Category / New Construction

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.