They have great stuff! In a similar vein, I got my living room chairs and dining room set from Keel & Co. on Capitol and love them. Beautifully restored.
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Oh LOOK, more over-saturated midcentury modern furniture 
Just not my style, but best wishes to the store’s success
I will say though, the photo of the wine bar in the corner of the furniture store reminds me of the beer den in the corner of Lowe’s Foods. The high number of shoppers in the middle of a grocery store drinking adult beverages is a trip, but just bizarre to me!
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The Keel-co duo are homies - super friendly couple that just loves what they do (not only do they source vintage furniture/decor/art, but they also re-upholster fabric pieces and refinish wood pieces). Love those two!
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Any Budleigh East updates? 
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Not much. They are still doing more exterior work on the (GIGANTIC) retirement community building(s), both cranes came down a while ago and there is no activity on the other sites.
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It is too bad they are not going taller here, though that delicate and connected neighborhood would probably melt down at the idea, lol. But perched on that high point, you’d have a fantastic view of downtown and North Hills.
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It’s no Gucci, but Audemars Piguet watches is setting up a new service center in Raleigh Iron Works. These things run for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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This is a very cool announcement! A high-profile luxury brand is investing $22 million and creating over 100 jobs. I know it is isn’t downtown, but I think RIW is a great project and the developers took care to preserve old buildings instead of scraping and building new. Very glad to see this go there.
I’m curious if they received any incentives.
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High praise from the CEO:
In a statement, CEO Francois-Henry Bennahmias said that “quality of life, schools, health care, culture and safe communities were the major considerations for our teams" when choosing Raleigh.
It also goes on to mention the RDU and the direct flight to Frankfurt next year played a role.
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That Frankfurt flight is going to open a lot of doors for sure.
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And I’m sure it’s helpful to them to also know that there are several other flights running on a frequent basis to Europe. Say the FRA flight is cancelled, there is 3 other flights available every day of the week during the summer (26 weekly flights to Europe). And then when you get to the winter season, that’s still 19 weekly flights to Europe. For comparison, Austin peaks at 15 weekly and goes down to 13 weekly.
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Not sure if the distribution center comes with a store but it’s great.
https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article283238888.html
$22 million investment (aka 30 watches) is nice to see.
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A $300k watch pairs perfectly with a beer from Ponysaurus and a sandwich from Eastcut. Definitely the right market…I don’t even wear a watch, so maybe I’m missing the draw. Here’s a better idea: every person that goes in there and plunks down that kind of money gets an Apple watch, a hug, and a card telling them that one homeless family now has an affordable house in Raleigh.
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Though well out of my price range, the fact they see Raleigh/RIW as a place highly skilled craftsmen want to live & work is, to my mind, fantastic.
But this tid bit is troubling: “… 63,000-square-foot real estate deal, the largest new-to-market office lease of the year so far in Raleigh.” Brings home what we all have sensed.
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Service center, not a store. Job creation, not selling fancy watches!
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But could I take my house-priced watch there for service? I thought an article I read about it mentioned sales people, customer service, etc. and just assumed. I guess if it’s essentially just another “office space” going in, I’m good with it. I was more confused why they thought that would be a good spot to sell watches to the ultra rich, vs. North Hills or…Miami.
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Just an fyi the normal retail price of an entry level AP is around $20-$30k. Their limited edition pieces are the ones that go for 6 figures. The article is fairly misleading. The secondary market for their watches also sell for way over retail prices. Their prices are very similar to other brands such as Rolex, Patek, Vacheron Constantin and A Lange Sohne. This is a huge win for Raleigh
The CEO of AP was just interviewed on Talking Watches and the video was posted today on Hodinkee. He doesn’t talk about Raleigh, but as a watch enthusiast it was interesting to hear him talk about their business.
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It’s interesting as Raleigh doesn’t have a pool of “watchmakers”… must be planning to either relocate people or bring the initial standup crew from Switzerland.
AP has been taking away distribution and consolidating into company controlled / run boutiques. They used to have an authorized dealer in Charlotte but pulled that probably ~7 years ago (ECJ Luxe I believe, which is now Diamonds Direct)? I highly doubt they’re opening a boutique here.
If SLI/Kane could pull that off - they’ve crossed a new threshold of real estate legend.
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I’m not complaining about this, as it has zero affect on my life whatsoever, but I do just have to say… there is absolutely zero reality where any g0d d@mn WRIST WATCH is worth TWENTY THOUSAND U.S. AMERICAN DOLLARS 
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