Pic of the Week

Here’s an east-facing photo of the future apartment building called The Acorn. The project will bring about 100 apartments facing Person Street and is planned to open in Summer 2023. Since construction began, we now know that a Marriott TownePlace Suites hotel will later be built on the site shown in the foreground. The hotel faces Blount Street and will share the parking deck you see on the lower floors in the photo.

The hotel should begin construction in 2023. Check out The Acorn at their site here.

Pic of the Week

This week, I wanted to throw up a picture of the building at 320 Hillsborough Street, currently the Holiday Inn. Site plans have been filed for a new hotel and apartment building that would lead to this building’s demolition.

A new owner has purchased the property here and the parking lot next door in order to build a 20-story building that will include about 180 hotel rooms and 350 apartments. A parking deck and ground-floor retail space is also shown in the site plans.

The “hair curler” was a unique building and it’s unfortunate that a renovation couldn’t work out. No renderings of the new buildings are out, yet, but I welcome completely upgraded sidewalks and the additional street-level activation that the new development will bring.

Local Developers Join Forces to Bring a Hotel and Apartments at The Acorn

Collaboration happens in all kinds of ways and in development, it’s great to see a sharing of space and resources. Two local developers, Williams Realty & Building Company Inc. and Summit Hospitality Group, are planning to build a seven-story apartment building and adjacent 138-room hotel. The site of the new development is at 415 South Blount which currently sits as a parking lot between Blount and Person Streets.

The property cuts the block in half with one side facing Blount and the other Person Street. On the Person Street side, the eastern side, will be the The Acorn apartments, shown in the rendering above. There will be 106 units on floors four through seven.

Facing Blount Street will be the hotel. A Marriott TownePlace Suites branded hotel will have rooms on all floors. The hotel and residents will share a 200-space parking deck on floors one through three below the apartments.

There’s not much to say about the property in it’s current state. It’s a surface parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. That’s it.

Construction is planned to start this December with the hotel portion coming later, planned Summer 2022.

Pic of the Week

The Willard hotel, or the AC Hotel, on Glenwood is nearing completion. Sidewalk pavers were being installed this past weekend and the place is nicely lit up at night. You can even make reservations on the Marriott website.

The 146-room hotel is missing it’s name though. “The Willard” must have been a local name for the construction project but Marriott seems to prefer “AC Hotel Raleigh Downtown” going forward. It’s a great location though and I’m sure visitors staying here will have a fun time.