Brought to you by Rufty-Peedin Design Build
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
A demolition permit issued last week signaled the beginning of a long-awaited downtown transformation: the redevelopment of Stone’s Warehouse on East Davie Street.
James Borden
Stone’s Warehouse on East Davie
While the warehouse itself will be rehabbed and redeveloped, the former home of the Rex Senior Health Center, located on the west side of the property, will soon be torn down by CT Wilson Construction.
James Borden
The former home of the Rex Senior Health Center
Readers familiar with the Stone’s Warehouse project may recall that when the project developer Transfer Development LLC, bid the job with the City of Raleigh, Clancy & Theys was listed as the contractor.
An amendment to the original bid contract was granted, somewhat begrudgingly, by the City Council in May of this year allowing CT Wilson to take over. Representatives from all companies were on hand, and announced there were no hard feelings and that this switch would not damage any existing relationships.
Moving on, Transfer, which is made up of a number of local developers including Matt Flynn, Will Jeffers and Jason Queen, plans to expand the existing 26,902 square-foot warehouse to a total gross square-footage of 77,422 that stands three stories and about 40 feet tall.
Many of the details on what’s to come inside the warehouse have already been reported: a grocery store, a chocolate shop, a cafe, a communal space and more.
Transfer LLC
An aerial rendering of the property
We wrote about the future of the site in March of this year, and then again in September of this year for the Raleigh Agenda.
Here’s a quick breakdown on the square footage from the site plan we looked at in March.
Shop Light Industrial (Chocolate) 4,694Sf
Restaurant (Patisserie) 800 SF
Light Industrial (Production / Boh) 3,917 SF
Warehouse Retail 9,907 SF
Indoor Recreation (Community Hall) 6,590 SF
New Commercial Retail (Grocery) 6,900 Gsf
Indoor Recreation (Event Center) 6,900 SF
Potential developments at this point include that aforementioned grocery store, Videri Chocolate Factory, Locals Seafood, Jubala Coffee, Boulted Bread and a so-called incubator kitchen run by HQ Raleigh.
In addition, part of the new space could be filled by Trophy Brewing Company, and a little more than a dozen town homes will be added to the property as well.
As for the building being torn down and not re-adapted into something cool like a chocolate factory or a brewery, the newly empty space at 400 Chavis Way will be used to build those aforementioned town homes.
James Borden
The former entrance to the Rex Senior Health Center
The structure was originally built in 1935, five years after the main warehouse at 500 E Davie Street. An extensive history of its use was not as easily tracked down as one for Stone’s, which started life off as a maintenance facility for the Carolina Coach Company.
Beyond their geographical proximity and the fact that both are owned by the City of Raleigh, the two buildings do have one additional common thread: the Raleigh Rescue Mission. As best we can tell, Raleigh Rescue Mission owned the building at 400 Chavis way from 1974-1994, when it sold the property to the City of Raleigh. During that time, the Rescue Mission rented space from the Stone family in their adjacent warehouse at 500 E. Davie.
Four years after the Chavis building was sold to the City, it was turned into the Rex Senior Center, which made the property its home for 17 years. In 2015, the center relocated from 400 Chavis to a new 35,000-square-foot, $13 million health facility at 1001 Rock Quarry Road.
Per a press release issued last year by Rex Healthcare, ” The new Senior Health Center will offer convenient, expanded services in one location, including primary care, dental care, behavioral health, lab services and a new pharmacy.” Impressive!
The 11,720 square foot building will be demolished for a listed cost of $70,000.
James Borden
The back of the former Rex Building on Chavis Way
