The surface parking lot at 301 Hillsborough has now been closed. That’s because construction will be starting on Raleigh Crossing, the new building planned for this site. This is the same one we’ve seen renderings of throughout the year.
There was a ground-breaking ceremony last week which included folks from Pendo, the Raleigh-based company that will primarily occupy the office space of Raleigh Crossing.
We’ve been following this site for years, practically since the beginning of the blog so I’m pretty excited to see something rise out of the ground at this space. Plan to watch it rise throughout 2020!
Steel is rising up on Harrington Street for the office tower component of Smoky Hollow. It seems like it was only weeks ago that the site was flat. At this rate, the nine-story tower will be topped out sometime in the Fall.
It’s such a dramatic difference compared to how the area was built up before. Surface parking in front of one-story office buildings lined Harrington Street for years. Traffic was nonexistent.
Now, with a little imagination, you can envision the street with a lot more life and active uses. Harrington has been connected to Peace Street and there will be a lot more residential and office space in the area.
There’s a lot to look forward to with Smoky Hollow!
It’s time to get together one more time and meet other readers of the blog and those participating in the Community. We’ve had a great turnout at these things and it motivates us to keep them rolling.
In addition to myself, we have other hosts that you should meet and follow online including:
The Acorn, a weekly newsletter about real estate in the Triangle.
Raleigh Convergence, a curated newsletter on issues, ideas and creative neighbors of Raleigh
Inbound Raleigh, a podcast about transit and transportation in Raleigh
Hope to see you there.
Reader Meetup
Date/Time: Thurs., Sept. 19 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Dram and Draught
One Glenwood Avenue
Starting this week, myself and a group of passionate Raleigh residents are ready to show off a new way to get engaged. We’re calling it Downtown CAC and we think this new effort will resonate with long-time civic activists as well as newcomers who want to get involved. You might even have fun in the process!
Inspired by the community that has formed over on the DTRaleigh Community, a group has come together to find a way to get more people attending the Raleigh Citizen Advisory Councils. (CAC) These meetings, which all Raleigh residents are part of one, are the best way to get engaged with what is happening in your city and more specifically, what is happening near where you live.
Find your CAC here!
The meetings contain updates from the police, parks, city planning, and more. The CACs even get to weigh in on issues regarding rezonings or transit. That feedback makes its way to our city council so your voice is heard by decision makers front and center.
The issue we see is that downtown Raleigh is made up of several CAC boundaries, see the map above. Downtown residents feel a part of the downtown as a whole and not really a part of a specific CAC so public engagement could be diluted to a degree.
With a virtual effort, our Downtown CAC, we are making more people aware of the CAC system and how to participate on specific issues.
More updates and information to come through our website. If you’d like to know more, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Steve Rehnborg over at the Raleigh Night Market recently and he showed me his first wave of products that his company, Civic Flags, is offering. This includes a City of Raleigh flag!
Partially inspired by this 2012 blog post about the flag, Civic Flags fills in a gap in our city: you can’t easily order a flag for your own enjoyment!
I’ve got my flag so wanted to inform readers of the new site. Jump on over and see what they got. You can also follow them on Instagram to keep up with them.
The downtown square on the east side of downtown Raleigh has finally reopened after years of planning and construction. The square went through multiple iterations of various plans with a wide stakeholder group but we’re finally here.
The former square design consisted of many paths and pockets to hang out where the new design has fewer but wider paths for strolling. Seating is plentiful along low walls and there’s no reason not to lay out on the grass.
On the edges, you’ll notice short barrier walls that encourage visitors to use the paths as a way to protect the roots of the old oak trees. There are lots of newly planted shrubs that will look great after a few years when they’ve matured a bit.
In addition to a community table and child play area, the plaza has a splash pad and outdoor seating. With the kiosk nearby, this will be the square’s hub of activity. Square Burger has set up shop in the kiosk and is serving burgers, fries, and shakes.
I expect the square to be quite busy when the fresh Fall weather hits downtown.
Demolition is taking place on the western half of the site named Bloc 83. By the time you read this, the site along the southern side of the 600 block of Hillsborough Street may already be cleared out.
This is the second-half development that will pair up with the already open One Glenwood. For a refresher of what is to come here, jump back to this November 2018 post about the development named Two Hillsborough.
I’m certainly missing the Esso Gas Station that stood at the corner and had one of my favorite bars, Dram and Draught. However, I’m happy to see new urban-style development that should be a part of the Raleigh of the future which makes transit-use more feasible and even brings about even more retail and restaurant space.
Dram and Draught has moved into One Glenwood and should re-open soon.
Finally, for nostalgia’s sake, I’ve got a snap of the Esso Gas Station in 2015 after it was renovated but before the bar set up shop in it.
Corner of Halifax and Peace Streets. January 2019.
The latest submitted plans (SR-034-19) for new development at Seaboard Station have been submitted. The plans are for a new 7-story building at the northwest corner of Peace and Halifax. Currently here is the building with the Sunflower’s cafe and other surface parking.
Apartments and a hotel would take up this entire block, named Seaboard Station Block A for now, which is bounded by Peace and Seaboard Avenue, Halifax and Seaboard Station Drive.
Aerial of Block A from Google maps.
The new building would be 7-stories and include parking with some spaces partially underground. It’s interesting to see the development proposing 236 parking spaces rather than the required 171. However, with 96 apartments and 150 hotel rooms, that may leave plenty for residents, overnight visitors and daytime, nighttime restaurant-goers.
The plans don’t list any retail or restaurant space other than the hotel bar and kitchen. The ground-floor spaces may be used for parking instead.
Cline Design, architects behind Peace and The Link, are working on the design for the new building.
Finally, the northern side of the block has a very generous sidewalk and converts the striped “turn in” parking to off-street, urban style spaces. The northern side may be the “front-facing” side as it supports the Seaboard Station area. The site plans suggests some public art here as well.
The plans are currently under review by the city so no real timeline is out there yet. When news hit about developing these sites, there was mention of sooner rather than later so hopefully, we’ll see things move soon on what is currently an under-used portion along Peace Street.
