New housing to replace Goodnights Comedy Club in Raleigh, but the laughs will go on
Goodnights Comedy Club, which has seen the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle and Ellen DeGeneres grace its stage, will be torn down to make way for a new housing development.
Local real estate firm HM Partners filed plans with the City of Raleigh proposing a residential mid-rise of up to seven stories high. The development, called 865 Morgan, will be at the corner of 865 W. Morgan St. and 905 Tryon Hill Drive — just off Hillsborough Street near the N.C. State University campus.
Goodnights Comedy Club will leave the location it has held since 1983 once work is underway, but plans to find a new home, said Reven MacQueen, who is part of the club’s management.
The proposed development would have 401 apartment units of one to two bedrooms; two courtyard areas; and around 9,000 square feet of retail space on site, just across from the Irregardless restaurant.
Pending development approval, HM Partners is under contract to buy the site after spending the past year in talks with the property owners.
“I believe we’ve achieved a very friendly and win-win solution with Goodnights and its future in Raleigh,” said Gregg Sandreuter, managing principal at HM Partners, in an interviw with The News & Observer.
The development stands to add to hundreds of new multifamily housing units in the next few years between NC State and the Warehouse District in downtown Raleigh.
Commercial real estate firm York Properties emphasized the site’s potential for redevelopment in its sales promotion, noting that tenants on the property have short-term leases.
Sandreuter didn’t disclose details of the agreement with Goodnights, which is operated by Helium Comedy but owned separately.
The 865 Morgan project will be built within the area’s permitted zoning that allows building up to seven stories and is slated to be around 439,000 square feet when completed. The Goodnights building and a machinery supply business on the property, representing about 28,000 square feet, will be torn down.
Replacing the comedy club
The comedy club, originally known as Charlie Goodnights Comedy Club, first opened in 1983 and has been an entertainment staple in Raleigh, also operating as a restaurant.
In 2006, original owner Tom Williams told The News & Observer that the club was a destination for comics on the rise, occasionally hosting “secret shows” with comedians like Chappelle and Chris Rock.
“People still don’t believe Jerry Seinfeld played at Goodnights,” Williams said then. “Seinfeld wasn’t Seinfeld at the time.”
The building dates back to 1928, once housing White’s dairy products company and ice cream shop.
The club has looked other places to relocate to for years, MacQueen told The N&O in an email. Goodnights has an active calendar for comedy events and plans to be open for the foreseeable future, he said. A future location hasn’t been confirmed, he said.
“If the development is approved, moving is a possibility, but regardless of where we are, Goodnights will continue its tradition of bringing the best comedy to the Raleigh area and will always support the local scene,” MacQueen said in an email.
Sandreuter said he knows replacing the site of a popular location is a big deal, and that some may be opposed to the change.
“I think when people look at downtown Raleigh and any of the buildings built in the last 20 years, these new buildings had to displace an old building,” he said, citing The Dillon mixed-use center as an example.
“A lot of the exciting things to do in downtown are in new buildings and because of new buildings, and that’s what makes downtown special. This Morgan Street building is part of that overall process.”
Site work and approval for the development isn’t expected until later this summer. By the time the project is expected to be done, it would be joined by the new Raleigh Crossing and Bloc[83] commercial high-rise towers down the block on Hillsborough Street.
“I think what’s most important to do, especially when you may be an agent of change in a community ... is to realize that you’re not just dealing with buildings,” Sandreuter said. “You’re dealing with people’s livelihoods, their businesses and their neighborhoods and what they’ve worked to accomplish for a long period of time, which is why we put in extra effort into building new relationships, friendships and seeking win-win outcomes.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 4:10 PM.
