Tag / Fayetteville Street

by Leo Suarez

The Omni Hotel, Street-Level Deep Dive

Rendering of the Omni Hotel Raleigh

The Omni Hotel, planned for the southern end of Fayetteville Street, is going through the Design Review process. With that, we can peep some early plans to get an idea of what we’re getting at the street-level. There’s plenty here if you’re into proposed architectural plans of a building but I’m going to focus on the street-level elements and spaces. It’s a mixed bag from what I see but it’s probably what we should expect from a single-use tower focused mainly on visitors. Let’s take a look at each side and what the plans tell us at this point in time.

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by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Have you seen the new lights on Fayetteville Street? All the trees, 88 of them, have been wrapped with white lights and they are lit each night, from Lenoir to Morgan Street. It’s a nice touch, adding some vibrancy to a kind of dull and gray streetscape. There’s more improvements on the way for the street which should elevate the area in order to really cement it as a key place to be when in downtown.

by Leo Suarez

Checking in on Fayetteville Street at the end of 2024

It’s been talked about all over the place that Fayetteville Street has still not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. From my point of view, the street does seem to be in transition as a once office-heavy corridor adjusts to a region that has embraced work from home culture. I’m optimistic and am showing patience these days, believing that the street will find it’s way over time. That’s why I’m happy to read this article from Axios Raleigh highlighting the first glimpses of change taking place on North Carolina’s Main Street.

I thought it could be fun to go block-by-block and describe what’s to offer on the ground floor as of the end of 2024. The more places to visit, the more people there should be. That, in the end, adds to the vitality of the street.

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by Leo Suarez

Dive Into the Final Report That Will Reinvigorate Downtown Raleigh

Recently, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA) released the final draft of the Downtown Raleigh Economic Development Strategy, the ongoing study that hopes to revitalize urban Raleigh post-pandemic. We talked about part 1 earlier this year, with a heavy focus on Fayetteville Street, and now we have the complete report which lays out new ideas and a bold vision for downtown. Here are the many ways to dive right into it:

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by Leo Suarez

Checking In on the Raleigh Convention Center

Should we start calling the southern end of downtown “The Convention District” or maybe “The Entertainment District”? Those are probably the most boring names I could think of but it seems the Raleigh Convention Center is poised to grow it’s influence on downtown this decade. This month, the Raleigh City Council approved agreements with a developer to start work on a 550-room convention hotel nearby. This would support a future convention center expansion which is also working it’s way through the planning process.

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by Leo Suarez

Part One of the Fayetteville Street Economic Dev Strategy Is Out

The DRA has released the first part of their Economic Development Strategy for Fayetteville Street and the list of recommendations are quite numerous. We’ll still get even more recommendations later this year but this initial piece focuses on the central business district with Fayetteville at the center of it all.

Above is a video of a city council work session where the report’s highlights are presented to council and is a very good watch. Scott Page from Interface Studio, the consultant team on the project, gives us a very comprehensive overview of the plan so watching, or just listening, is highly recommended.

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by Leo Suarez

Coloring Outside the Lines: Imagining Fayetteville Street’s Future

Above is a video recording (watch it directly on YouTube) of a virtual meeting hosted by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and Interface Studio where they take attendees through some of the things coming out of the Downtown Raleigh Economic Development Strategy project currently in progress. We’ve mentioned this project earlier in the year and this video is worth watching as it focuses mainly on Fayetteville Street. The team shares ideas that may lead us to new ways to reinvigorate the street.

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by Leo Suarez

Omni Hotel for Site 2 Announced

Video from city council starting with request to approve negotiations with Omni Hotels

It’s all going according to plan.

Straight out of the 2015 Downtown Plan, the southern end of Fayetteville Street, currently being used as surface parking and owned by the city, was to be kept for a major “catalytic” project. In 2015, it was envisioned that a major hotel to serve the convention center and a large corporate relocation would set up on the two sites. Fayetteville Street would then be extended down the middle.

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