dtraleigh.comThe Raleigh Connoisseur – A Downtown Raleigh Blog

Skip to content Customize - Theme Options) -- View menu View featured posts View sidebar About Projects Contact Community Meetup Twitter Instagram Github RSS Feed Email Featured 400 Apartments and Retail planned for West Morgan Street March 3, 2021 March 3, 2021 by Leo Suarez Dog Park and Bar proposed for 504 Hillsborough February 23, 2021 February 23, 2021 by Leo Suarez RUS Bus Update Teases Us 30% of the Time with Renderings January 27, 2021 January 27, 2021 by Leo Suarez Oakwood and the North-South Freeway December 21, 2020 January 12, 2021 by Leo Suarez 121 Fayetteville Shows Off with 32-story tower, Outdoor Terraces, and More November 12, 2020 November 12, 2020 by Leo Suarez A Walk Down New Bern Avenue October 22, 2020 October 22, 2020 by Leo Suarez New Affordable Housing Plans in 2020 October 8, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Leo Suarez Seaboard Station Block B Plans Show more Mixed-Use, Underground Parking August 26, 2020 September 3, 2020 by Leo Suarez Downtown Status and Do Your Part to Help August 20, 2020 September 3, 2020 by Leo Suarez Salisbury Square Plans to Bring Mixed-Use Development to Downtown Raleigh July 8, 2020 July 23, 2020 by Leo Suarez Get DTRaleigh in your inbox Search Search for: Support DTRaleigh This blog has been going strong for 14 years. Any support for my work would be appreciated. Topics Data Downtown Culture Events Featured History Just For Fun New Construction New Projects News Photography Pic of the Week Planning DT Raleigh Restaurants Retail Things To Do Transit/Transportation Vicissitudes of the Oak City April 20, 2021 April 19, 2021 by Leo Suarez Pic of the Week News 301 Hillsborough , Raleigh Crossing There’s a nice view coming together while heading into downtown Raleigh along Morgan Street. A good amount of glass is being placed up on Raleigh Crossing , downtown’s biggest office project under construction at the moment. The building should be done before the end of the year. If you haven’t been following, Raleigh Crossing is actually a multi-phased project with other buildings planned on the block. Recently, the TBJ reported that plans have changed and the hotel component has been dropped. A 20-story building for apartments is planned for phase 2. This makes sense as the future of the hotel market is hard to read. There may be a huge surge in travel demand but how long can that really be sustained? Only time will tell. April 15, 2021 April 15, 2021 by Leo Suarez Pic of the Week New Construction , Pic of the Week Marbles The sky’s the limit over at the Marbles parking lot along Morgan Street. As long as the sky can be reached with only 30 floors. The city council recently approved a rezoning request for 40 stories at the triangle shaped lot shown above. However, the request had a condition to max out the floor count to only 30. This goes to show you that a new zoning request floor count of 30, in between the current 20 and 40, may be needed in the future. No definitive plans have been announced but I’d love to see an expansion to Marbles, an already big-time attraction to downtown. With that kind of height, mixed-use would also be great to see. As downtown adds density, I think it allows Marbles to expand without moving or demolishing parts of their existing buildings. These structures are in, what looks like, decent shape so it’s great to see an addition to downtown buildings rather than a replacement. April 8, 2021 by Leo Suarez History Lives in Raleigh’s Downtown Buildings Downtown Culture Rotary Club Today, I have a guest post from Tom Packer, President-Elect Rotary Club of Raleigh – Downtown. Tom reached out to me, we chatted a bit, and I wanted to get this post up about the club that has been meeting regularly in downtown for years. Enjoy and do check them out! – Leo It’s easy to miss while walking past the ABC studios and SONO on Fayetteville Street, but on the brick wall of their building is an historical plaque commemorating North Carolina’s oldest charitable civic organization, the Rotary Club of Raleigh, which was founded at the site in 1914. This site originally was the Yarborough House Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 1928. Hudson Belk subsequently built a department store at the site which was converted to condominiums and the ground floor retail space in 2005. Throughout this time, Raleigh’s Rotary Club has held its weekly meetings without fail at the Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel, then the Convention Center and in more recent years at the City Club atop the Wells Fargo Building. While this blog tends to highlight the buildings and structures, new and old, of downtown, sometimes it is nice to stop and reflect on what goes on inside these buildings, such as Rotary’s 117-year focus on serving our community. Rotary’s first club president was Manly W. Tyree, pictured here in a 1915 photo and sporting a fashionable suit of the day. Fast forward more than a century and Rotary’s 120+ members continue to live their motto of “Service Above Self” which includes the founding in 2014 of the Rotary Club of Raleigh Dental Clinic, which operates as Wake Smiles inside the Salvation Army Center of Hope on Capital Blvd. The Rotary Club of Raleigh – Downtown has continued to work to support our community through the COVID pandemic, raising money to support such causes as StepUP Ministries, Solar Panels for Ugandan Schools, Southeast Raleigh YMCA, NC State Forestry Department Scholarship Fund, Salvation Army, Wake Smiles, MLK Food Distribution Day and the LeVelle Moton Park. Here are pictures of Rotarians recently out and working at LeVelle Moton Park and ringing bells for the Salvation Army’s red bucket. If you are interested in making a difference by joining Downtown Raleigh’s Rotary Club or would like more information, contact them at raleighrotary@gmail.com or visit https://www.raleighrotary.org/ . March 23, 2021 March 23, 2021 by Leo Suarez Pic of the Week New Construction , Pic of the Week Shown above is Raleigh Crossing on a gray, Spring day. More and more glass is starting to appear on the largest office tower to be built in recent history. I’m loving that upward curve going along the eastern side! Raleigh Crossing will primarily house Pendo, a local software firm that’s growing big time. The renderings show their name on the crown and with their primarily pink branding, might look quite nice when lit up a night. March 17, 2021 March 17, 2021 by Leo Suarez Pic of the Week New Construction , Pic of the Week Smoky Hollow Have you been by Smoky Hollow recently? It’s looking almost finished and real polished. Above is a shot looking into “the hollow” (or so I’m calling it) with the office tower on the left and The Line Apartments on the right. Retail and lobby spaces are on the ground floor and this pedestrian-only plaza may make for a nice spot this summer. I saw some chatter out there about any retail announcements and so far, I haven’t seen any but let’s hope residents start moving in soon and some unique offerings take hold here in the Hollow. (and that the closest R-Line stop is renamed to that too) March 9, 2021 March 9, 2021 by Leo Suarez Glenwood South Townhomes Planned for Boylan and North Streets New Construction Glenwood South , Townhomes 16 townhomes are planned for a corner spot along Boylan Avenue and North Street. The fantastic corner location, as seen in my brilliantly picturesque photo above, is just a block away from the bars and restaurants of Glenwood South. Some of the combined properties are currently empty but two existing single-family homes will be demolished for the new townhomes. One includes a smaller home from 1900 with a fantastic collection of palm trees out front. If you know me, I have an eye for our frondy friends around Raleigh . It’s sad to see them go. The townhomes will be 3-stories tall with rooftop terraces. The rooftops are definitely what’s in these days, becoming almost the standard of any new townhome built in and around downtown in the last five years. The developers of ...