Yahoo Finance Raleigh’s ‘once obscure’ West End: See what’s next for the district near downtown
The site of the former Clancy & Theys headquarters in Raleigh’s West End is getting closer to being fully redeveloped.
Nine months after Kane Realty delivered the 442-unit apartment community Platform on West Cabarrus Street adjacent to Raleigh Union Station, the Raleigh-based firm has broken ground next door on the project’s second phase.
Oldham & Worth will be five stories of upscale apartments on six acres at the corner of West Cabarrus and South West streets. It’s just across the railroad tracks from the Warehouse District and historic Boylan Heights. (Clancy & Theys moved its construction company’s headquarters to Kane Realty’s newer Smoky Hollow development in 2021, Triangle Business Journal reported.)
Named after the long-gone lumber company that stood on the site for decades, Oldham & Worth will add 252 units — a mix of studios to three-bedroom residences — averaging 827 square feet, Kane Realty said in a release.
The design blends “industrial aesthetics” (wood accents, concrete, brick, and exposed steel) with high-end amenities that include a sundeck, coworking spaces, as well as separate indoor and outdoor fitness centers. Some 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space is also planned.
The new residential buildings reinforce the West End as a “dynamic and growing” destination, said Allen McCollum, Kane Realty’s director of development.
As the city’s downtown growth spills outward, it’s all part of Kane’s vision to reimagine the area west of the Warehouse District and the southern edge near 306-acre Dorothea Dix Park, he added.
Other projects, just down the road, include Rockway Raleigh, a 9.7-acre, mixed-used development connected to the Rocky Branch Creek and greenway, which is expected to deliver this fall. Also nearby is Downtown South, a 140-acre, $2.2-billion sports and entertainment district, which is currently stalled.
Years ago, McCollum added, the firm had talked about bringing two mass timber office buildings to the old Clancy & Theys site. But in this post-pandemic era of hybrid work, “we pivoted on that and shifted gears to multi-family [housing].”
Already, Platform is close to 50% leased. “That’s exactly what we’d expect, if not better” for an October delivery, he said.
Kane’s latest project kicks off after the firm secured $33.6 million in joint venture equity and $51.4 million in construction financing for the project.
JLL Capital Markets announced the financial arrangements earlier this month.
That’s no small feat in today’s challenging capital markets. “There are not a lot of projects starting right now,” McCollum said.
As far as Oldham & Worth, “It was a hurdle that we overcame. ”
JLL, which brokered the deal, said in a release that it secured a limited partner equity commitment from an unnamed “institutional South American investment fund.” It secured the project’s construction loan with a national life insurance company, it said.
Raleigh’s West End
Raleigh Magazine coined the West End district’s name in a 2021 feature article, and it stuck.
Today, it’s emerged from relative obscurity to become its own little hub: a mix of breweries, cafes and retail shops, just a short bike ride or stroll from the city’s central business district. It even has its own website.
Bill King, president and CEO of Downtown Raleigh Alliance, said the upcoming Oldham & Worth building marks a “significant milestone” in downtown’s ongoing expansion.
Since 2020, he added, the city’s core completed or started work on nearly 4,000 residential units.
As this area continues to evolve into an urban, walkable neighborhood, “this development adds more much-needed residential density,” King said.
