I’m very excited to resurrect this thread with 
news and I can’t wait to see what fun discussions ensue!
It’s rumored that this development has evolved/changed/downgraded (up to your assessment) to student housing and is expected to break ground in Q2 of 2025.
I’m happy to take any questions and promise you I have no answers beyond the above.
Oh Lordy. We should have seen that one coming.
Downgraded. 100% - student housing = sure to be the cheapest, ugliest possible POS they can build and who knows if they’ll even bother with street level activation. This whole thing is just a tragedy. Knocking down a perfectly fine 100 year old building for a gravel pit then beige bull$hit. I’ll be happy to be wrong, but how many “student housing” projects have there been here that weren’t exactly that?
Yeah I’m completely with you on this pessimism. I mean maybe it’ll surprise us, but I’m not holding my breath. The one upside is if they do build it, at least it’ll cover up the gravel pit and maybe, just maybe, we can start the healing process.
One of the issues I could see with student housing in that spot would be more students in places like Wolfe & Porter, Gussies, Trophy, etc. that generally cater to more of a post-college crowd.
That was the change in concept back in April. I suppose you don’t know if it’s moving forward with a different architect now, or still with the original?
The answer to that is, I don’t have a clue. Sorry!
I think regardless of who the architect, it’s GUARANTEED to look like sh*t!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I clearly expected the negativity, but let’s hold our judgement until we have something tangible.
My initial thought was consistent with most here which is, great, we lost a historical building for a boring development. But, if you consider density and activation and supporting the local businesses in the area, hundreds of residential dwellings is going to be an improvement in that context. Regardless of the building material or seafoam green or whatever.
I wonder if the prison plays a part here. It’s much easier to rent to students with a cheap build and a view of the prison than a person out of school who have options to live somewhere not backing onto a prison.
I think that you hit the nail on the head. Somehow they didn’t realize the prison would be a problem when they bought the property.
Someone should paint the prison with that magic camo like the parking deck top of the Rockway apartments. People be going by saying, what prison??
Probably plays a role, but the Prison doesn’t seem to deter home owners in Boylan Heights.
Somebody needs to count the total number of beds in these student apartments that have been built (and are being built) in the Hillsborough Street corridor. It has to be a significant percentage of the student population by now.
I suspect there is a larger migration in progress of off-campus student life away from (suburban, auto-oriented) Avent Ferry Road to (urban, walkable) Hillsborough Street.
I can understand how the crowd on here which probably averages a decade or two removed from their undergrad years might be a bit salty about student life spreading east towards downtown, but (ignoring aesthetics for a moment) on the whole I think this is a positive trend for the city.
Putting something there is better than it continuing to sit empty indefinitely. Lots of student housing has made its way to Hillsborough over the last ~8 or so years, but there was a definite need for it considering most off campus housing prior to this recent boom was over off Tryon.
If this project does pivot to student housing, but targets grad students and upper classmen, then I think just putting more people there would be great for places like Trophy, Incendiary, the Bend, Wolfe & Porter, Gussies, etc. Would really like to see some retail/F&B options pop up on Hillsborough on the stretch from PR to W Morgan to stich that end of Hillsborough together with all that’s now on W Morgan.
@dtraleigh I think we need an actual “Seafoam Green” emoji 
I said it on another thread… I REALLY think State needs to add a Wolfline route down Hillsborough Street into DTR. As more and more student housing is being built east of campus, and DTR is becoming more and more of a destination, it just makes sense to give students (and non-students) an easy (FREE) connection between NCSU and DTR.
It’s water under the bridge now, but you know what else might have fared well near the prison?..the existing comedy club!
If there is anything lacking in terms of bus service along Hillsborough, and NCSU wants to spend money to fix it, they should enhance one of the existing services rather than starting something new.