Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

Mystery Construction

We’ve discussed some plans recently for a complete development of the block mostly owned by Progress Energy. This is the block bounded by Blount, Martin, Davie, and Wilmington st, shown here. They are planning to possibly do some big things to this block but no plans have been released.

It is odd however that fencing on this block has been put up and lots of the surface parking has been destroyed. Refer to my little sketch up of the block below to get an idea of what is going on at the moment.


Yellow – Fences, Red – Demolished lots

The fencing encompasses most of the block and even some of the store fronts, which are currently empty. It is interesting to see some kind of activity on this block, especially to this extent, without anyone knowing about what is going on; there is no news or media information about it.

The area is used for the RBC Plaza construction staging area, which is being built across Wilmington St. There is also a parking deck that will be constructed on the northern portion of the block, shown in this map. It may be reasonable to assume all this activity is for this deck and that the mid block structures are going to be demolished in the coming weeks. No concrete information can be found on what is going on exactly. As usual, I will post when more information comes about.

by Leo Suarez

Blount St. Revitilization

After checking out the historic Blount St. area, and taking pictures of some of the houses that are in this post, I remembered that there was a plan to revitalize this area over the next four years. The area desperately needs it; houses need to be spruced up, landscaping needs to be maintained, barren parking lots, some paved, others gravel, add nothing to the character of the area, and all the empty lots sit unused. Blount St. is a major entrance to the downtown area from the north and would be a great welcome mat to the core downtown district.

The city acquired about 23 acres for this project and the affected area is shown in the map below. They acquired the land and all the buildings on them. Currently the historic houses are being used as offices for small firms and government branches. They are all on a schedule and will be moved out of the coming years.


Target area of about 6 blocks

The area might not be as popular as the other livelier areas of downtown, since it is shadowed by most of the government buildings that become a ghost town at night and on the weekends. These two maps below show the area I’m talking about. There are 6 blocks around Blount St. that represent the target area. You can see on the map below that the area is very close to the Glenwood South and Fayetteville St. (south of the capitol building) districts. The area is also south of Peace College, West of Oakwood and Mordecai neighborhoods, east of the Government complex, and North of the downtown core. It is obvious that this is an important area to downtown Raleigh.


Parking lots are plenty in the area now, but will be all gone soon enough


Glenwood South and Fayetteville St. distrcits are close by

The overall plan is shown in the following map. It includes revitalization of the historic homes along Blount St., filling in the empty lots with new homes, and selling them all to be used as residential rather than commercial. The area will also be filled with dense development including row houses, carriage houses, and flats. Some of the denser developments will include 3 or 4 story mixed-use buildings with on street retail. Wilmington and Peace St. will include the densest developments. I’ve also included some of the building renderings below.


Notice the Krispy Kreme sign


You can see Peace college in the background, this is Wilmington St.

I think this is one of the most important revitalization projects in the downtown area. It is not on everyone’s radar and I believe the work will be slow on this one, like I mentioned earlier, it will take 4 years to complete. The work will be done in phases and before you know it there will be a very unique area of downtown with dense, smart development and a street with rich, historic houses that the city can be proud of.


Each block will be revitilized one at a time in phases.

by Leo Suarez

Hillsborough St. Gets Taller

I realized something yesterday as I was driving home on capital into downtown. There is no real skyline that greets you as you drive in on southbound capital blvd. The newly finished Quorum Center is up which is a plus and later on next year we’ll have the West at North condo tower over in Glenwood South but there are no significantly tall buildings close by and its hard to see the cluster of towers over on Fayetteville St. I realized that I was not thinking too deeply and all that will change in the coming years.

A new 32 story tower will be built on the Dawson/Morgan/Hillsborough block. It’s across the street from The Dawson, behind The Flying Saucer, and across the street from the Clarion Hotel. This tower will add to that northern skyline that I was talking about. I like the placement of the building because it helps to connect the areas of downtown better. If more density grows around it, it will create a lively scene from Fayetteville St. all the way to Glenwood.

The current residence at the site, set to be demolished this summer

The tower does not have an official name so everyone calls it the Reynolds tower. This is because the father and son developers, Ted and David Reynolds, are behind it. They were also behind the Quorum Center, so they have strong Raleigh ties.

The tower is mixed use with 133 hotel rooms, 25 condos, office space, and ground floor retail (3 shops to be exact). No word on the brand of hotel in the building or plans for the stores on the ground. There will also be a 5 story parking deck right up next to the building.

I really like this building and I think it is the one that I am most excited about. Now that the ball is rolling, this project will move fast. It has been an almost 5 year struggle for the Reynolds to land the property and get all the paperwork figured out. I believe because of the need for the office space by the city, the tower’s construction is on a tight schedule. We can all expect this building to be completed no later than July 2009!

N&O Article


the Clarion hotel won’t be the tallest in the area pretty soon


32 stories on the left, with a 5 story deck on the right


enjoy it while it lasts

by Leo Suarez

Something BIG is brewing……..

This will be a short one, sort of a follow up to this post about the almost 4 acre block north of Progress Energy’s newest building. I saw this on Raleigh’s livable streets plan website.

RFP Process results in Hamilton Merritt proposal being accepted – Mixed use hotel, movie theatre, condominiums, parking deck two 30-story towers – development agreement pending.

Such an important piece of information would not be announced this way. Who knows what this could mean or what is being planned. It may even be a leak of information or someone is playing a hoax. Either way when more information is available, I’ll be sure to post it.

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Construction Updates

I’m finally getting around to posting the pics I took last weekend. These are pictures of current construction projects and future sites.


Bloomsbury Estates

The fourth floor is rising up on the Bloomsbury Estates project. This building shown is the first of two 7 story buildings that will occupy the lot.


222 Glenwood, view from Glenwwod Ave


222 Glenwood, view from West St.

The parking deck is almost done at 222 Glenwood. The deck is in the back of the property and it looks like the condos on the front, facing Glenwood Ave, haven’t really been touched just yet.


West at North

The lot for West at North has been cleared. Hopefully we will start seeing some progress in a few months unlike 222 which seemed to take forever before any real work was done.