‘Two thumbs up’ for 7-story lab and office building coming to downtown Chapel Hill
A town board praised plans Tuesday night to replace a parking deck in downtown Chapel Hill with a seven-story office and lab building that would rise above most of the other buildings on East Franklin Street.
The 150 E. Rosemary St. project was among several projects that the Community Design Commission reviewed. CDC Chair Susana Dancy gave the Grubb Properties office building project “two thumbs up.”
“The changes you’ve made will improve the quality of space on Rosemary Street immeasurably compared to the last time we saw this,” Dancy said. “My general reaction is very positive. I think it’s an interesting building.”
Located just north of Franklin Street, the office building would replace the three-story Wallace Parking Deck with a 237,000-square-foot building. Plans show space for offices, specially designed laboratories and roughly 3,000 square feet for commercial tenants.
Storefront windows and ground-floor tenants would face Rosemary Street, with terraces scattered along the upper stories. Three levels of parking — roughly 160 spaces — would be under the building. The garage entrance would continue to be located on the western side of the building. A second, one-way exit onto Henderson Street behind the Chapel Hill Post Office could also be built.
The project also features a 7,000-square-foot park at the southeastern corner of Henderson and Rosemary streets. Architect Michael Stevenson, with Perkins Eastman, noted that a cafe might work well in the commercial space next to the park.
Commissioner Megan Patnaik said the project is a nice addition to the changing landscape.
“I love how it’s going to interact with the other buildings that are going around it,” Patnaik said. “We’re also going to have the parking deck across the street. It’s just going to have a different scale altogether.”
The Town Council will hold public hearings later this year on the project and whether to rezone the site for a taller building.
Proposed changes, concerns
The commissioners made a few suggestions Tuesday before voting unanimously to recommend council approval with conditions:
▪ Drop the proposed Dumpster location near Henderson Street, behind the post office. Dancy suggested the developer work with the town, which owns the post office land, to use rollout carts or find another option in a different location.
▪ Provide examples of how the mechanical equipment on top of the building could be screened to protect the view from Franklin Street. The commissioners asked for final approval of the “Strobic fans” that will disperse lab exhaust and contaminants high into the atmosphere.
The commissioners also suggested:
▪ Adding art to an exterior stairwell on the front corner of the building.
▪ Making the park more green. Stevenson noted that an OWASA easement under the western edge of the park limits its construction and the materials that can be used, but agreed to take another look.
“Why are we putting so much on top of the sewer easement?” Commissioner Scott Levitan asked. “To me, it’s a very expensive, articulated, architectural park, where maybe it could just be less, and everybody could benefit from not having ... as much concrete. Have a path that has trees on both sides so you can get shade.”
▪ Pushing the upper stories back slightly from the park to make the building seem smaller.
“The only concern I have on the architecture, or the massing, is for those of us who drive on East Rosemary Street from Hillsborough (Street), and you come up that hill and you’re sitting at that light,” Commissioner John Weis said. “That 110-foot-high structure is going to be very imposing, so I think all the people who live in that area as they come into downtown are going to be affected by that.”
East Rosemary Street transformation
At seven stories, the office building would be the next step in a major, public-private transformation of the 100 block of East Rosemary Street, which has served for many decades as a detour around Franklin Street for drivers and a place to find parking. There are a few small businesses and bars in two- and three-story buildings on the northeastern end of the street.
The town gave the Wallace parking deck to Grubb Properties in July as part of a land swap for 125 E. Rosemary St., where the town is using parking revenues to pay for a $39 million, 1,100-space parking deck.
The town also paid Grubb $1.7 million as part of the deal, which includes an adjacent lot purchased from Investors Title, and is paying $30,000 a month to Grubb to lease the parking deck until the new deck is open.
UNC is paying $2.95 million, plus an annual $40,000 maintenance fee toward the town’s new parking deck as part of a lease agreement for 100 spaces. The town and the university also launched the Carolina Economic Development Strategy in March to promote downtown and its economic development.
In September, UNC and BioLabs, a national provider of flexible lab space for biotech startups, announced that the company would occupy 23,000 square feet of space at 137 E. Franklin St. next year — enough space for 20 to 25 young startup companies.
It’s part of an East Rosemary Street redevelopment project expected to unfold over several years and bring new parks, sidewalks and bike lanes to the landscape, as well as a retail porch on the town’s parking garage.
Grubb Properties already is renovating the former CVS building — now The Central — at 137 E. Rosemary and 136 E. Franklin streets into an Innovation Hub, and has proposed 140 apartments for the northeastern corner of East Rosemary and North Columbia streets.
The Central is three stories on East Franklin Street and seven on East Rosemary. The Link Apartments Rosemary building and the town’s new parking deck also could be seven stories.
Carraway Village self-storage building
The commission also heard details Tuesday about a storage building planned for the 55-acre Carraway Village development on Eubanks Road. The 125,898-square-foot, three-story building would also have a basement.
It would be at the back of the site, north of an approved Putt-Putt Fun Center and land that developer Northwood Ravin has set aside for affordable housing. It also would be north of the Chapel Hill Transit bus park-and-ride lot.
Commissioners offered support for the project but also expressed concern about how the building, with its “pretty austere” exterior, would blend into the community. They asked the developer to bring more information about the building’s appearance and landscaping to the commission’s October meeting.
5500 Old Chapel Hill Road concept plan
▪ Details: EB Capital Partners submitted a concept plan for 90 apartments in a four- to five-story building on 6.5 acres.
▪ Affordable housing: Roughly 15% of the apartments could be leased at a rate affordable to someone earning up to 80% of the area median income — $48,400 a year for an individual or $69,100 for a family of four.
▪ Feedback: The commissioners liked the building’s size and height but urged the developer to put parking under the building instead of in a lot facing the road. The site offers “an opportunity in the middle of nowhere to create a ‘wow,’” Weis said. Patnaik asked about orienting the building so that more residents can see the woods, while Commissioner Susan Lyons sought for-sale apartments.
▪ What’s next: A Town Council review is set for Oct. 13. The council does not vote on concept plans, which are not official applications.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 9:25 AM.
