Downtown Raleigh. As to some of the larger projects, RBC has just broken ground on their new office building. They sold 139 condominiums in 3 days!! (my emphasis added). THey took 130% reservations. There were people standing in line to buy in case anyone wasn’t able to complete their purchase. The building also has 270,000 square feet of office space, eight levels of parking deck within the building - enclosed in glass so that you will never know it’s there -, and 17,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. The City and Highwoods Properties, together, are building a 1,000 space parking deck one block to the east between Wilmington and City Market. Last week Progress Energy issued an RFP to develop all the land they own around that parking deck. They will be getting responses back during the next month or two and then making those public as they see fit. There is a lot of additional development being spurred by the new Progress Energy headquarters and the RBC headquarters buildings.
In 2009 people will ask why the Fayetteville street project was so important. At the north end of Fayetteville street there are about 1.25 million visitors at the Museum of Science and History and the Archives Building annually. When the Convention Center opens it, along with the Performing Arts Center, will draw about the same number each year to the sourth end. If we can get these two groups to cross, that makes for a great retail environment. On Fayetteville street, itself, there will be 525 housing units with 700 to 750 people calling it their home address. By 2009 Dan believes the street will have more bars and restaurants then Glenwood South does. There will be 875 hotel rooms. If you figure a 65% occupancy rate you have 250,000 additional annual guests on Fayetteville street. Lastly, the new office headquarters of RBC will add substantial pedestrian traffic to the street both from those who will work in the building and those who will live in it. Within one block of Fayetteville street there will be 10,000 parking spaces so there will not be a parking problem. All told there will be 42,000 parking spaces downtown and only about 30,000 people that work there.
As to housing we have the new York and Trammel Crow project on the Bradshaw parking lot just to the west of City Hall. It is 207 units of housing. There is the 170 unit condo called the West, 40 units on North street in Glenwood South and 48 units across from the Paramount; which is the first green residential building. Then, there is the new Contemporary Art Museum. Air rights over the museum will be sold for housing. This is on Harrington and Hargett streets. They will break ground for an apartment building on Tucker street in about two weeks which is also in Glenwood South. There is another 850 parking spaces that will be wrapped with 60 or so residential units. There is Ted and David Reynolds project that is nearing completion on Lane and Harrington. There is the Roland Gammons project. 222 Glenwood just broke ground. And, there are others. This is not all just expensive condos. We also have four projects downtown representing an investment of some $200 million of affordable housing.
When you add it all up, right now there are 831 units of housing downtown. In the pipeline, which means approved by the council but yet to break ground, is an additional 1,263 units. In the planning stages are another 500 units. When Dan got here six years ago, what he and the Planning Department generally consider to be downtown had about 1,500 residents. There are now 2,500 and when all that has just been mentioned has been accomplished there will be 8,500. That does not include such areas as South Park, Oakwood and Boylan Heights.
From the time the Liveable Streets Plan was adopted until 2010, when these projects have been completed, more than $2 billion will have been invested in the 110 block downtown area. All of this will have been leveraged by the first and only $10 million downtown project financed by our property taxes, namely, the first phase of Fayetteville street.
This concludes Dan’s remarks and portion of the presentation. To be continued
John Fish (919) 696-3474 Email: marvmax@mindspring.com Website: www.JohnFish.com
