Don’t know if y’all have seen the news but Bu*Ku is leaving the Red Hat Tower for Cary.
Not entirely…
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Downtown Raleigh exports restaurants! 
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Restaurant incubator for the county!
I can see how, once a concept has run its course in the ever competitive DT market, restaurants will move out to suburban areas where the competition isn’t quite so competitive and densely packed with options. That isn’t to say that there aren’t good restaurants in the burbs, it’s more to say that the DT market constantly expects something fresh and new. That will be especially true as rising DT rents will require higher price point menus in traditional concept restaurants.
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I think this is a terrible move for them. An was in a bad location and the main reason I ever go to Buku is because it’s downtown.
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I went to buku in Wake Forest last week, was really disappointed. Knowing the people working downtown and Wake Forest are different might be the reason. Either way, turnover is part of the retail and restaurant business.
Maybe BuKu is just being put out to pasture to live out the rest of its days in Cary? Regardless of whether or not the restauranteur is going with a new concept in the existing BuKu space or not, investment in “what’s new” is often the name of the game. Very few restaurants rise to the level of icon in a community, and Bu*Ku certainly wasn’t ever going to be part of that group.
Red hat expected to take over the space…sad loss of a nice restaurant space
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It’s too bad red hat couldn’t just move into the Edison building that never got built if they need more space…
Completely agree!
An was on the back side of that retail conpkex.
Went there once, did not like location.
I wonder if Red Hat is going to make it their cafeteria since there’s already a kitchen? That would put employees out on the patio at midday and engage them more into the community. Red Hat’s current cafeteria in the tower would then be freed up for office space.
Don’t like it, got a feeling it’s gonna create some dead space at that intersection, especially nights and weekends.
The Red Hat block can’t get any sadder at this point.
What do you mean? The Davie strip on that block is one of the most active pedestrian blocks in the city during the day. It has resturants, retail, bars, coffee, ice cream…
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Agree, that street is very active, a lot of great spots to go to.
The TBJ article makes the possibilities of this this space rather interesting…
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I do not like the one quote in this article:
"we’re not planning to expand into any additional space outside of Bu.ku," she added, noting that there are other restaurants and offices on the first floor in spaces that Red Hat isn’t using
It almost sounds like they would be willing to rip out all the ground floor retail on that block before considering expanding into other buildings.
Article also indicats that BuKu did not just leave. Red Hat asked them to, so they could move in.
Red Hat’s growing. How many people can it fit in downtown Raleigh?
Is Red Hat that cheap, just break ground for your own new towerin downtown Raleigh, you have the money, it’s a Raleigh company, price it, put your money where your mouth is Red Hat, C Levejs making a lot of memories money and nit one was a founder, spend company money to build a signature home grown downtown tower, 50 floors!!!
RedHat spent a lot of money not too long ago re-revamping the interior of the office. Probably not moving out for a long time.
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Red Hat is a publicly traded company. They have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, first. Plus RHT’s board is not stacked with ‘yes men’ like charlotte had back in they day. Hugh McColl got his ‘good old boys’ to say yes to any expense he wanted…hence the reason BoA was ranked one of the ‘worst boards in America’ back before he finally retired.
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