HILLSBOROUGH TRACT TO GET $40M REMAKE

Triangle Business Journal
March 9, 2010
Amanda Jones Hoyle


A Charlotte development company is finalizing plans for the $40 million first phase of a mixed-use development at the intersection of Hillsborough and West Morgan streets in downtown Raleigh.

The development, called Hillsborough & Morgan, is expected to break ground in spring 2011.

Preliminary plans for two buildings – one rising four floors, the other rising five – incorporate about 240 apartment units, multiple townhouse units, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and commercial space and parking, says Jim Zanoni, a principal with FMW Development Co. of Charlotte.

FMW has filed for rezoning of the 6.7 acres that the company has been assembling since May 2007 for the project. It acquired the former Bolton Corp. headquarters building and warehouses on Ashe Avenue in 2007 and later acquired the IHop restaurant and several other parcels nearby. Based on the city’s calendar, the zoning proposal to allow for residential development could go to a public hearing in July.

“We look forward to bringing renewed vitality to the long-neglected property in our Hillsborough & Morgan assemblage,” Zanoni says. “Overall, we envision predominantly residential uses with a mix of retail/restaurants, small office and possibly niche hospitality. We are excited to work with our neighbors during the entitlement process to provide a walkable, community and transit-friendly project.”

FMW was the group that assembled the land for the Carolina Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium and the Charlotte Bobcats’ Time Warner Cable Arena, and it has been involved in multiple urban development projects in the Queen City.

Zanoni says the Raleigh project will most resemble Crosland’s 712 Tucker apartment project that opened in 2009. Crosland executive David Ravin says the apartment complex has maintained an occupancy level of between 95 and 99 percent since opening. “I think the success of that development is due to its walking distance to Glenwood South,” Ravin says. “I think Raleigh needs more of that.”

Zanoni says the first phase of development for Hillsborough & Morgan will focus on the properties east of Ashe Avenue and FMW’s properties along West Morgan Street, Tryon Hill Drive and Wakefield Avenue. The second phase of development is expected to incorporate
the IHop restaurant, he says, but plans for phase 2 will wait until plans are more finalized for phase 1.

“We are working through the financing right now,” Zanoni says.