Correct, my point being why doesn’t Kane also push for a ~20-story here? MAXIMIZE the density for F’s sake!
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Extremely unlikely, I’d say? That is not a home run spot for residential, a couple blocks removed from Dix, and right next to South Saunders. Not impossible, mind you, but if they couldn’t pull off high-rise for the first two phases I’m less optimistic about the potential in phase three.
But hold on; I’m going to take this one in a different direction:
I think the absolute best play for the city there would involve a grocery store and possibly, though not necessarily, a few stories of apartments above.
- The closest standard grocery store is the Publix at Peace, over 1.5 miles away, on thr opposite side of downtown. Everything else is at least 2 miles’ drive. (Sam’s Club is a bit closer but not quite the same thing. Weaver Street, also closer but different in a different way.)
- Massive new residential neighborhood coming online with the potential for lots of further growth.
- Kane is the only developer to ever build mixed use urban format grocery stores in Raleigh. (HT @ North Hills, Publix @ Peace, even Weaver Street @ The Dillon.) If it were anybody else other than Kane, I wouldn’t even suggest it as a possibility. But now it almost can’t help but be mentioned.
- It fills a market niche. There are currently zero upmarket grocers (Harris Teeter, Publix, Whole Foods, Wegmans) in that direction from downtown. There are Walmarts, Food Lions, and the closest thing is the (overpriced, mid-market) Lowe’s Foods. You have to get halfway to Fuquay to the south, or out past Clayton to the southeast, before you reach the first Teeter or Publix.
- The above can probably be explained by demographics (this part of the county doesn’t have the high-income households these grocers typically seek out) but this is the perfect spot with direct access to and from southbound South Saunders to catch people headed south from downtown on the way home to the burbs, so in addition to the more affluent downtown residents, it can double as a regional destination rather than a neighborhood grocer.
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There’s no chance Whole Foods would build this close to Wade Ave, especially since that store is in dire need of expansion and renovations already. Wegmans couldn’t even handle the Fenton because the Triangle is already “over served” by their current locations. I doubt Publix would want another spot downtown. They’re not Marriott after all, where we need one every 3 blocks. I think Harris Teeter would make a lot of sense, though, since the Village District one is a completely different area. Just trying to think through the options…
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I like the idea. Would a grocery store fit? Pod C site is only ~52,800 sf. The Publix/Peace building footprint is 76,000 sf (not including the parking deck).
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I’m not sure. I bet it could work, but it would be a small-to-medium format store, and a tight fit requiring some creativity at that. The HT at North Hills is 48ksf, partly on a 2nd level, for example.
Question is whether a grocer (most likely HT, apparently) would have the appetite for this sort of thing here or not.
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That means hardie board.
I just came to type…Aldi… 
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This isn’t the right thread but it’s a related to this topic… isn’t there going to be a big retail space in The Weld Phase 2 residential building?
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I do not believe the Publix at Peace is hitting their projections and they are weary of another location downtown. Harris Teeter wants to be downtown again to control market share. I don’t see HT wanting to go into this project, maybe a specialty like Fresh Market.
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Too lazy to look for it but I believe that in the article in which Kane debuted this new iteration of the Phase II building as a 6/7 story rather than the 20 story building that they were pursuing at the time they also mentioned that Phase III would be more of the same. Not set in stone but the Phase III lot is so small they would need to put the parking somewhere else to do anything over 7.
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Kane does build urban grocery stores and his Harris Teeter at North Hills was one of the first full size urban format stores in NC including yes Charlotte. However Charlotte has both urban locations in mixed use developments featuring a Trader Joes with condos above, a Whole Foods with apartments above and we are getting a new Sprouts in a mid rise apartment building. Sprouts would be a great fit on the southside of downtown and their size approximately 21-25K sq ft fits better there. Here is where this new urban Sprouts is going in Charlotte Grocery store Sprouts is opening in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood in 2025: Rendering - Axios Charlotte
I guess we are talking about the Weld son of Kane’s project a Sprouts would work there too but with any grocery store you have to have public parking spaces available and plan for that.
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Doing a cursory glance from Google Maps: this area is ripe for a grocery store. I wonder if Trader Joes or Aldi would be the better fit here. They both have smaller store sizes compared to HT, and they both have their distinct audience of shoppers. Trader Joes has only one Raleigh location, but two more in Cary. Does that dilute the potential here? And what of Aldi, or even Sprouts?
To that point, I don’t know if Harris Teeter should go here only because it doesn’t feel like their usual market area. And dear god anything but Food Lion please.
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That is why the closest upmarket grocers are all either on the other side of downtown, or 5+ miles away to the south or west. But perhaps that actually means there is a gap. There is not a single grocery store fancier than Lowes Foods in all of Garner, for example.
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Second Trader Joe’s will be opening in a few months in Brennan Station (Creedmoor Rd next to Towne North shopping center).
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Meanwhile poor Durham continues to wait…
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According to the Triangle Food Blog, “Willow House Coffee, previously a mobile coffee shop, will open a permanent location at the intersection of Lake Wheeler Road and S. Saunders. No word on a timeline.” I assume this is the ground floor of the Rockaway apartments?
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Their instagram says the address will be 1004 S Saunders which would put them in the older building opposite of Rockway. Good find and glad some good coffee is coming into the area!
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It’s the old cleaners on the corner…Should be a good spot eventually although there’s some fun opportunities for ingress / egress car / people/ bike shenanigans at that intersection now (notwithstanding the future roundabout construction…)
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I wish them well and hope they’re able to bring in a lot of money in order to afford a new location within 5-10 years. This area is going to look a lot different 10 years from now.
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Yet NIMBYs killed a 30 story residential tower across the street which would have given them hundreds of more walkable customers.
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