Triangle developer updates plans for multi-use project on former News & Observer site
A Triangle developer is revealing new details and updated plans for The Nexus, a large mixed-use complex of four buildings on the 3.3 acre site where The News & Observer operated for more than a century.
Chapel Hill-based East West Partners announced that The Nexus will feature a 20-story condominium building that will overlook Nash Square. The condo building, aptly named The Nash, will be almost 240,000 square feet and have 108 units that will range from one bedroom to penthouse suites.
California investment firm Acquisition Group bought the 215 South McDowell St. property for $22 million in 2017. Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects is part of the project.
The former N&O building now on the site was completed in 1956. The company’s operations were based there from 1907 until 2018. The News & Observer’s printing press is now in Garner, and its newsroom and other offices are in the One City Plaza building on Fayetteville Street.
In addition to The Nash, the Nexus project will total over a million square feet and feature a a 19-story office tower with around 330,000 square feet of space. There also will be two other buildings, one for apartments and one a hotel. They will be 20 stories each, with around 45,000 square feet each of retail space.
“The News & Observer site, spanning nearly an entire city block, has long been considered one of the largest and most significant redevelopment opportunities in Downtown Raleigh,” said Robert Brown, a spokesman for the project.
Pricing for the properties won’t be released until early spring, when presales will be available and demolition of the existing property is set to begin, according to Lee Perry, development director at East West Partners.
“It’s a core piece of downtown property,” Perry said. “Since The N&O has ceased operations there, it has been underserving downtown, and we’re excited to reactivate it with all types of uses and especially the streetscape tied in to Nash Square.
The Nexus as a whole has an estimated completion in mid to late 2022.
The developer emphasizes the site’s connection to Fayetteville Street, the Raleigh Convention Center, the Warehouse District and Union Station.
The News & Observer previously reported that East West Partners has been behind Triangle developments such as the Liberty Warehouse building in Durham and the Berkshire Chapel Hill apartments.
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 6:48 PM.
