Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

Another Hillsborough St. Tower

Hillsborough St. is on fire! The N&O reports of another tower in the works at the corner of West and Hillsborough.

A group including former Raleigh Mayor Smedes York wants to build an eight- to 10-story building including shops topped with offices, residences or both on the block southwest of the intersection of Hillsborough and West streets in downtown Raleigh.

HBS Properties, which is represented by York Properties, has assembled all but two of the 10 tracts on the 1.15-acre block.

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Once that’s settled, the single-story storefronts dating to the 1930s could meet with the wrecking ball.

HBS is considering street-level shops with offices and residences — likely rentals — on top. Or just shops and offices.

York hopes to begin building within a year. The project would take 18 months to finish.

Kind of sad to see the old shops get torn down but that area always seems dead and the shops continue to remain empty. Along with all the other announcements that are coming to Hillsborough St., it will become the link between Fayetteville St. and the Glenwood South area.

by Leo Suarez

Reynolds Tower

WRAL has an article on the newest plans for ‘The Hillsborough’ that will be at 301 Hillsborough St. This is the same project that has been going on since the Reynolds, who brought us the Quorum Center, purchased the lot back in 2001. It was earlier called ‘The Raleigh’ but I think ‘The Hillsborough’ is still not an original name. Watch the video for picks of the renderings. I mentioned this project before in this post but have to ask, will this finally be the end and we will start seeing construction?

Raleigh — Plans have been filed for a 23-story mix of retail shops, a hotel and condominiums at the corner of Dawson and Hillsborough streets in downtown Raleigh.

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Attorney Ted Reynolds is developing the $65 million project, which will include 17,500 square feet of retail space, a 136-room hotel and 26 condos on the top floors. He earlier proposed offices in the building but recast the project in recent months.

by Leo Suarez

Hue Showing Life

WRAL has an article on the new Hue condos being built at Dawson and Hargett St. The Hue is the most dense condo project yet for downtown and the prices start in the $160’s. Let’s hope they will stick to that selling point because I can easily think of one person that is interested. Check out the website for the project; it has been updated.

If all goes as planned, people will be living in more than 200 condos at The Hue, at 400 S. Dawson St., by spring of 2009. Developers said these condos will help make downtown more affordable. Prices at The Hue are about 57 percent less than the average downtown condo price.
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“Initially, in most downtowns, you see the higher end stuff being developed first because the developers are uncertain whether the market is there,” said David Diaz, director of Downtown Raleigh Alliance.
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“Our goal is to make the downtown a 24-hour downtown, and in order to do that you need a lot of people living downtown,” Diaz said.

by Leo Suarez

West Construction Update 8/07

The West at North condo tower in Glenwood South has been slowly rising up. It is starting to creep into view from other parts of downtown. The building is pretty wide compared to the others around it and will help give Glenwood South a more urban feel. Remember when there was just a parking lot there? I think this building will be great when completed. No word yet on the retail going in on the bottom floor. Hopefully soon, West St. will get a streetscape renovation, new sidewalks and buried power lines.

by Leo Suarez

Atrium Renovation

The Atrium consists of 112 and 114 Fayetteville St. Plans for this building are to expand the Fayetteville St. Tavern and renovate the top two floors into condos. There are six condos total at the two addresses; not much but they offer a more historical style compared to the newer condo buildings around downtown.

This project has been a slow one. Construction has been on-going all year and little progress has been seen until recently. The white bricks have been coming down and are being replaced with red bricks with the intention to match the adjacent building facade. There is still a lot to be done but here is what the building looks like so far.

Old white brick is being replaced by new red brick

by Leo Suarez

Bloomsbury Progress Summer ’07

Bloomsbury Estates has slowed down a bit lately. The floors were put up at a pretty normal pace but once they topped out, not much progress has been made. I went out there to take a look and it seems they have the metal siding put up. Hopefully soon they will have the walls up, giving us a good idea of what the building will look like. Although with its particular style, we may have to wait until its finished to see what this one will look like. By the way, I’m a big fan of the view down Hargett St.

by Leo Suarez

Residential News

I’ve got some random info that I’m compiling into this one post about a couple residential projects. The Hue condominium project on the corner of Dawson and Hargett St. has shown some activity recently. The old Realty building that was on the lot has been demolished and construction fencing has been set up. I received an e-mail about the current progress of the project:

The development company, Trammel Crow Residential, closed on the purchase of the property on July 31st. As of August, our building and floor plans were submitted to the City of Raleigh for approval. Upon approval, our floor plans and pricing will be made available to you and will be added to our www.hueraleigh.com website.

We plan to hold our reservation event in Fall, 2007. As we move forward we will be able to provide you with specific dates and times. This information will also be added to our website.

According to their website, RBC Plaza claims that all the condos have sold out. This sounds like a great accomplishment for downtown Raleigh but I’m not going out celebrating just yet. I’m really hoping that the people who bought these condos do intend to live in them. I would hate to hear that most of the buyers of the high rise condos are ones that do not plan to move in and thought that investing in these properties would make them a quick buck when they flip it late next year. Only time will tell.

I have not posted this one yet but 222 Glenwood has a webcam set up on their website. The building has taken shape and walls are being put up. I’m anxious to see this one built and am curious as to what shops or restaurants will occupy the ground floor spaces. Glenwwod is feeling more like a canyon as these buildings go up, just great!