This article was written for our sponsor, the Town of Chapel Hill.
Downtown Chapel Hill is primed for expansion.
With the rehabilitation of 136 East Rosemary Street and 137 East Franklin Street by Grubb Properties, Inc., the downtown corridor is slated for a major transformation.
“It’s one of the most significant projects that’s happened in Chapel Hill, probably since the Carolina Square project was done years ago. This has the potential to house hundreds of office workers and high-tech workers that we really have not had in any great density in Chapel Hill before,” said Doug Rothwell, an executive-in-residence for economic development with the University of North Carolina’s Innovate Carolina. “When you look at other college towns, many of our peer universities have a lot of high-tech employees working in the town and the community in which that university resides. The Research Triangle Park is certainly not that far away, but we don’t see as many of those jobs in downtown Chapel Hill as you might expect. This gives Chapel Hill an opportunity to do something that it hasn’t seen in the past.”
In addition to his role at UNC, Rothwell also serves on the Downtown Chapel Hill Partnership board, which has been working closely with the town to facilitate this project.
Grubb Properties bought the section of land, a designated Opportunity Zone, in 2019. Since the building site is just across Franklin Street from Porthole Alley, Joe Dye — executive vice president of Grubb Properties — hopes the rehab will connect the college campus and downtown Chapel Hill in a way that hasn’t been done before.
Grubb Properties bought the section of land, a designated Opportunity Zone, in 2019. Since the building site is just across Franklin Street from Porthole Alley, Joe Dye — executive vice president of Grubb Properties — hopes the rehab will connect the college campus and downtown Chapel Hill in a way that hasn’t been done before. (Photo Courtesy of Town of Chapel Hill)
With such close proximity to UNC, Dye hopes to see the buildings become hubs for community innovation.
“We are talking to a lab incubator tenant, we’re talking to folks like Launch Chapel Hill, and we’re also talking with the university and the town about bringing in people that help create that innovation hub,” said Dye. “In fact, the university recently announced a partnership with the town and economic development to pursue that innovation aspect for downtown Chapel Hill, and we view our building as ground zero for that.”
Currently, the two buildings included in the 136/137 rehab are undergoing renovations, with hopes for tenants to move in by 2022. Together, the two buildings offer ten stories of space. By bringing this increase in office space, the town can likely expect to see more traffic downtown overall, with employees popping out for lunch breaks and shopping trips during and after the workday.
In addition to the rehab of the two buildings, the town is also upgrading a nearby parking structure to accommodate the expected traffic increase.
“The hope is this will be a catalyst, and in and of itself it’s going to certainly make a big difference. When you have hundreds of new office workers here during the day, those folks are going to go into restaurants for lunch and hopefully stick around after work to go into some of the restaurants and bars and really benefit the retailers that have suffered a great deal on Franklin Street,” said Rothwell. “Longer term, the bigger hope is it is a catalyst to bring other developers and other businesses that will look at this and say, ‘Well, wait a minute, this looks like a great place for me to come to and to make an investment.’ Hopefully, we see some additional projects like the 136/137 rehab in the future.”
As the Triangle continues to grow, Chapel Hill is intentionally working to ensure its downtown stays as approachable and accessible as possible. (Photo Courtesy of Town of Chapel Hill)
As the Triangle continues to grow, Chapel Hill is intentionally working to ensure its downtown stays as approachable and accessible as possible. While the main focus of this rehab project, according to Dye, is attracting jobs to downtown Chapel Hill, that increased workforce all feeds into the town’s larger economic development objectives.
By capitalizing on the Opportunity Zone and leaning on support from local partnerships, the rehab will bring new life to the streets of downtown — and is just one step in the long process.
“What we would have on the horizon beyond that is residential opportunities for people that live downtown, primarily apartments,” said Dye. “Let’s bring the jobs there, let’s get those people somewhere to live, then hopefully that will bring more revitalization to downtown, more residents overall and more good-paying jobs and businesses that help the area thrive. This building is really the key catalyst to start all that.”
This article was written for our sponsor, the Town of Chapel Hill.
