When Larry and Randall Miller’s children moved out of their Cary home, the couple decided they wanted to live in a more urban environment. So they moved into a 1,600-square-foot condominium in the Glenwood South neighborhood of downtown Raleigh. Now, they can walk to a Publix grocery story and their favorite restaurants.
“Cary was a good place to raise kids, but we wanted a place that was more walkable,” says Larry Miller. “We’ve met a lot of people and made a lot of friends. When we lived in Cary, we’d drive home at the end of the day and go into the garage and close the door and that was about it.”
Raleigh is looking for more people like the Millers. Over the past year, economic development boosters have implemented a plan to make the downtown more attractive for residents and visitors. Art and exercise equipment were added, along with signs directing people to the three big state museums near the state Capitol. They also encouraged restaurants to add outdoor seating on Fayetteville Street, the city’s main drag.
“You have these beautiful wide sidewalks on Fayetteville with the pavers,” says City Council member Jonathan Melton, who lives downtown and rides his scooter or walks. “I think we have a real opportunity to recalibrate and reinvent that space.”
Now, the group is looking beyond Fayetteville Street. Talks are being held about creating pedestrian and biking paths between Dix Park and the downtown district, especially the convention center and hotels. That follows an April trip to Atlanta in which a group of city leaders saw the Georgia capital’s hugely successful Beltline network of public parks, trails, transit and affordable housing projects along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor.
Connecting downtown to Dix Park is “one of the more strategic issues of Raleigh’s next phase,” says Dix Park CEO Janet Cowell, who is leaving that position in October and is running for mayor. City leaders and the nonprofit Dix Park Conservancy are redeveloping the former location of a state mental-health hospital that is a mile southeast of downtown.
Businesses and real estate developers are paying attention. In the first quarter, 19 new businesses opened downtown, with five closings. There are more than 2,200 residential units (up from 786 units right before COVID started) and 410 hotel rooms under construction. A $387.5 million expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center will add 300,000 square feet when it’s completed in 2028. 
In July, JLL Capital Markets raised $85 million of debt and equity financing for the 252-unit Oldham & Worth, an apartment development located in downtown’s West End neighborhood. It’s the second phase of Kane Realty’s re-development of contractor Clancy & Theys’ headquarters; the first phase of Platform apartments is now leasing for $1,250 to $4,000 per month.
Meanwhile, CBRE has begun leasing retail space at The Creamery, a downtown mixed-use development slated to include the 306-unit, 37-story Highline Glenwood apartment building from developer Turnbridge Equities. It is expected to break ground early next year and would be Raleigh’s tallest building.
Like many center cities, Raleigh is fighting perceptions of too much crime and homelessness. The Downtown Raleigh Alliance hired two social workers two years ago to help homeless people find shelters and permanent housing. It also pressed Raleigh police to increase patrols, resulting in a 22% decrease in crime in the past year, with burglaries down 70%.
David Meeker, who owns several downtown businesses and properties, says his State of Beer sandwich and beer shop has seen a 15% increase in sales since developer Trammell Crow opened its 400H apartment complex this past year. The 242-unit building is three blocks west of the state Capitol.
Still, the pandemic caused many workers to abandon downtown. “It felt like the comeback should have come quicker,” Meeker says. “This year, downtown Raleigh feels different and more active.” In the downtown district, food and beverage sales have increased 7.9% this year, while hotel room revenue is up 6.7%.
Raleigh-based Kane Realty has added two downtown residential developments in the past five years, says CEO Mike Smith. Both feature grocery stores, the aforementioned Publix at the Smoky Hollow development and a Weaver Street Market at Kane’s Dillon apartments. Kane is the developer of North Hills, the mixed-use district five miles north of downtown that has attracted more than$1 billion of development over the past two decades.
“The key to having residents and vibrant downtown communities is to have groceries,” Smith says. He predicts major growth in downtown Raleigh’s west side because of the Dix Park revitalization.
When Downtown Raleigh Alliance CEO Bill King first saw the city a decade ago, it was considering whether to be a “big city or more of a town.” The reality is that Raleigh “is growing rapidly. And the issues are more complicated. We’re a big city now.”
About 5,400 people live in an area bounded north-south by Peace Street and Lenoir Street and east-west by East Street and West Street. Average rents have dropped to $1,807 from a high of $1,916 in early 2022 mainly because of increased supply.
King would like to see more minority- and women-owned businesses populating the district. Downtown businesses are 90% locally owned and 46% women-owned. Attracting life sciences companies and labs is another goal, similar to efforts that have proved successful in neighboring Durham and Chapel Hill.
The Alliance counted about 1.5 million unique downtown visits in the first quarter, nearing their pre-COVID level of 1.6 million in the first three months of 2019. Overall downtown storefront occupancy is about 84%, though it’s only about 70% on Fayetteville Street.
Connecting Dix Park to downtown is complicated by the four-lane Western Boulevard and some railroad tracks that make it challenging for pedestrians. Among the solutions being floated is a gondola or a pedestrian bridge covered with grass and trees.
“It ought to be connected,” says King, noting convention attendees would enjoy early morning walks or runs to the park. “We need to figure out how to get from here to there.” ■