It’s either that or my serious love for the underdog.
While everyone 
s over all the rezonings on the west side, which we’ve talked about, I’m now thinking about Fayetteville Street/Moore Square and parts east. Consider:
- The first BRT line will be on the east side, connecting to Moore Square Station, basically Fayetteville Street
- I’ve always kept hearing about a Marbles expansion. After that 40-actually-30 story rezoning, a mixed-use dev could go there along with that expansion. Marbles contributes a lot of ped traffic to downtown.
- Everyone was in love with Fayetteville Street when the Sites 2/3 renderings were dropped remember? You’ll fall hard once again, if that actually happens.
- The Nexus may surprise us after their 40-story rezoning is approved.
(public hearing March 1) - The Raleigh Convention Center and performing arts center have been muted for almost 2 years now. It should start to pick up as the pandemic fades. What’s different though? More hotel rooms are available compared to 2020 as the hotel building has actually picked up.
The real question mark is the high density office space around Fayetteville Street. What will happen? Will workers go back? I say yes but in a different way. Instead of, I’m making up numbers here, 30,000 employees across 250 companies in downtown, our new future could be 30,000 employees across 1,000 companies. That diversity in business culture could be fantastic in terms of offering a mix of brands and diverse uses for all that office space. That’s business dynamism right there.
…or not. 
(but fun to think about)