by Leo Suarez

Free Tickets to A Taste of India on Saturday, January 14 for the Smithsonian’s Beyond Bollywood Exhibit

John Jivatode, Morrisville Town Councilwoman Vicki Scroggins-Johnson, Swadesh Chatterjee, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, Morrisville Mayor Mark Stohlman, and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Rao.

Grand Opening of the exhibit with John Jivatode, Morrisville Town Councilwoman Vicki Scroggins-Johnson, Swadesh Chatterjee, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, Morrisville Mayor Mark Stohlman, and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Rao.

The first Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit to ever come to the City of Raleigh Museum is here. Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation had its grand opening this Fall and I, as a member of the Friends of the COR Museum, invite readers to come make a stop to see all the work put into hosting this new exhibit.

On Saturday, January 14, as part of the exhibit’s ongoing programming, will be a food event called, “A Taste of India.” More event details can be seen here.

I have the unique opportunity to send two tickets to this event to one RalCon reader.

Here’s how it works.
1. Sign up to become a member of the museum before the end of the year. Your donation supports what we do.
2. Make sure to tell them DTRaleigh sent you in the comments box. Say something like “I love the COR Museum!”.
3. I’ll randomly choose one new member for a pair of tickets to the Taste of India event on January 14.

It’s that simple. You can parlay your contribution into even more if you are the lucky winner.

This is my second year on the Friends of the COR Museum board and behind the scenes, we are putting things together to continue to raise awareness and get more engaged in the city and the region. This new exhibit will do just that and raise the level of programming that the museum has done in the past.

While A Taste of India is a ticketed event, the exhibit is free to the public and makes a nice stop over the holidays if you need something to do with the out-of-towners.

Taste of India, COR Museum January 14, 2017

Click for larger.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Old buildings along Wilmington Street, December 2016

Demolition is taking place at the corner of Wilmington and Martin Streets, the former site of the future Edison Office tower. I say “former” tower because earlier this year, Highwoods Properties has acquired the parcel from the past developer. No plans are public yet for what the new owners might do with it.

When I took this photo on Tuesday of this week, it looked like some asbestos was being removed from the center building in the photo, where Reliable Loan was originally located. If full demolition is planned, I imagine in a few days these old Raleigh buildings will be gone.

by Leo Suarez

Two Glenwood Plans New Parking Deck and Hotel For Morgan Street

Site Plan for Two Glenwood

Click for larger

More plans for development aimed to support One Glenwood have been posted. Site plans for what is called Two Glenwood were submitted to the city for a parking deck and 150-room hotel. Built as part of two phases, the deck will come first with the hotel following.

The image above shows the floor plan of the new structure. The parking deck and hotel are actually a smaller portion of this lot. Along Morgan, a 7-story parking deck is planned with 800 spaces. Retail space is also shown in the plans below the hotel.

However, the narrower portion of the lot facing Hargett will be used as surface parking and what looks like another entrance to the parking deck. There’s a side note on the plans that the surface parking lot is being saved for a possible future development.

Morgan Street, July 2016

Warehouse with Shelton’s Furniture on Morgan Street

From our look back at One Glenwood in July of this year, these plans confirm the loss of the warehouse where Shelton’s Furniture is currently located.

With all this activity happening at the southern end of Glenwood Avenue, I wonder if One Glenwood and Two Glenwood could be the “bookend” that Glenwood South needs, possibly extending the district?

Last, I’ve included one of the maps from the site plan as well as a surround shot of the area and more photos. It’s sure to look very different here over the next few years.

Site plan SR-092-16 map

Surround shot of Morgan Street, December 2016

Morgan Street, December 2016

Morgan Street, December 2016

Morgan Street, December 2016

Morgan Street, December 2016. Click for larger.

by Leo Suarez

Gramercy Apartments Completed and Pharmacy + Market Now Open

The Gramercy Apartments

Completed over the summer, The Gramercy Apartments is now open.

The Glenwood South apartment building also has one retailer in it’s space at the corner of North Street and Glenwood Avenue. Glenwood South Pharmacy and Market is a full-service pharmacy and small grocery store. Below are some photos showing a wide selection of eats and drinks.

Home cooks may not find everything they need but with hours of 7am to midnight every day, the service is really convenient for grabbing essentials.

Glenwood South Pharmacy and Market

Glenwood South Pharmacy and Market

Glenwood South Pharmacy and Market

by Leo Suarez

Revisiting 301 Hillsborough Street and Plans For 20-Story, Mixed-Use Building

Email readers: This blog post has a virtual reality image. Read the post on the blog to see it.

Looking at 301 Hillsborough Street from across Dawson Street.

Recently submitted site plans for 301 Hillsborough give us some more details as to what might come for the surface parking lots along Hillsborough and Morgan Streets.

