Finding 100 acres under a single owner that’s currently on the commercial market would be tough, but I’m pretty sure that an institution like RTF, RDU, UNC, or NCSU could find room within their campuses, all of which were intended for biomedical research:
RTF itself owns the 82.5 acre Site 8, though it’s awkwardly wrapped around a hunting club. It also owns another 100 acres across several parcels on Louis Stephens Dr, sandwiched between Parkside Town Common and the (282 acre) Apple campus.
Alexandria REIT, which develops life sciences real estate (customers include Boston Children’s Hospital), owns 600? acres of RTP. At the I-885 Cornwallis exit, they have the mostly-vacant 100-acre Genesis Way tract, across from the 132-acre former Burroughs Wellcome campus that United Therapeutics owns.
UNC has about 250 developable acres on the Horace Williams Airport tract, though TBH they’ve been sitting on that for decades.
NCSU Centennial Campus Spring Hill District (between Dix Park and Centennial Pkwy) is 130 acres.
Rezoning of RTP will open up a lot of development rights, and enable the hospital’s ancillary uses. Many of the existing landowners would be happy to sell their newly excess land for a hospital, and several (like Alexandria) are in that business. Plus, UNC is already planning a hospital inside RTP. (The RTP hospital is a clever way for UNC to reach the western Wake market by telling the state it’s creating competition for Duke in Durham.)
There’s also all that state-owned land around Blue Ridge / Wade / Edwards Mill, conveniently already state-owned and close to UNC Rex + surrounding medical offices. It’s probably the only site worth considering in Raleigh.
No doubt. This would also substantially change the park’s nature. I am for more desnity, but not acres of suburban offices and parking lots. I hope they move carefully.
A bigger question is how are they handling the sewage? That park does not perk! Lol
This does not sound like something where it’d make sense to have a suburb-y development. Especially since we already know that RTP is aiming to become more urban, I wouldn’t be too worried about being saddled with even more empty oceans of surface parking lots.
Sewage - and land use more generally - could be deciding factors, though, like you’re suggesting:
Great idea I’m sure the more aggressive Councilors Melton and Silver would love this idea.I think Raleigh city leaders should go all in on this Hospital it would be a great economic engine.
From what I read about this massive stand alone Childrens Hospital that UNC proposes is that they want interstate access. This is a NC project to attract children from all over state and it has to be very accessible on an Interstate highway (sorry Chatham County) I think it could land on some state land near Blue Ridge Road or Edwards Mills Rd. Or how big is the old Cary Town Mall site that Epic Games owns? Because one article I read a long time ago mentioned Cary.
This article from Business NC from 2023 says they are looking at 50-75 acres https://businessnc.com/unc-health-plans-to-build-2-billion-childrens-hospital/
The portion north of Tryon Road is 44 acres, and the developer hopes to build 350 to 500 townhouses and apartments. This is awesome news. This idea has been talked about for years in this forum, and it looks like it’s finally happening. Nice.
The small-format IKEAs still rely on a full-size IKEA nearby as the warehouse for order fulfillment.
Maybe it would be a good replacement for the not-happening Sports and Recreation Community Center at South Hills. I think it would be hilarious on the wedge of land the Martin family still owns behind the Best Buy at Crossroads; at 15 acres, it’s big enough, and it has the ideal combination of very high road visibility plus infuriatingly obscure road access that IKEA seems to love.
