FIXING RALEIGH'S DOWNTOWN DIVIDE - 10 BIG IDEAS

Currently referred to as the Great Divide, there is a large part of downtown that feels very segmented as Glenwood South and the Warehouse Districts take off in popularity and development, and the Core is left behind.

Let’s take a look at what Raleigh has in store to solve this emerging problem.  And this plan wasn’t developed in a vacuum.  The consultant team conducted a variety of interviews, focus groups, and online surveys to see what Raleigh residents themselves want out of downtown.

And the results showed consistency amongst the following big ideas:  Re-design Fayetteville St, and City Plaza, connect downtown to a broader greenway system, make downtown’s major through-fares greener and more pedestrian friendly, bring more housing to the core, create a bold connection to Dix Park, possibly move the prison for a new downtown investment like a sports stadium, and improve transit options to connect downtown.

To accomplish this, Raleigh came up with its’ 10 BIG Ideas, and we will briefly cover Raleigh’s plans to address each of them.

#1 – Fayetteville Street Streetscape

The first strategy is to energize the downtown core to bring more people downtown. 

This will start with creating a streetscape design for Fayetteville Street, which is seen to be at the core of all of this, where the aim is to make Fayetteville St the “Main Street” of Raleigh. 

The sidewalks will be better organized and designed for increased utilization, dedicating additional space for outdoor dining, bench swings, shade structures, and even lawn games.  And the throughways between buildings will also be repurposed into flex spaces, vendor stalls, and particular ones will be targeted to create more grand entrances to Fayetteville Street.

They will also be ramping up the greenery and the lighting, looking for opportunities to add string lighting on and between trees, across the road, and more to light up the area and give it a more festive look at night.

City Plaza will receive a face lift with a re-design for better visibility, more flexible play space, greenery, and art work.  

And they will look to maximize the convention center expansion, new Red Hat Amphitheater, and Omni Hotel to create an entertainment and arts district in the southern part of downtown.

#2 – Create Iconic Art

The second strategy is to elevate public art to celebrate Raleigh and North Carolina as a whole.  Raleigh wants to create some iconic, must-see pieces of artwork in several key areas of downtown to include the Black Business District, City Plaza, and Halifax Mall.  

But beyond that, they are looking to use smaller-scale artwork to line key streets and corridors, and bring smaller but more frequent entertainment acts to various areas throughout downtown.  The goal is to be seen as the creative center of Raleigh.

#3 – Create Defined Districts

The third strategy is all about better serving the retail spaces, and the main goal here is to create more defined districts with specific themes that will be designed and decorated to make logistical sense for the merchants, and make the districts visually enticing.  

These districts include a neighborhood goods and services districts that will be located near the most heavily populated areas for resident’s everyday convenience, a shopping and dining district that will focus on a higher-end experience of chef-driven restaurants, destination bars, and stylish shopping spaces.  

The City Market itself, which is a cute cobblestone lined street space in the middle of downtown, will include business that showcase more of Raleigh’s creative, small business owners, as well as rejuvenate the event space.  

The restaurant and bar district will be where the nightlife is, which will be located along Glenwood South and Person Street and include vibrant nightlife locations and a variety of unique restaurants.

And the arts and entertainment district will be on the southern end of downtown to include the Convention and Performing Arts center, with the goal of having a wide variety of art, entertainment, dining and shopping options.

Before moving into the fourth strategy, if you have any real estate needs in the greater Raleigh area, we have one of the top real estate teams in the Triangle and would love to help you!  And please like the video and subscribe to help support the channel!

#4 – Grow Technology and Innovation Sector

The fourth strategy involves growing the technology and innovation sector of downtown through links to local tech groups, and most importantly, local colleges and universities, especially the neighboring NC State.  Beyond looking at increased partnerships and technology centered events in downtown, Downtown Raleigh is also looking at creating a science lab and even adding an actual campus downtown that can be used by local colleges.  

#5 – Become Creative Design Center of Raleigh

Strategy number five is to position Downtown Raleigh as the Creative and Design Center of the Triangle through a number of ideas similar to creating a technology and innovation presence.  

