I’m not okay until my lumpy skyline needs protein shakes to stay alive.
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I agree, the density and street experience will bring people in, which will encourage more growth, it is a cycle. That said, I love how much residential is going in. And a grocery store as well? That will encourage more apartment and condo buildings in the area.
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Ok ok now seeing all of the plans for this block I can get behind it more. I thought we were talking about just 1 15 story tower. This actually looks amazing if it comes to fruition. Almost looks like a mini city within the city. And it looks like grocery? That’s awesome. My only hope now is that they actually start quickly because I imagine it will take years to actually build what the rendering shows. If the office building says they expect it open in 2021, it seems like surely they must be ground breaking soon.
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Although the architecture is not really noteworthy, the site strategy is actually pretty great. The parking is pulled to the interior of the site, so you don’t experience a dead facade from the street; it’s almost enclosed. I don’t know of any other building downtown that does this.
Breaking the mass up into separate buildings also helps bring the complex to more of a human scale and is an opportunity to introduce variety into the design of an entire city block. The pedestrian pass-through helps even more with this. I think the result will be an improved pedestrian experience, and I much prefer that to someone building a podium over the entire site and slapping a 40 story tower on top. It would be great if one of these towers was taller, but I understand that it’s a massive development already.
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So there are going to be 100+ condos, 300+ apartments, and 200+ Hotel rooms. Lets say 1.5 people per unit, give or take, at 90% occupancy and we are looking at 810 people living at this complex in some way. Then add another 800 - 1000 workers in the office. This project is going to bring a ton of people down town, not even including the 80,000+ of retail.
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The inevitable “size queen hand-wringing”, “at least we’re getting density” will commence. Doesn’t change the fact that Durham, a city with half the population in its core… in the same metro area, can build taller. Or that Raleigh itself had several projects on the docket that were 400+’ before 2008, and this was when Raleigh’s downtown was much weaker and more of a gamble.
The financial crisis did not stop other cities from getting 20-30 floor buildings once things picked up again. So what happened to Raleigh? To me it still looks primarily like a matter of policy.
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I’m supposing that the tiny little existing building in the bottom right of the rendering is Death & Taxes?
I just wrote it down as a blog post idea to reflect on but a dream of mine seems to be coming together. (or maybe a planner planted that seed in my brain) Walking from Moore Square to Nash Square through plazas and walkways seems to be coming together.
Moore Square → GoRaleigh Station → Exchange Plaza → ??? → Nexus Property ped plaza → Nash Square
If the COR Museum gets moved to the new municipal campus then the Briggs building could be turned into a small vendors, pop-up retail kind of space as it has doors on Salisbury and Fayetteville Street. This could make for a real nice stroll that’s very unique for a downtown and adds lots of character.
I’ll keep dreaming but the pieces are coming into place.
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Wow, awesome project! With 325K sq of office space, this will be the largest office tower in DTR since 1991!
People, that’s 25 YEARS since an office project this large has been built in the Triangle. It’s larger than anything in North Hills (the two big towers there each are around 270K sf of office space) and larger than any office tower in Durham: One City Center; 130K sf office; University Tower; 185K sf).
This new tower is bringing it!!
2021 ‘N&O Office Tower’ 325K sf office
2008 PNC Tower 279K sf office + 139 condos
1991 Two Hannover Square (BB&T) 433K sq office
1990 Wells Fargo Tower 544K sq office
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Yes, with one of the entrances to parking deck going behind the old Father and Son.
Is there underground parking? Am I missing it?
Huge parking garage under the office building section.
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I think Red Hat is like 360k sf, but that is slightly different since it is one company, not multi-tenant office.
I think that 90% is optimistic for hotel occupancy rates. Average hotel occupancy rate for Raleigh more like 70% as far as I’m aware, and tend to be used mostly by business travelers staying by themselves. (400 condos/apts * 1.5 occupants * 90%) + (200 hotel rooms * 1 occupant * 70%) gives us 680.
680 people is still a huge addition though (and maybe some of my math/assumptions are wrong).
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The entrance ramps for parking look really, really bad though. Can’t they build even a one story or two story annex on top? Looks like just a big gap there.
Negative. Red Hat Tower (formerly Progress Tower 2) is just 250K sf.
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I wanted to say I agree with another post of yours, in the Apple expansion thread, about these buildings. All of these buildings starting construction spec are going to give Fortune 500 and various tech companies a lot of options.
I amlso would not be surprised if one of these turns into Redhat tower 2
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Parking is about 50% underground (2 levels @ 331 spaces per level + 1 partially below grade @ 193 spaces), and 50% above. (8 levels @ 64 spaces per). It looks like underground parking is entered from Hargett Street, and above ground is entered from Salisbury.
@Francisco, the gap looks pretty minor to me. The loading dock is next to the ramp. I’m not too worried about it.
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This is one heck of a site ! These responses are unbelievable ! Thanks Again Leo !
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This says 353k sf, but either way your point stands that the Nexus office will be one of the biggest built in dt in a while.
https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article214225089.html
On to other points, i really like that they are planning four separate towers instead of one with a massive base.
I’m not usually to hung up on height, but more floors would be nice in this location. That being said, this will obviously be a huge improvement. Can anyone tell if any of the retail will open on to Martin St, or just the interior plaza?
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