The townhomes on Person Street, as part of the Blount Street Commons project, have been mostly built out. The more northern units look almost done and give us a sense of what they will look like.
I am a big fan of these types of residential units and hope to see more, a lot more, in the future in and around downtown Raleigh. Hopefully future projects can have a better sidewalk entrance as these are pretty bare.
As part of Blount Street Commons, Person Street is really getting a residential presence with these townhomes named The Wallace and The Anderson. The website is lacking a lot of key information but here’s where you can see more about them.
While nothing spectacular to look at, (The Ten looks much better and the units were priced a bit lower) I actually really like that we’re getting some of this type of residential around downtown. I hope one day for there to be a plethora of three or four story buildings like this scattered all throughout our urban areas. It’s also a great transition development from our core out into the neighborhoods.
This weekend I took a walk around the Blount Street Commons area. The Elan Apartments look almost done here along Wilmington Street. As we’ve discussed, nothing fancy at all but it’s a lot of urban infill compared to the parking lot that was here before.
The state government district could use some new residential for sure.
Corner of Peace and Person Streets
I recently took a walk around East Peace Street and there is just so much happening here these days. On this particular weekday morning, the sounds of construction dominate. The hum of machinery, the beeping of vehicles, the hammering of nails are just some of the things you hear if you wander around Peace, Person or Wilmington Street.
These two blocks are just mushrooming with new developments. It’s not surprising that the new construction is predominantly residential as that is the current trend.
Townhomes at Blount Street Commons
Built up now are some new townhomes and carriage homes at Blount Street Commons. A lot of land has been cleared along Person Street for even more of these.
Holy Trinity Church on Peace Street
You can now get a sense of the space that the Holy Trinity Church on Peace Street will take as the building shell is pretty much wrapped up.
Peace Street Townes
More townhomes at Peace Street Townes are moving along nicely with the entire site out of the ground now. A lot of brickwork has taken place and the first units are close to being ready.
Elan City Center apartments
The largest presence here is the Elan City Center project, a five-story apartment building with about 213 units. There isn’t any ground-floor retail here but with Seaboard Station just across the street and the non-active government district nearby there may not be a big reason for it.
I’ll be interested to see more about Elan City Center as the project kind of just popped up and I’m not sure what kind of local presence there is here. There are no plans for this on the city’s website and their website showcases it as a ‘North Carolina project’ rather than a ‘Raleigh project,’ mistakenly using Charlotte’s skyline on their website.
In a hot rental market, complacency in management is common, as I’ve heard is the case in some of the newer buildings in or near downtown. Hopefully that’s just a few isolated incidents.
Land is being cleared along Person Street as part of the Blount Street Commons project. Slowly, very slowly, Blount Street Commons seems to be filling in with the planned townhomes, some already showing wood framing up along John Haywood Way.
This is part 8 of a 10 post series, rolled out all week, on residential projects in downtown Raleigh. Go here to see all the posts so far.
While the groundbreaking of these 18 townhomes was back in November of 2013, the project needed a little sun to grow out of the ground. A lot of foundation work took place at Peace Street Townes over the last few months and it looks like now the homes are being put together.
The Blount Street Commons vision is slowly coming together and the vast open areas to the east of the government complex are slowly filling in. It’s nice to see some homes for sale in the area as the rental market is so dominant right now.
A crane is up at the site of the Elan Apartments on Wilmington Street. This is one of the quietest projects I’ve ever seen with very little information about it out on the web.
With the potential for many more residents on this end of Peace Street it could significantly increase the pedestrian traffic. Glenwood South and Blount Street Commons are the bookends of Peace Street, the only real east-west connection in northern downtown. That funnel effect may make the street more urban over time, especially after the Capital Boulevard bridge is worked on.
Corner of Peace and Person Streets
Continuing the conversation around Blount Street Commons this week, the project at the corner of Person and Peace Streets broke ground over a few weeks ago. Peace Street Townes is an 18-unit townhome project that should pop up fairly quickly because of the smaller scale of the project. Seems there are still developers delivering outside of the crazed rental market these days.
On a walk this past weekend, the sign near the site said that 10 units were under contract which is great momentum and clearly enough to start building. Looking back, this project was announced over a year ago around the summer of 2012.
Fans of urban transition should be cheering for this project as it somewhat steps down from the denser government buildings to the single-family homes in nearby Oakwood and Mordecai.