Fayetteville Street makeover: Raleigh planners to present '10 big ideas'
On Tuesday, Raleigh city leaders will take a closer look at plans to revitalize part of Fayetteville Street downtown.
Plans are underway to revitalize Fayetteville Street, downtown Raleigh's main thoroughfare, making it known as "North Carolina's Main Street."
Earlier this month, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA) released its 82-page "Activating Fayetteville Street" report, which lists ideas and plans to make Fayetteville Street more lively, vibrant and colorful with feedback from the community, business leaders and Interface Studio, a consultant to the project.
According to DRA, Fayetteville Street lacks the local charm and vibrancy of other areas of downtown development like Hillsborough Street, the Warehouse District, Glenwood South and Dix Park, which is currently undergoing a major transformation.
The report calls for the "loosening up" of Fayetteville Street and suggests: "The core of downtown centered around Fayetteville Street is disconnected from these investments and lacks some of the color and vibrancy of these newer districts."
The Downtown Raleigh Alliance will present what they call their "10 big ideas" to the city council Tuesday.
The redesign could bring more people to the area, helping business owners like William Wynne who opened Rolley, a shop full of Raleigh-designed fashion and art, last year in a former department store building at 206 Fayetteville St.
“I just was walking down Fayetteville Street, saw there was a nice space, and I wanted to open it up here and generate a lot of traffic and get people to come back downtown,” Wynne said.
Why is Fayetteville Street behind? The city of Raleigh shut down Fayetteville Street to traffic as a pedestrian mall for 30 years before reopening the road to cars in 2006.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic sent office workers home, and many haven't returned to their downtown towers.
Bill King, president of the DRA, is part of a group working on the new economic development strategy for downtown.
“What can we do to bring this street back? This street is really important to the city, to the state,” King said. “It’s in many ways part of the face of Raleigh.”
The first part of the project focuses on activating Fayetteville Street with 10 ideas, including celebrating the Black business district, growing the arts and entertainment district and developing more housing.
“It hasn’t had the same everyday energy,” King said. “We feel like it is worth of attention and being elevated but also doing better.”
As part of the project, Fayetteville Street’s wide sidewalks would be cleared of clutter and turned into colorful walkways with more space for outdoor dining.
The vision is for City Plaza to become downtown's "front porch" with flexible play space and North Carolina artwork painted on the street.
Other plans include seasonal pop-ups, like an outdoor ice skating rink, and large art installations, like the giant talking heads that appeared during the holiday season.
“I love it,” said Wynne, who is looking forward to watching the transformation happen outside his storefront. “I feel like that’s a reflection of what I’m doing here.”
The initial plan released Thursday includes 10 "big ideas":
- Develop a streetscape design for Fayetteville Street that offers variations on a theme
- Build a strong foundation to ensure downtown is clean, safe and vibrant
- Develop a family-friendly itinerary and route around Fayetteville Street attractions
- Design and market the downtown core as North Carolina’s Main Street
- Celebrate Raleigh’s Black Business District
- Add more housing on and around Fayetteville Street
- Use public space to support neighborhood livability
- Reposition City Plaza as downtown’s front porch
- Grow Raleigh’s arts and entertainment district
- Create a bold connection south of downtown
The report reads: "We also need to think of Fayetteville Street as more than a single street; it is really a series of overlapping mini-districts tied to surrounding streets and uses. In this way, Fayetteville Street has different personalities, and the design and retail strategy should reflect that."
The plans were made with input from Raleigh business and property owners, brokers, developers, employers, institutions, and government representatives and elected officials.
When asked how Fayetteville Street could be improved, people were most enthusiastic about tree canopies, outdoor dining, tree lighting, flowers and landscaping, pedestrian lighting, pop-up installations and large-scale artwork.
Essentials like plentiful public bathrooms, garbage bins and recycling bins were also ranked with importance.
The DRA hopes to accomplish the following:
- Loosen up and encourage vibrant street activity on Fayetteville Street
- Bring more housing to the core
- Connect Fayetteville Street to nearby amenities
- Bring more restaurant and retail but be strategic about location and type
- Leverage Downtown’s role in entertainment to help bring more activity to Fayetteville Street
- Encourage a culture of innovation and risk taking on Fayetteville Street
A full report will be released in mid-2024. In the spring, the DRA will work with the city of Raleigh and the project leader, Interface Studio, to gather public input. People can stay updated on the project here.
