Would love to see an Eataly somewhere on Fayetteville St
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I absolutely second @OakCityDylan’s idea for the “mini-mall” of sorts. I’ve been wanting something like this ever since I visited the (much much smaller) Williamsburg Mini-Mall in Brooklyn: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-mini-mall-williamsburg?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
The Mini Mall - Google Search
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Really? I kind of like it.
I think it’s going to be a bit of a wildcard. Empire Properties really does seem to prioritize local companies when they’re handing out leases. So, the mini-mall idea or some sort of local business incubator doesn’t seem like it would be off the table. Either way, I’m looking forward to it!
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see also: https://unionmarketdc.com/
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Looks perfect for something like Mast General Store. They love to have stores in locations like Fayetteville Street.
They have opened a new store in a new city about every four years since 1988, most recently 2020 in Roanoke - so they are about due for another one.
They are a destination retailer with quite a bit of drawing power. The shopping experience is fun, and they sell interesting and useful (if somewhat kitschy and overpriced) stuff. If they can make it work in cities like Columbia or Winston-Salem, then I am sure they can make it work in Raleigh.
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WAY too big a space just for that, IMO. And I’d so much rather see something different and more original, here. Hell - even a Raleigh location of Meow Wolf interactive art exhibits would CRUSH.
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Loved Mast General Store when I lived in Greenville. DTR needs one.
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Mast is 20k square feet each in Asheville and Knoxville, 21k in Columbia, and 15k in Winston-Salem.
Not sure the size of their other locations, but
this building is about 10k square feet per level, 30k total. I think it is pretty much exactly the right size.
DT Raleigh needs some actual retail - not just more bars, restaurants, and food halls.
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Meow Wolf would be so damn cool here. Seconding this.
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What’s the difference between Meow Wolf and those TikTok / Insta “museums” for teenagers to take pictures in?
I’ve only seen a few pics of Meow Wolf in New Mexico and it looked pretty similar.
I’ve never been, but I’ll paraphrase what a friend who has been to two of them said:
- Las Vegas was really cool. You start out in a fake grocery store with fake products that looks otherwise like a normal grocery store, and then each subsequent room you enter gets weirder and weirder and a “story” kind of reveals itself. The whole thing is tied together and there’s one unifying theme throughout.
- Santa Fe was a bit of a letdown after the LV one. Each individual room looked neat, but they didn’t really relate to one another. It felt more like an art gallery moving between individual separate pieces of art, rather than one big, strange, colorful journey through the whole place.
Tl;dr: Santa Fe’s is more of an “insta museum”, and Las Vegas’s is more of a “psychedelic escape room”.
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We have/had one of those on Fayetteville St. Not sure if it’s still there. I’d be surprised. I think you maybe need to go overboard like a Meow Wolf to attract vs just a place to go to take selfies.
I did some research and looks like it’s closed: https://www.yelp.com/biz/original-selfie-museum-raleigh
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I’d take a Mast General Store over an Instagram museum any day
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I’d prefer an Eataly or Union Market style market, so that multiple entrepreneurs have a chance to open stores here. However, Mast General would also be nice and could build Raleigh’s “southern” city brand.
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Any updates on this?? 
I am going to be honest here. I would take about anything of REASONABLE economic value here to get this street started on the right path. In my mind there is potential here but the longer it sits in oblivion the longer it sits here in oblivion. The street fairs are the best thing to happen to Fayetteville Street to liven it up but just think what it could be if this were more of a daily/weekly thing rather than once every few months. Just dreaming over here…
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Oh you and I are absolutely in agreement, here. My example of the Union Market in D.C. is actually (IMO) on the right track for this building because Union Market, while sure it has plenty of food and drink options, also has a ton of local/small business retail scattered among the food and drink options, the latter of which likely beefs up visitation of the former.
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Clearly things are changing as the city is looking for a consultant to realize the new street improvement plan. Plus there are many new developments including this one bringing new retail spaces.
This street is no longer being left behind.
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