Welp, good guess…
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Nice building, but don’t get too attached. This will have to go if/when SEHSR ever gets built. I am totally fine with this sort of renovation and adaptive reuse for the interim, since it may be a while.
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Any clue if/when they might move forward with extending West south under the tracks past the train station?
It’s still in the planning phases and in funding hell, it’s probably years away. Just silly to me that they didn’t do it in conjunction with Union Station but I understand there was an issue with commingling funding.
That’s what I heard, too (probably in here somewhere). It’s going to be a sticking point to the continuity of that new development south of the tracks and the more mature warehouse district now. It’s in everyone’s best interest as I see it to get that ball rolling.
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Yeah the developers even call it a long term hold opportunity. Definitely going to get redeveloped one day
That developer seems to be in the business of buying these older, sometimes oddball buildings and making use of them with minor renos, in order to hold them for the medium term, while making some money until the big payday in the future when they are sold for redevelopment.
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I’ll be curious if it will be worth it for them when the NCDOT eventually comes knocking. You would think they did their due diligence.
I think that they are hedging their bets that HSR will take decades to actually happen. They have other small properties on the other side of Peace on West.
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If NCDOT does build HSR, which I hope they do, they will have to pay fair market price.
Basically the same thing goes for every building along the west side of West Street from Jones all the way up to Wade Avenue. I suspect that is a big reason why we’re not seeing much new construction at the moment and mostly renovations instead.
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Really…everything crammed in between Peace and Wade too? There’s been a ton of upfit in there. The buildings themselves aren’t super important but the whole area has got a good tech job scene now and spreads the routine of a downtown vibe out into that corner pretty nicely.
Missing an opportunity here by not razing the entire lot and building 50 stories.
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Words are cheap. It’s easy to complain about Raleigh’s lack of tall buildings, how our developers or council have no vision, etc. If think you can do better than the developers who are investing their own time and money on projects that make downtown a better place, by all means go ahead and make it happen yourself. (But not on this spot, please, since that would block high speed rail.) If you feel that council is the problem, run for office yourself or help get someone elected who shares your visions.
But dismissive unrealistic comments like this add nothing to the conversation.
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My comment was tongue in cheek.
Beep boop, sarcasm detector malfunction, beep boop…
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Yeah that was a big /s 
FWIW I would have knocked off the southern wing of that building and punched Lane across the tracks to it’s nub off Glenwood. The old garage bay front portion is the cool part and I’d keep that for something like a comic book shop or something else to balance out the blue back lit barscape on Glenwood.
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Here, here! And speaking of said barscape, the DevBot is telling us that a site review for renovations of the Vickers & Ruth space has been submitted for…a bar/nightclub. Womp womp.
Also, random side note, but has anyone else noticed that Google streetview of Glenwood South was taken in the dark?
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I guess they’re eager to get this started with the rezoning request to 40 stories.
Couple interesting items
“The applicant anticipates ground-level retail entrances to be located primarily along W Johnson Street and N Harrington Street”
Also had no idea this was a building top requirement.
“42. Flat roof buildings should have decorative parapets with elements such as detailed cornices, corbeling, applied medallions, or other similar architectural treatments.”
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It’s easy to imagine an at grade entrance on Johnson to sandwiched parking levels, with retail below it and offices/residences above it. That’s essentially the PNC tower model repeated. At the full 40 floors, I’d expect that its prominence would be similar to PNC since this site sits at one of the very lowest points of downtown while PNC sits ~90 ft. higher in elevation.
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