SR-93-2016, listed on the city’s development page, shows almost a full-block development consisting of a “mixed use building with approximately 220,007 sf office; 242 residential units; 40,832 sf retail, 176 hotel units, and structured parking (991 spaces)”

SR-093-2016 map

Click for larger

Mixed-use indeed.

The site plan shows a floor plan that will encompass practically everything on that block except for the 3-story brick building at the corner of Harrington and Morgan Street. You can kind of see the new building coming up against the old so perhaps it’ll blend right in.

All the existing surface parking will be gone. In addition, the two-story house at the corner of Hillsborough and Harrington will also be removed. That house seems like a perfect candidate for a relocation.

House being used as offices for a Raleigh law firm

House at 327 Hillsborough being used as offices for a Raleigh law firm

There are a couple things we can see from looking at the site plan. Remember that it is preliminary so things may change but from my assessment Morgan, Hillsborough, and Dawson will change dramatically.

Along Morgan starting from the west:

  • Service driveways, garages (trash, service unloading/loading, etc.) are planned approximately across from the ones in The Dawson.
  • A parking garage entrance will go along Morgan also.
  • In between, there will be retail space.

Along Dawson:

  • Retail and lobby space only.

Along Hillsborough starting from the west:

  • There will be primarily retail and lobby space for the hotel and residential units.
  • A parking garage entrance closer to Dawson.

Overall, the parking garage entrances on Hillsborough and Morgan line up and on the inside of the building, there is a roundabout for hotel parking. You can also access the upper levels of the parking deck from here.

Just a detail, the site plan also shows 30 foot planters along the sidewalks of Hillsborough Street and with numerous bike racks. That’s a nice enhancement to the pedestrian space as well as supporting the dedicated bike lanes along Hillsborough Street.

I’m definitely excited for this one as an infusion of this many different uses is sure to add activity on the streets and sidewalks to all different times of the day and week.

Corner of Morgan and Harrington Streets

Corner of Morgan and Harrington Streets. Flying Saucer will be getting lots of new neighbors.

SR-093-2016 map

Another site plan map. Click for larger.

by Leo Suarez

Discussing the R-Line on Inbound Raleigh

R-Line Bus

I was recently invited to talk about the R-Line on the Raleigh transit podcast, Inbound Raleigh. We gathered some ridership numbers over the lifespan of the R-Line, which is approaching its eighth birthday in February, and talked about the history of the downtown circulator.

Have a listen and let me know what you think, about the episode and the R-Line in general. You can subscribe on iTunes and most popular podcast-listening apps out there.

Here are some links to the data and images (some from those links) for your reference.

R-Line Ridership Overall

Click for larger

by Leo Suarez

Christ Church Expansion Completed on Edenton Street

Christ Church along Edenton Street.

I’ve been a little behind on posting about completed projects so expect a few of those over the coming weeks.

The Christ Church expansion looks to be completed, at least from the outside. The new accessible entrance and meeting spaces were built over some of the surface parking at the corner of Edenton and Blount Streets.

Christ Church along Edenton Street.

The expansion maintained the stone, exterior look of the historic church and while it takes a sharp eye to notice the difference, I bet once there’s a little wear on the exterior, it’ll match the historic parts of the church.

In the photo above, the addition starts at the stairwell behind the tree in the center and goes to the left. The new addition adds rooms for a library, parlor, kitchen, and other amenities, according to the proposed floor plan on their website.

by Leo Suarez

South Street Area Plans More Residential with 522 South Harrington

The end of South Harrington Street

The end of South Harrington Street. November 2016.

We just can’t seem to get away from the South Street area.

Recently submitted site plans for 522 South Harrington Street are for a “47 unit mixed use residential building with structured parking and street-level commercial space.” The building will be 5 stories tall at 75 feet in height.

The address puts it at the dead end of South Harrington, near the current Amtrak Station, but the development also faces Lenoir and West Street. The reason Harrington dead ends rather than connects to Lenoir is because of a drastic elevation change. You can walk down stairs off Harrington to Lenoir though.

The new project looks like it will take out the auto parts warehouse at the end of Harrington. Parking for that building is located at the very end of the street and faces Lenoir before the elevation drops downward.

Site Plan map of 522 South Harrington

Site Plan map of 522 South Harrington

The stairs from South Harrington Street to Lenoir Street

The stairs from South Harrington Street to Lenoir Street

Lenoir Street

Lenoir Street

Around the intersection of Lenoir and West Street, the development will also take out two houses on West. Perhaps there’s an opportunity to move the houses? The corner is mostly an empty lot and surface parking.

Houses on West Street

Houses on West Street

With this end of Harrington sitting on higher ground, the units will have a fantastic view of the downtown Raleigh skyline. It’ll be through the power station across the street but it still should be pretty nice.