Development Beat: Restaurant Planned for Askew-Taylor, Retail Coming to Fayetteville Street

Brought to you by Rufty-Peedin Design Builders.

Week of June 5, 2017

Restaurant planned for Askew-Taylor Building

Retail coming to 208 Fayetteville Street

Food Courts announce new vendors

Bike Share vendor selected

Cameron Village gets lit

Details on Sprinklergate at 616 Oberlin apartments

Southern Tide coming to North Hills

Restaurant Planned for Askew-Taylor Building

After nearly 70 years in business, Askew-Taylor Paints & Arts on Glenwood Avenue closed its doors for good last October, bringing an end to decades of service from a family-owned business. Since then, the property at 110 Glenwood has sat vacant and unused. That could soon change.

Site plans filed last week on behalf of an LLC whose owner appears to be a real estate manager for McDonald’s indicate that the 97-year-old building will be transformed into a restaurant. That being said, we’re pretty sure Askew-Taylor won’t be replaced by a McDonald’s.

The architect listed on the plans, Matthew Konar out of Durham, doesn’t have any McD’s projects listed on his resume. To the contrary, his body of work includes renovations at the Raleigh Times Bar, Sitti, and The Farmhouse in Durham, among others.

The site plan drawings keep the existing structure completely intact but also indicate a plan for a wooden deck/outdoor amenity area on the back of the property.From the plans, we can guess the restaurant will be approximately 4,000 square feet in size, and say for sure it will seat 44 and offer 16 parking spaces.

Retail Coming to 208 Fayetteville Street

208 Fayetteville street will soon be home to retail and office tenants. The three-story, 28,000 square foot property was recently acquired by MDO Holdings, a real estate holding company owned by Michael Olander Jr., who also founded O2 Fitness. MDO Holdings purchased the building for $3.75 million.

The building stretches the depth of the block and is located in between the CVS Pharmacy that is never open and the Kimbrell’s Furniture store. Efird’s Department Store opened at this location in 1918, replacing T. A. Partin’s dry goods store and Sidell’s Studio Photography in a two-story building. In 1935, Efird’s replaced the building with a steel-framed three-story building. Efird’s sold the building to the Hudson Belk Department Store in 1959. The North Carolina State Bar Association purchased the building in 1978 and remodeled it in 1998.

Our ITBFF Doug Warf, the chief marketing officer at MDO Holdings, told us more about their plans for the property, which include retail on the first floor and an office tenant in the floors above.

“We are excited to bring this historic building back to vitality. In doing so we hope to accomplish two things that are important to MDO Holdings – adding another local retail source and bringing local-minded business people to downtown Raleigh,” said Warf.

Apartment Fire Cause Remains Undetermined

Investigators with Raleigh’s Fire Department announced Friday that a cause had not yet been determined for the March fire that destroyed the under-construction Metropolitan Apartments and damaged several surrounding properties. You may recall our on-the-scene coverage of one of the biggest fires in Raleigh history.

According to the City, 100 investigators participated, over 300 interviews were conducted, multiple state search warrants were issued, and approximately 25 tons of debris were removed from the scene. A number of “potential ignition sources” were identified and evaluated.

Investigators were unable to definitively eliminate several accidental and incendiary scenarios, including electrical sources, an intentional act, and the possibility of a heating fire ignited by trespassing squatters. As a result this fire is classified as “undetermined”.

Downtown Food Courts Announce New Vendors

Raleigh’s future food courts both announced new vendors last week. Located in the old Stone’s Warehouse space at 500 East Davie Street, Transfer Co., which we covered in March, announced the following on social media.

Very excited to announce our newest Transfer Co. vendors! pic.twitter.com/BUcrTA1JsM

— Transfer Co. (@TransferOldEast) June 2, 2017

Morgan Street Food Hall & Market, designed by our friends at New City Design Group and located in the old Jillian’s spot at 411 W Morgan St., announced Boba Brew, City Sushi, Cow Bar, Ginger+Soy, Oak City Fish & Chips, and Raleigh Raw on their website.

Bike Sharing is Bike Caring

City Council is expected later today to approve a contract for the implementation of the City’s new bike share program. Staff has selected the team of Bewegen Technologies and Corps Logistics, one of the vendors who responded to a request for proposals issued by the City. Bewegen has developed bike share systems in a range of cities, including Baltimore, Maryland and Richmond, Virginia.

Cameron Village Gets Lit

Carolina Lighting & Design, a home décor store with a location in Cary, may soon be opening in Cameron Village in the former home of the controversial Victorian Rose Bridal Shop, which was featured in not one, but two Five On Your Side™ investigations. After Victorian Rose’s owner relocated and reopened under a different name (Five on Your Side™ had to step in again), the Cameron Village spot was occupied by Southern Seasons and then Reid’s Fine Foods.

The $74,000 transformation of the space into a showroom for lights, lamps, and LEDS will be handled by TL Stewart Builders.

The 411 on 616

A few weeks ago, we broke the news on the situation over at the 616 Oberlin apartments, where residents of the top floors were given one week to move out so that a defective sprinkler system could be replaced.

City records indicate the building passed inspections and received its Certificate of Occupancy in February 2017. John Boyette, a Public Information Officer with the City, told us the general contractor for 616 recently approached the City about the building’s newly defective sprinkler system, which it planned to fix as quickly as possible.

Although not in his district, City Councilor David Cox issued an update noting that “pinhole-type leaks” had been detected “at the joints of the fittings within the piping.” Leaks that small can be difficult to detect and even harder to track down, and are generally the result of an error during the soldering/brazing process whereby the pipes and joints are fused together.

City records show that two companies did the initial fire protection work at 616 Oberlin. Since we don’t know who was at fault for the leaks, we won’t name/shame either of these businesses. Permits for the repairs have been issued to Charlotte-based Sitetec Construction. In order to repair the sprinklers they’ll have to replace all existing wall and ceiling systems.

Southern Tide coming to North Hills

Southern Tide, a lifestyle and apparel brand for men and women, will be opening a signature store in the Main District at North Hills. Located between Lilly Pulitzer and Fleur, the store is expected to open late summer 2017. The North Hills location will be Southern Tide’s first signature store in North Carolina. No word on how Vineyard Vines is reacting to the news.

H-Street Kitchen Closing for the Summer

H-Street Kitchen announced that they would take a breather during the summer and would reopen in August with some changes to the restaurant. H-Street opened in 2016, after our friends at Rufty-Peedin completed a high-profile restoration of the historic Varsity Theater on Hillsborough Street.

H-Street shared the news last week on their Facebook page. Owners figured the summer would be the best time to make some changes since most NC State students would be out of town. ITB sources have indicated they’ll make a few tweaks to the concept of the restaurant and may make a name change. We’ll keep you posted on this.