The City of Raleigh is “rebooting” a hotel/convention center project on municipally-owned downtown site that had been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a May 17 statement, the city says it is “once again fully open for business and is eager to restart the Convention Hotel and Downtown Development project Request for Interest (RFI) process.”
City Council has directed staff to restart the project managed by the commercial real estate company JLL, Inc., the statement says.
The project includes two sites currently used as parking lots in the downtown core in front of the Duke Energy Performing Arts Center and adjacent to the Raleigh Convention Center. The new development will include an upscale convention hotel of 500 or more rooms and a residential/mixed use project.
The RFI focus remains on the hotel which, when developed, will allow the city to host larger conferences.
“This project remains a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop a convention center hotel and separate residential/mixed-use tower on two prime vacant lots in downtown Raleigh.”
The city says the RFI will be made available on June 1. “Innovation, quality design and construction, and sustainability are important values to the city for this transformational project,” the statement says.
