Two possible 40-story towers approved for Raleigh’s Warehouse District
Raleigh will soon add two more towers to downtown’s Warehouse District.
And they’ll be just across the street from each other.
The Raleigh City Council approved rezoning requests for both projects at the intersection of Hargett and Harrington streets Tuesday.
One is on the corner housing the LGBTQ+ nightclub Legends, and the other is on the corner currently housing parking and one-story commercial buildings.
The Legends site was purchased in late 2020 for $4.3 million and had been zoned for up to 12 stories. The new zoning allows up to 40 stories, though it doesn’t mean that’s how high the owners, CityPlat, will go. The rezoning allows up to 416 residential units and nearly 500,000 square feet of building space, including nearly 250,000 square feet of office space.
“The deal with CityPlat ensures the long-term survival of Legends as an ongoing business and an opportunity to collaborate for future development,” Tim Bivens, one of the club’s owners, told The News & Observer last year.
The height now allowed on the second parcel also goes from 12 stories to 40 stories. The new zoning allows 700 residential units, and more than 800,000 square feet of building space with nearly 440,000 square feet of office space.
Real estate firm Highwoods Properties has purchased the parcels and a nearby parking garage.
Details about what’s planned for the two towers haven’t been released.
Moore Square East
The City Council also agreed to move forward with a city-initiated rezoning for about 2.5 acres between Person and Bloodworth streets just south of Moore Square, also known as the Salvation Army property.
The current zoning allows up to 20 stories along Person Street and up to 12 stories along Bloodworth Street. But the conditions placed on the Bloodworth Street side from a 2000 rezoning aren’t conducive for affordable housing, said Pat Young, director of planning and development.
The new rezoning, which will likely occur by the end of the year, will keep the height limits the same but remove the other conditions on Bloodworth Street.
The goal is to create at least 120 affordable housing units on the property targeting households at 60% of the area median income (AMI) and at least 10% targeting those at 30% AMI.
Raleigh also initiated a rezoning of a nearby acre at City Market to go from three stories to 12. It’s too small for affordable housing, Young said, but the sale of that land would go toward the city’s affordable housing fund.
