The demolition of the warehouses along Hargett and West Street has really picked up. This shot above is from this past weekend, overlooking the site from the outdoor mezzanine at Union Station. It’s a bit surreal how much space there is here and if you have an opportunity to see it this week, I would recommend a walk around the site.
For a recap of what is planned here, see the RUS Bus tagged posts here.
There certainly are a lot of rezoning requests going on for the downtown area these days. One in particular that I think is interesting to pay attention to is for a collection of properties along the 700 and 800 blocks of North West Street. This is mainly the properties to the east of West Street and north of Peace Street. Raleigh Development Co. has acquired a set of properties here and is requesting a rezoning to increase the maximum height allowed from 12 to 30 stories.
To zoom in, you can see a detailed map of the properties on iMaps here. Right now, a mishmash of warehouse buildings, built throughout the mid-1900s, dot the properties. The buildings also have plenty of surface parking. This is typical on this section of West going all the way up to Wade. Very little sidewalks exist and West really loses that urban feel that it has south of Peace.
Industrial is the theme here on this part of West Street. It’s not really a place to walk to or shop. That of course may change in the near future. To the east of the property is the pigeon house branch creek and there are plans for a future park on the nearby former city parking lots. The city is currently going through the planning process of that park, which is still years away, and you can follow that here as well as watch a cool video about it here.
To the south is Smoky Hollow which probably needs no introduction. Smoky Hollow is adding retail and restaurants as you read this and there is still has an empty property along Peace which may add more development to this area in the future.
This North West Street “wedge” of a property could produce a very interesting building or set of buildings due to the future park nearby and the fact that the land is at a higher elevation compared to the nearby area. The views of downtown should be fantastic on the upper floors.
Discussion on this rezoning will start at the Planning Commission meeting on October 25.
400H is still rising but now, glass is starting to grow on the sides. The building is getting it’s “skin”.
The office and apartment tower has been a behemoth down on Hillsborough Street but the planned completion date is around Fall 2023. That means new neighbors before the new year 2024, possibly.
The Raleigh Union Station Bus Facility is seeing some movement. There’s a combination of demolition and preservation taking place at the old warehouses along West Street. In the photo above, the metal braces are in place in order to preserve the brick façade as it’ll be incorporated into the new development. This is at the corner of West and Hargett.
Some buildings are coming down, especially the ones facing the railroad tracks. You can see plenty of photos being taken by members of the Community right here and I’m sure there will be more so do follow along.
South Saunders Street doesn’t get to much of a mention here on the blog but that’s about to change. Today, the parking deck for Park City South Phase 1 is being put together on the east side of Saunders. Phase 1 plans for about 335 apartments and restaurant/retail spaces. It’s important to note that this project will compliment the nearby Rocky Branch Greenway with a bridge to a new walkway alongside the apartments and restaurants in the new development.
We can see those plans in the images below.
It’s all one structure but on the ground floor, we have separated spaces and walkways that should deliver an awesome pedestrian and biking experience. With the potential for food spaces, Park City South could be a nice pit stop while riding up and down the greenway. It even makes for a nice destination after spending time in Dix Park.
This is certainly a nice development to look forward to. If you’d like to see some aerials from a few weeks ago, hop over to the Community and follow the conversation. And here’s one more rendering of the development’s phase 1. We’ll save Phase 2 for a future post.
West Cabarrus is buzzing. A developer from Durham, Elmwood Development, is looking to build about 300 apartments with the building shown in the rendering above. The new project will be located at 401 West Cabarrus Street and sits on the same block as The Fairweather condos. A block down the street, you also have more under construction projects such as The Platform.
The block, today, is mostly one-story office buildings of various types from a variety of decades with some surface parking. The brick boxes could be cool inside, I have never seen them, but from the outside looking in, it doesn’t appear we’re losing much here.
The site plans indicate some ground-floor retail space as well so this could be a pretty cool project at a great location.
The apartments at The Platform on Cabarrus Street are really moving. The Community, where I pulled the photo from, is all over this project so I encourage you to follow the thread for more regular updates.
What is cool about The Platform is how close it is to the Union Station train platform. From a train rider’s perspective, it’ll be one of the first (last?) things they see when riding in and out of Raleigh. I’m eager to see what this project looks like and if it does compliment the warehouse district feel with a modern edge.
A rezoning case (see Z-9-22 here) that’s been in progress throughout the year involves The Depot, the long warehouse situated at the end of West Davie Street fronted by the delicious Videri Chocolate Factory. Owned by the North Carolina Railroad, a desire to develop more of their properties seems to be part of their future. The rezoning would allow for up to 20 stories of new development and could possibly alter the layout of the existing Depot building.
To dive right into things, the presentation and discussion from the August 9, 2022 meeting of the planning commission, embedded below, (or watch it on YouTube) is the best place to start. The commission has recommended approval of the rezoning and it next goes to city council for overall approval.
Earlier in the year, the rezoning started at the Raleigh Historic Development Commission and that group recommended to deny this rezoning request. However, throughout the year, conditions have been added that would save some of the historic structures and possibly make the rezoning more palatable to city leaders.
Looking at the aerial photo from Google Maps as well as Exhibit A (above) from the commission presentation, we are actually talking about the The Depot building and the parking lot. The section where Videri is located currently is the head house of the building and plans are for it to remain. The rest of the Depot building could be partially or entirely removed as part of the future development.
For completeness, the request also wants to rezone a property on the other side of the tracks. If you look at the Google Maps aerial, you’ll see the former train station site. It has since been demolished and is a gravel parking lot now.
If approved in its current form, the rezoning conditions around the Depot would preserve the head house as is and any new additions to it must have complimentary materials. There also must be a 30 foot wide pedestrian walkway between Davie and Cabarrus street. That could look something like this.
The architect, Gensler, proposes a mix of uses and buildings that compliment the Depot as well as the rest of the warehouse district. A “strong retail base” was mentioned in order to support active uses along the pedestrian walkway, shown in the proposed site plan above.
The rezoning hits the city council starting at their meeting on September 20.
My thoughts on this are evolving. If you watched the commission video above, members of planning commission were definitely feeling emotional trying to find a way to preserve the building that the entire historic district is named after. It is called, “The Depot Historic District” after all so demolishing most of it seems unfortunate.
I have however always disliked the surface parking lot and welcome the new buildings and the pedestrian walkway. The Depot can be pretty active on nights and especially on weekends but I’m just not sure it’s being used to its full potential.
It always seems like it’s the parking in new developments that take up the most space and cause older buildings to be demolished. The new proposed site plan replaces the majority of the Depot with structured parking underneath new apartments. I can’t help but to continue to roll my eyes at the thought of this. Realistically, even though we don’t require any parking in downtown Raleigh, the city is just too car-dependent for new projects to offer less parking or none at all.
I do think that nearby project The Dillon gives me hope that a new development could be built that keeps some of the character in place and creates a whole new pedestrian experience with active uses. I also think being such a big transit supporter that I can’t fight more density near our Raleigh Union Station.
You also have to consider that as of today, if they wanted to, North Carolina Railroad could demolish everything and build from scratch. There are no protections in place. However, in exchange for an increasing in zoning allowances, the head house would be incorporated into the new development.
It’s not great but it feels like a strong compromise.