Saw this project when taking the DRX out of Durham today for a meeting. Seemed like a cool infill project and reminded me a lot of the townhomes along New Bern. Note these range from $430-$975k https://www.thegrovedurham.com
Rezoning request to build 10 townhomes on the corner of Boyer and Tarboro St. More projects like this are needed in this area especially since 5 Horizons won’t be building there 80+ one bedroom condos/townhomes anymore.
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What happened to that project???
What a disappointment.
All 4 of their previous properties planned for development are now up for sale.
I was looking forward to these lining New Bern along the BRT line.
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Interesting. That’s still a rough corner. As far as I know all of the flop houses with regular crime are confined to the area between St Augs campus and New Bern. There are two brand new houses on Boyer just west of this site and they are not getting any looks because there were so many ladies selling themselves next door.
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New activity at 625 New Bern Ave. A crew installed barrier today. Hopefully this is the start of the residential condo project announced some time ago! Sorry about the crappy pictures.
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@Stew I’m curious about that big, undeveloped plot of land directly across the street. The address is 600 New Bern Avenue, and it’s an area that was called Sewell Grove being annexed by the City of Raleigh around 1891. Looking at a Sanborn map from 1914, there was a large residence at 800 New Bern Ave (now demolished) with a large undeveloped surrounding property.
The current owner is listed as WoodPile LLC which is associated with former Exploris Chairman Gordon Smith III, who reacquired it from Vintage21 Church, and before that the Raleigh Rescue Mission. Can’t tell if WoodPile had to originally sell it off when the real estate market tanked in the 2000’s with them going in/out of bankruptcy. Anyway, it is is 6 acres of undeveloped land which was partitioned off to create Exploris Elementary School. There appears to be no historical covenant restrictions while sitting straddle between New Bern and Edenton. It just seems to scream, ‘Develop me!’
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I have been wondering what might become of that parcel for the better part of a decade as I live right around the corner. I suppose the delay in getting a development off the ground has only served to improve what might be feasible there eventually. Once Exploris moves to their new location I’d imagine something significant will take place soon thereafter.
A portion of the parcel you are referring to is within the New Bern-Edenton NCOD (Neighborhood Overlay District) which will likely encumber the development to some extent. This article provides good information about the NCOD and issues pertaining to it. You might recognize the author …
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@Stew Thanks. I didn’t know the backstory on this parcel, so the quick update was greatly appreciated. I have driven by this on a weekly basis for over 10 years and wondered why it hadn’t been filled in.
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Heard from an exploris parent that there is a delay in their relocation / new build. Just FYI. Had been wondering what happened to that project, it was an energy positive building they were proposing, very cool.
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I just hope it’s not a permanent delay 
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I read not that long ago who owned that large house that was there (there was a second later house on the eastern edge of the plot too with a stone garage). It was one of those recurring Raleigh names. Seawell’s house was on the St Augs campus (called the St Augs Tavern deep in the NC archives on Flickr). The remains of the cemetery are on Hill St. I think Seawells grove was all north of New Bern.
If interested to take a look, anther large plantation house sat in Roberts Park (the Parrish estate and later the Gatlins owned it, Gatlin St being the estate’s old entrance drive) and the cemetery still sits in the NW corner of the park surrounded by a granite wall similar to the Seawell’s. Anyway, I’ll reply again if I can find the piece on who owned the Woodpile land.
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Because based on the 1914 Sanborn map, 800 New Bern Avenue was a substantial sized house with surrounding property (and an old Hill’s Directory indicating the owner possibly being Dr. Ivan Marriott Proctor, Jr., Obstetrician, who joined the medical staff of Mary Elizabeth Hospital after World War I. He was apparently the director of cancer services of the North Carolina Board of Health at one time.)
…
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Sorry I had my structures backwards. The stone garage is with the house you’ve centered on. Its clearly a lot cut out from a bigger piece of land and with its hex bay window probably late 1870’s, early 1880’s in age. I was thinking of the older building with the ‘19’ over it. I don’t think that was the Cotton estate though I have read Cotton St is named after the Cotton family. Still working on figuring out who originally owned that house, which I think is antebellum.
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Well, I’m guessing that the next house in question would be 900 New Bern Avenue. Based on the 1915 Hill’s Directory, Nathaniel A Dunn and his family lived there. He was the owner of the Oak City Steam Laundry as well as being a auditor with the Mutual Publishing Company while also being a member of First Baptist Church on Salisbury Street. That house was demolished with the estate being extensively subdivided. The much smaller structure at the same address was built in 1920. But, it could have been Cotton estate.
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So do I. Thanks for all this historical info folks!!
I also heard their costs have come down significantly because of advancements in solar technology. A silver lining in the delay
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What I’ll be curious to see is what happens to this site, down the street…
Yup, the NC DMV site was once the ‘Old Soldier’s Home’ which is appropriate being up the road from the Raleigh National Cemetery.
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I don’t see a much smaller structure…do you mean what is 1010 on the Sanborn (914 currently)
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