Development Beat: Luxury Townhomes Coming to St. Mary’s

Brought to you by Rufty-Peedin Design Builders.

Week of February 13, 2017

St. Mary’s luxury townhomes break ground

Real Estate Report: an ITB home from Ryan Boone Real Estate

Work begins in the old The Velvet Cloak spot

so•ca in Cameron Village to open in March

German grocery store Lidl coming to Raleigh

Raleigh is getting a Chronic Tacos

The Saint
Hallelujah. After more than three years, construction has finally begun on 220 The Saint, a long-awaited upscale townhome development on St. Mary’s Street near downtown Raleigh.

Leo Suarez over at The Raleigh Connoisseur was the first to break the news back in October 2013. We’ve also written about the project in the past. After a lack of updates, we looked into the project again in August 2016 with little success: the lots were vacant, that was it.

The Saint was pitched as a development of 17 luxurious townhome units that would feature elevators, rooftop gardens, two-car garages, European style kitchens, and “other expensive touches”. The units originally ranged in size from 2,700 to 4,700 square feet and in price from $750,000 to $1.4 million.

This may have changed, as permits were issued last month for four of The Saint’s new townhomes, being built by Pomarico Construction Corp. The four new townhomes will come in two different sizes, 3,294 sf and 3,454 sf and will start at a cost of $624,695.

We were also able to track down eight additional permits for The Saint that the owners have applied for but have not yet been issued, bringing the total number of units to 12. Of course, additional townhomes may be added at some point in the future, but none of the permits applied for or issued drop below 3,294 sf in size, while two of them are larger than the originally announced 4,700 sf.

We’ll keep an eye on this as the project progresses.

Real Estate Report

Prime Wade Avenue location for less than $270,000
Raleigh real estate agent Ryan Boone, ITBRealtor.com, brings this beautifully maintained 1,200+ square feet, three bedroom ranch to the ITB market this week.

This home features a large living room with a fireplace and built-ins, and gorgeous hardwoods throughout. There’s room to grow with 1,158 unfinished square feet in the basement, and a hedge-lined fenced front yard provides plenty of privacy. Check out more photos and details here. With a price tag under $300k, it’s probably going to be sold by the time you finish reading this sentence. Email Ryan@HudsonResidential.com or call 919-438-0548 for a tour.

To feature listings here, contact wnfiv@itbinsider.com for options.

With Your Permit-ssion

Work Underway In Former Velvet Cloak Inn Spot
Work is officially underway for 1505 Hillsborough, a student housing development that will be built in the legendary Velvet Cloak Inn location on Hillsborough Street.

You may recall we wrote about the demolition of the Velvet Cloak back in December, which resulted in many readers asking us for information on how to reclaim pieces of the iconic hotel. We tried (honestly!) but to no avail, which we suppose means the countless memories made at this once-grand Raleigh hotel will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. I’m told Finley is working on an oral history of the place, so stay tuned for that.

Permits were issued for both 1505’s five-story, 217,786 square foot apartment building and its six-story, 113,322 square foot parking deck. The work on the complex, which has a listed cost of nearly $29 million, will be handled by Summit Contracting.

so•ca Receives Final Permits
The owners of the popular downtown restaurant bu•ku recently received their final interior alteration permits for so•ca, a “cocina Latina” (Latin Kitchen). They’re set to open in early March in the space previously occupied by Faire in Cameron Village.

While Raleigh already has its fair share of both midrange and upscale Mexican restaurants — with many more on the way — we’re actually really excited about this one. With seating for 150 inside and 100 more outside, so•ca will offer a menu that will draw inspiration from “Colombia and Mexico, Trinidad and Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Chile.”

North Carolina Gets Its First Lidl
Up in North Raleigh, vertical construction is set to begin on Raleigh’s latest grocery store, German chain Lidl (lee-dil). Go ahead and Google it, we didn’t know what it was either. It will be the chain’s first North Carolina location and will open at 4308 Wake Forest Road, in what is now an empty lot between McDonald’s and Red Lobster.

At a neighborhood meeting concerning the project held last year, a Lidl representative was surprisingly tight-lipped with details on the new store: he wouldn’t even confirm what kind of products would be sold. We reached out again last week after noticing some site work was underway for the project, but were stonewalled once again. Our guess: it’s going to be a lot like German competitor Aldi, which has a location just down the street.

The $1.98 million job will be handled by Fulcrum Construction, who we heard narrowly beat out Level Contracting and Fixed Hinge builders for the project. Yes, that was a physics joke.

Chronic Tacos Coming To Raleigh
Chronic Tacos, a popular quick-service Mexican chain, that of course originated in California, is coming to Raleigh. Judging by its website, Chronic Tacos looks to be a slightly more upscale version of Chipotle with a Día de los Muertos aesthetic and all-day breakfast options. The restaurant will open at the new Sprouts grocery store anchored Olive Park shopping center on Falls of the Neuse Road (again, Finley made me add in “the”) and the $215,000 fit-out is being handled by Piccola Builders.

Won’t You Be M.E. Valentine?
That didn’t take long. Built just four years ago, the owners of Valentine Commons student apartment complex off Hillsborough Street on M.E. Valentine Drive are already looking to expand.

A rezoning case filed last week requests that the property be rezoned to a higher-density designation, which would “allow sufficient flexibility for redevelopment so that existing facilities can be updated and new facilities added to meet the demands of the market for quality student housing.”

We’re not sure what kind of improvements the Valentine Commons might need at this early stage: it already boasts a great location, countless amenities, ranging from tanning beds to game rooms and much more, but the heart wants what the heart wants.