We’re all in agreement that we need a lot more supply in downtown. Not much else to say really.
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This, but unironically. Keep building and let landlords compete for renters. Hopefully in 10 years or less all these expensive new apartments (Maeve, 400H, 511 Faye, The Line, Row, Forge, etc, etc) will be mid-market and by 20 years be naturally occurring affordable housing
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You are paying for the location. While $1257 is high and seems high. Especially for those that have a 4 percent or lower mortgage. Let us consider those who are trying to rent or buy in today’s market. Given the rising costs of gas and the ever high cost of buying and/or renting ANYTHING, a dump is going to cost you $1257 a month. Personally if I worked downtown, was single and that was my budget - I would rather have small than the alternative. It’s all perspective. At 94 percent vacancy rates, someone is biting on those rents.
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AI may be wrong but not far off. In Roanoke, VA, as of March 2026, the average rent for a roughly 1,000 sq ft unit typically falls within the $1,200–$1,400 range. sleepy?
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I am guessing that the average incomes are substantially lower than they are in Raleigh, and especially Wake. In NC, Wake has the highest median household incomes in the state of NC.
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Rents tend to converge near replacement cost, i.e., construction costs. That’s in keeping with the economic theory that prices tend to reflect the marginal cost of production.
And construction costs are high! As mentioned, this building sold at far below replacement cost.
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I’ll add that my place downtown is significantly smaller than my place was when I lived out down by crabtree. You’re 100% correct, you’re not paying for the size, but the location.
Driving is a big part of it. I walk to the gym, I have outdoor space and events in a number of locations, I never need to pay the huge service fees on delivery apps because I can walk to a restaurant and do pickup, and I don’t need to uber in and out of downtown on a night I’m a bit too inebriated.
Pretty much everything I want or need to do is in my immediate walking vicinity. And when I’m doing all of these things, I can quickly go back home if I have to go to the bathroom, get some medicine, get a snack, etc. All of it adds up pretty quickly if you want to live a more active life.
I delegate the space I’d otherwise want for some of those activities into the places I go to in my immediate vicinity.
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Yeah. Still insane. I will never not think this shit is insane lol
Downtown is getting a Westin!… from the Sheraton being bought, renovated, and rebranded.
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That’s great news! Always liked that Sheraton, but it undeniably feels dated. Some nice hotel brands coming to Raleigh over the next few years.
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Yeah agreed. It’s got a cool lobby but a Westin there plus the Omni is gonna be pretty nice. Good news!
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Renovation and conversion to a Westin is a definite plus. The property currently gets some bad reviews. The domestic Sheraton brand is hit-or-miss, whereas the Westin brand is uniformly good. I should add that international Sheratons and in particular Asian Sheratons are often quite nice.
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Now someone should buy the old Sir Walter Hotel building and renovate that into downtown’s first true luxury hotel.
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Keep dreaming! (I wish for this, too)
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First the building needs to be sold, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Right now the building has $0 assessed value per iMAPS. Who would sell that if they had it? I wouldn’t. iMAPS also shows that it’s held by an entity out of New York. While the city tries to find $$$ in tax revenue, we have a grand old hotel sitting there on prime “Main Street North Carolina” generating no revenue at all. For the city, it’s a very expensive virtue signal.
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Yeah, I am all for affordable housing obviously, we need much more of it. However, as you indicated as well, I don’t think utilizing this particular building for that purpose is the wisest financial decision for the city. Admittedly, I could be showing my ignorance here and not fully understanding the benefits.
Looks like it last sold in 2019 for $16.8M. I’d be curious what it would go for today, given that the Sheraton sold for half its assessed value.
Also, side note, how cool would it be to get the sign back atop the building? We need more of this type of thing in this city!
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Speaking of which, whatever happened to the speak-easy that was getting renovated in the basement?
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What a grand hotel in its heyday. It was originally built in 1924. For you all of architectural junkies (may be all of us, to some degree!), records indicate it is Neoclassical revival architecture which reinterprets Greek and Roman principles, emphasizing symmetry, simple geometric forms, and monumental columns (thanks Wikipedia!). I, too, would love to see this sold to a hotel developer who would turn it into a masterpiece again.
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Supposed to be opening this summer, according to this article from December 2025.
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At the end of the day, it’s nearly inexplicable what returning this hotel to its glory would do for the city’s brand recognition. Right now, the city honestly has very little brand identity outside of our immediate region. That isn’t to say that the Triangle doesn’t have a brand identity; it does. It’s just there’s very little brand identity for the city itself. We are like San Jose is to the Silicon Valley. Of those two, which has the bigger brand?
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