Edison: reinventing itself.
So I figured if I couldn’t find the time to post about one of the biggest potential non-government sponsored projects in downtown Raleigh’s history, then I probably wouldn’t be able to find the time to post for anything. So the parcel formerly known as Progress North and currently known as The Edison is going to be upsized (I’m not sure if upsized is a real word or not, I’ve never really needed to use it in describing a project in Raleigh 
) So the original plans called for a ~38 story tower and a ~24 story tower and a central parking deck. The New plans call for each of those towers to have twins, giving the block 2 39 story towrs and 2 29 story towers. These tower would contain offices, residential, hotel and ground level retail (how is that for mixed use!) The towers will be built in phases between 2010 and 2018, with the first possibly being completed in ‘12. It looks as though RBC’s reign at the top of Raleigh’s skyline will be a short one!
Comments(2)Beginning of October Roundup
Just a quick update on some developments downtown over the past couple weeks.
The Hillsborough aka The Raleigh aka The Reynold’s project. This tower has a new name and once again a new plan. The most current plan is for a 23 story building split between 17,500 sq. ft of retail, 136 hotel rooms and 26 condos. While it is disappointing to see this building stripped of office space and downsized, it should still have a nice street level impact for that area of downtown. Hopefully more development and residents will follow it!
Campbell Law School Campbell Law School will be relocating its campus to downtown Raleigh. The Adrian Wiggins School of Law will relocate to 225 Hillsborough Street (Hillsborough Place) and should open its doors in the Fall of 2009. The move will bring 350 law students to downtown.
Upgrades/Updates
Site is currently being upgraded/updated. The site will remain up during the update, but sections may be closed for a bit. Sorry for any inconvenience!
- The Maps section is back up
- Still working on the image gallery, hopefully up some time this weekend
Clarence Lightner Public Safety Center
This is a project that has been known of for a while, but more information is coming out. The Clarence Lightner Public Safety Center will be the future home of administrative personnel for Raleigh’s Fire and Police departments. Additionally the building may house some other city offices. Preliminary plans call for a 15 story building with 260,000 sq ft of office space. The building will be built next to the Avery C. Upchurch government complex on Hargett Street (Site currently occupied by a police station). More information as it becomes available.
Thoughts about the project so far
I’m a little disappointed with the size. In my opinion Raleigh really needs to take this opportunity to build a true city hall that holds all city offices. While its great that Raleigh stepped in to occupy One Exchange Plaza, its time to consolidate all the city offices. Also at the rate that Raleigh is growing city government is only going to expand. This building should probably be bumped up about 5-10 stories of office space AND incorporate at least a few levels of parking.
Overall this would free up another parcel adjacent to Nash Square. Also if Raleigh what’s an “iconic” building a 25 story building in this location would REALLY stand out on the skyline.
Refreshing . . . .
So a database is only as good as the data it contains. So I think its about time I went through the site and updated projects. So as the projects are updated, I’ll list them here to indicate that the data is current.
- Convention Center *updated anticipated date of completion
- Convention Center Hotel *updated floors and date of completion
- Quorum Center *Updated status and address
- Paramount *Updated address
- West at North *Updated status
Raleigh Wide Open II
Downtown Raleigh was abuzz this weekend with Raleigh Wide Open II, a basketball tournament and a movie in Moore Square. I didn’t get a chance to get downtown until late at night, and by that time I was in full “photographing fireworks mode”. Every account that I’ve heard is that it was a great success and a great experience. So I’ll leave you all with this picture and feel free to comment with your expereiences about Raleigh Wide Open II!
Progress at Progress North
Official news that the block bounded by Davie, Wilmington, Blount and Martin streets will be the site of a new project called the Edison. The Edison, being developed by Gregg Sandreuter and Cherokee Investment Partners will have two tower components (tentatively of 38 and 24 stories) and a central parking deck with 1,242 spaces. The parking deck will feature a green roof and will serve these towers and RBC plaza. The taller tower will be split between condos and hotels, while the second tower will be mostly office. It is hoped that ground breaking on the parking deck will start in October of this year and will be completed in 2009 along with RBC plaza. The towers probably wouldn’t start construction until around 2009. Additional information coming later.
Updates are coming (really this time)
I admit it’s been a while since the last update. I’ve been putting off the update because there is so much to do, but at the same time putting it off just made the update larger. So over the next few weeks the goal is to get information updated on all the projects and to add in any missing projects. I’ll post any changes on the front page though so that you don’t have to go hunting for new information.
Keep checking back!
Technical difficulties
Unplanned server outage at the beginning of the weekend, but everything (except the gallery) is back up. Hopefully that’ll be back soon as well as with a few updates of some projects.