Downtown Cary to get their newest tallest building yet: an incredible 6 floors.
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Gala Investments has filed new site plans for The Franklin, a 7-story condo building that would be the tallest building downtown at more than 70 feet. The Franklin will be at 214 S. Walker St.
Itâll have 40 for-sale condos with prices from $375,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $715,000 for a three-bedroom unit. The pricing is on the same level as the new townhome-style condos, Walker Row, under construction near the park and library at 413 S. Walker St. and pictured here:
At seven stories, The Franklin will be one story taller than The Walker, a luxury apartment community on the other side of the park. The building would be 73-feet tall and have 10 one-bedroom units, 20 two-bedroom units and 10 three-bedroom units.
One-bedroom units at The Franklin will be 750 square feet while the larger two-bedroom units will be 1,230 square feet and three-bedroom units 1,430 square feet.
There will be a private rooftop terrace for the condo owners, and the first floor will have 2,500 square feet of retail space that Gala envisions a cafe-type business or coffee shop leasing. He said La Farm Bakery is his first choice and they seem open to having a space there.
The development plan is still in the site review process with the town, but they hope to break ground in August 2025 with a 24-month construction timeline.
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40 condos on 0.39 acres. Nice density. These and others directly adjacent to the park will always be pricey, but it does provide some competition to the townhomes and other condos on the park that will be 5-10 years older than these units.
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That building will have about 30k sf of retail space, and the residential tower will house another 20k around its base.
Holy crap!! 
Per JLL, 400 South Tryon in Charlotte is slated to be demolished. This tower was built in 1974 and used to house First Union (and later Wachovia). It currently stands as the 20th-tallest building in NC, but is mostly vacant and has struggled to compete with newer office space since Covid hit. The floorplates make it extremely challenging to convert to residential.
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From the shape of those window, the only residential that would make sense would be a jail.
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Make way for a better development, I hope. Wouldnât mind if One Progress Plaza in Raleigh shared the same fate eventually.
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Seems like they could remove all the windows and precast panels and put new cladding and windows. The tower in Asheville went through a project like that recently.
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Speaking of CaryâŚ.Craneâs are going up and shall be a thing going forward for some time at least. Raleigh copy cats. LOL>
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Sorta look like cranettes. And dont they need to be tan to conform?
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And people online are losing their minds. Poor Cary losing all its historic small-town charm 
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Lol, downtown Cary isnât going to look like a strip mall anymore, heaven forbid. It might actually have a âthereâ there, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein.
For a town as wealthy as Cary, Chatham Street is a shockingly unattractive main drag.
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I worked for the Town of Cary many moons ago in the Planning Department and the powers that be strived to have that wonderful downtown feel like - wait for it - APEX NC - so it looks like we have moved perhaps beyond that and dare I say to something a little more contrived. And I hate to say this. Because I used to live in Cary and actually really like many things about CaryâŚbut I digress. It just seems to be a little like mini Disneylandish?? And some of you may disagree but it isnât really an organic town. CARY IS TRYING TOO HARD. As usual Sigh. Grump Cat emoji.
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I mean⌠Apex has a nice downtown. Thatâs a decent starting goal.
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That main drag of Chatham St is at least getting better, and Academy St especially with the park is also improving. But I completely agree. I used to go basically for Bond Bros, but now thereâs actually stuff there, which is nice. It just cracks me up how people have such subjective nostalgia for things that arenât great. Like maybe in 1980 downtown Cary was cool, I really donât know, but 10 years ago it looked like crap. Almost all of the good thatâs there now has come about because of new things. And some people just hate it. 
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Canât remember the last time I was in downtown Cary. Itâs been years. It has potential to be something a lot better. But the rest of Cary is a hopeless mess of car oriented sprawl and manicured neighborhoods. And I think that exactly what most folks that live there want. So it wonât ever change.
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Yeah, itâs like The Woodlands in Texas or Irvine in California. It is what it is. Lots of people want that, even if Iâd die of boredom.
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I agree. Cary sucks and so does that ridiculous park.
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where did all this cary downtown park bashing come from? it is objectively a huge asset for that town. theyâve fit so many cool features in a space barely bigger than moore square and itâs always packed with people. why are we jealous? we can literally go there.
i swear once dix park is built out people on this board will find endless things wrong with it. let cool things happen!
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Iâm not jealous of that park and its fake grass and silly wooden birds.
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