Category / Pic of the Week

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Have you seen the First Citizens Bank building recently on the corner of Martin and Fayetteville? The building was undergoing a renovation for the last year and they really opened that building up. Significantly more windows have been added and the ground-floor lobby has a nice contemporary refresh.

Buildings along Fayetteville Street have been getting modern refreshes lately. This is probably a result of landlords attempting to lure higher paying office tenants as rents are much higher compared to decades ago when they were first built. Constructed in the 1980s One City Plaza was given a new facade and lobby in 2015. The lobby in the Wells Fargo tower, from the early 1990s, was given a refresh in 2019 and 333 Fayetteville from the 1960s is being renovated right now.

Back to First Citizens, here is a photo pre-renovation.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Readers have seen site work taking place at 200 West Davie Street, the location for a long-time planned Hilton Garden Inn hotel. Plans go back to even 2015 but earth is being moved at the site and sidewalk fencing was added about a month ago. I may be stretching a bit but perhaps construction will start on the 13-story, 259 room hotel here, which was covered in this 2017 post.

The hotel amenities also list a rooftop bar and restaurant facing McDowell street. Parking is also included in this project. There’s no indication of ground-floor retail but that’s not surprising as the The L building’s retail across the street has never been 100% full. It would be great for the hotel to support nearby activities such as new retail/restaurants and conventions.

Hopefully the next update is a crane in the air at the site.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

construction at 615 west peace street

Land has been cleared at 615 West Peace Street, not to be confused with 615 East Peace Street, for a building named 615 Peace. The mixed-use building will bring residential units over retail space. You can see a rendering of the building in this September 2020 post.

Peace Street has been through a lot over the last few years. The Capital Boulevard bridge is structurally finished and now we’re waiting for the decorative elements to be completed. As part of that project, the street was widened a bit and reconfigured. I think it took almost 3 years of construction to complete it. In the future, Smoky Hollow will add a lot and a new park at Devereux Meadow, more on that in the coming weeks, will bring accessible greenspace to the street.

I believe it’s been shelved but a streetscape plan for the western side of Peace Street would really add some nice elements here. The thought of even more construction though might irritate some neighbors but that’s the way it goes I feel. Bring it on.

Get to know 615 Peace at their website: 615peace.com

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

The sky’s the limit over at the Marbles parking lot along Morgan Street. As long as the sky can be reached with only 30 floors.

The city council recently approved a rezoning request for 40 stories at the triangle shaped lot shown above. However, the request had a condition to max out the floor count to only 30. This goes to show you that a new zoning request floor count of 30, in between the current 20 and 40, may be needed in the future.

No definitive plans have been announced but I’d love to see an expansion to Marbles, an already big-time attraction to downtown. With that kind of height, mixed-use would also be great to see. As downtown adds density, I think it allows Marbles to expand without moving or demolishing parts of their existing buildings. These structures are in, what looks like, decent shape so it’s great to see an addition to downtown buildings rather than a replacement.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Shown above is Raleigh Crossing on a gray, Spring day. More and more glass is starting to appear on the largest office tower to be built in recent history. I’m loving that upward curve going along the eastern side!

Raleigh Crossing will primarily house Pendo, a local software firm that’s growing big time. The renderings show their name on the crown and with their primarily pink branding, might look quite nice when lit up a night.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Have you been by Smoky Hollow recently? It’s looking almost finished and real polished. Above is a shot looking into “the hollow” (or so I’m calling it) with the office tower on the left and The Line Apartments on the right. Retail and lobby spaces are on the ground floor and this pedestrian-only plaza may make for a nice spot this summer.

I saw some chatter out there about any retail announcements and so far, I haven’t seen any but let’s hope residents start moving in soon and some unique offerings take hold here in the Hollow. (and that the closest R-Line stop is renamed to that too)

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

I wanted to get a photo up of the northeast corner of Hargett and Harrington as development plans are in the works here. The Legends “block” may see a rezoning request for up to 40-stories according to this TBJ article. That intersection looks to be pretty significant in the future if any kind of building takes place there.

When I look around, I see The Dillon apartments with Weaver Street on the ground floor. The apartments are on two corners actually with the third being a gravel parking lot, also in a holding state for future development.

The Warehouse district has got a lot of potential.

by Leo Suarez

Video of the Week

Above is a short but really nice video showing off the progress over at Chavis Park. It looks quite different from a year ago, about the last time we checked in.

I’m hoping energy and positive experiences in the near future could drum up support for bringing the other aspects of the master plan to bear. I still believe that Chavis could be the park for downtown Raleigh residents as it plans to provide services and amenities that nearby destination park Dix won’t have. (or at least won’t have for awhile)