January 2013

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.

227 Fayetteville Street, January 2013

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.

  • There is an emphasis on more natural light with many more windows being added.
  • One rendering suggests street level retail along Fayetteville Street which is something the building did not have previously.
  • The office entrance may be that red square along the side of the building. This may leave the Fayetteville Street facing entrance for a future retail space.
  • The outdoor spaces alongside 227 Fayetteville, Exchange Plaza and Market Plaza, may also be getting a facelift.

Rendering of 227 Fayetteville Street
Rendering of 227 Fayetteville Street
Rendering of 227 Fayetteville Street
Rendering of 227 Fayetteville Street
Rendering of 227 Fayetteville Street

by Leo Suarez

Powerhouse Plaza Flips From Hotel and Office to Apartments

Corner of West and Jones Street.

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.

by Leo Suarez

Looking Back Through Downtown Raleigh In 2012

Sidewalk of Fayetteville Street

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.

Crane at the future site of 425 Boylan

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!