As Raleigh’s booming apartment demand continues, developers continue to try to keep pace. The next compact, large apartment complex comes to the Glenwood South area. “West Apartments II”, a project by West at North developer Greg Sandreuter, will bring 177 apartment units to the intersection of Harrington and Johnson Streets, adjacent to West at North’s Northeast corner. The 5-story project is designed by J Davis, and, according to the Preliminary Site Plan Preliminary Site Plan, features a couple of stories of interior parking garage (that connect into West at North), bike storage, a pool (non-rooftop), and garden areas. Elevations indicate small street-level retail spaces, much like those at West at North, however floorplans don’t specify any detail about this.

It appears that Sandreuter learned many lessons from West at North, the large, tall, overbuilt condo building. This project seems to be much more to scale with the future streetscape of the area, so its residents will remain in touch with the vibe at street level unlike those stuck up high in West at North. West II will be a success because of its location; adjacent to one of the most walkable and popular areas in NC for singles yet car-friendly.

There are several areas, however, where this project could be improved. The façade features beige and red brick, along with EIFS siding in its higher floors. Much like condo projects on Glenwood, Tucker, and Oberlin, this project completely lacks architectural flair, and will do nothing to visually stand out among comparable projects.

The floorplan features around 34 units per floor, all situated around wells overlooking five different courtyards. In order to accomplish these C-shaped clusters of apartments, the architect chose to implement odd, triangle-shaped units to round the corners. In fact about 15 of the 34 units (44%) on each floor are essentially triangles. This will make for many decorating headaches and/or wasted spaces.

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The low-lying area bounded by Peace, Capital Blvd, Edenton Street, and the railroad track (which overpasses Peace) is the area of downtown with the most potential to be a livable, serviceable neighborhood with excellent transit access. The blocks are currently littered with light industrial one-story buildings of no historic or architectural value, so it is an area that will most certainly be 100% replaced in the next couple of decades.

Raleigh needs to proceed carefully here, though, because the potential for the area is so great. How much retail vs. residential spaces is needed in this rectangle? Does Raleigh want Peace Street’s south edge to be lined with retail and car-centric, or should Peace Street just be a thoroughfare for cars to efficiently move without interaction with pedestrians and erratic retail traffic?

This is the prime area for an impressive downtown grocery store. Publix has expressed interest in opening a store in downtown Raleigh, but national fresh-focused chains like Sprouts and Earth Fare are expanding to/in this area as well. Add to those three the fact that Whole Foods on Wade Avenue is bursting at the seams and cannot meet demand. With these safe blocks of blank canvas in the heart of a booming apartment market, it is almost a slam dunk to expect an excellent grocer to strongly consider this zone of downtown.

Instead of one of these grocers entering this area of downtown with a low, large-footprint store and a  sea of parking, wouldn’t it be neat if the store, its parking, and some residential were all combined into one complex? Whole Foods’ home office in Austin sits above two levels of parking garage accessible by travelator, but includes a moderately sized office highrise in the complex as well. A project like West II would be much better for the area if its street level access did more for the neighborhood than just offering a couple of garage accesses. This is be no means the criteria for success for all apartment projects in downtown, however it is a way of thinking that developers need to adopt. There is much money to be made in the downtown grocery business, and the developer who gets it right, first, will profit greatly while offering downtown residents a great service.

West Apartments II will be reviewed by the Planning Commission on Thursday (2/6) at 4:30pm.

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