Downtown Raleigh will spotlight the industry by hosting events, targeted branding of itself, work with the industry to create visual representations in key locations throughout downtown, maintain a variety of buildings typically desired by design firms, like more historic, 2 to 3 story buildings, and also work with the local universities and colleges to showcase student work.

#6 – Empower MWOB

The sixth strategy involves expanding the capacity of the Minority and Women Owned Businesses to expand their presence downtown.  This will be achieved through first, establishing a strong partnership with key businesses and organizations, and funding new partnerships to encourage more of a downtown presence to make it more financially feasible for these businesses.  They will also be looking at developing more attractive loans for this group as well.

And like the previous two strategies, establishing key relationships with Shaw and Peace University to develop internship pipelines with key businesses downtown.

#7 – Integrate Government Campus with Core

At number seven, the goal is to integrate the government campus with the downtown core, which mostly involves establishing a northern gateway from Peace St by removing the Archdale building and replacing it with a large-scale, must-see public art peace to attract foot traffic.  

Peace Street would also be re-designed to be more pedestrian friendly, and encourage more mixed-use development through public-private partnerships.

#8 – Create Exceptional Public Spaces

Number 8 is an exciting one that will benefit us all, with the goal of creating exceptional public spaces downtown.  This involves re-designing Nash Square as a nature-oriented space with key features to attract visitors, City Plaza to have more flexible space as mentioned in Strategy Number 1, as well as Moore Square to have more family-friendly amenities like a nature-themed playground.  

Fayetteville Street will be enhanced with more greenery and green space to enjoy as also mentioned in the first strategy, as well rethinking the State Capital grounds to drive more family-friendly traffic.  

Restoring Caswell Square as open space is also on the list, as well as various greenway enhancements that you’ll see on the graphic in the dashed green lines, such as ensuring a strong connection to the future Smoky Hollow Park and establishing the South Park Heritage Walk on the southern end of downtown through Raleigh’s largest historic African American Neighborhood.

#9 – Create Bold Connection to Dix Park

At number 9 is probably the most ambitious of the ideas, which is to create a bold connection to Dix Park through the implementation of the strollway.  The current proposals involve either an aerial bridge over Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, or even an aerial tram.  Either of these options would be a really cool addition and will be key to connecting to all the amazing development occurring on the south side of MLK Jr Blvd.  

#10 – Make Streets Pedestrian Friendly

And lastly, strategy number 10 involves the re-designing of various streets to be more pedestrian friendly.  This starts with implementing a variety of streetscapes throughout downtown depending upon the purpose of the street, which includes Glenwood South.  This will ensure pedestrian friendly connections to the key destination streets throughout the city.

Dawson and McDowell Streets currently carry heavy traffic, making them harder for pedestrians to safely cross, and downtown Raleigh will work with the NCDOT on these streets to function more like the rest of downtown’s streets instead of them flowing more like a mini-highway.  

They also plan to improve inter-downtown transit options as well as develop transit options to key places like the PNC Arena, RDU.Airport, etc…

Bonus – Future Ideas

Now looking to some bolder, future attractions, Raleigh has some pretty intriguing ideas here.

At the top of the list is creating a downtown sports venue, which very likely would be minor or major league baseball.  This feels like a dream for Raleigh residents, but would be a HUGE attraction for downtown that would majorly boost local businesses.  

This could tie into the second idea, which is to relocate central prison, which currently sits on a large plot of land in a prime location for downtown.  A sports venue could go here, but it could also be the home of a new innovation district, and the report here mentions Kendall Square in Cambridge as an example.

Another idea is to create a new, modern library in downtown, something that Raleigh currently lacks in this area.  

And lastly, work on improving housing options and affordability around downtown, as the current residential additions lean heavily towards higher-end apartment units, and the city wants to find ways to offer lower price points.

So, Raleigh has some pretty bold ideas, and hopefully much of this ends up being implemented over the next 5 years as advertised.

Check out our other blog that goes along with this one on the State of Downtown Raleigh 2024 Report.

If you need help finding your next home in Raleigh, Durham, or anywhere else in the triangle, our team at the W Real Estate Group would love to help!