Life on Campus at NC State: February 2025

Bill O’Donnell -

The last time I published one of these was in January 2025 when there was still at least some optimism remaining around the NCSU 2024-2025 MBB season. Needless to say, things changed quickly there.

But hey, the WBB team is still projected to be one of the top 16 seeds in the NCAAT even after sustaining a major frontcourt injury before the season started - and baseball season has gotten underway - so things are looking up...or at least better than MBB.

Lenovo Center Renovation Phase 1 Plans Announced:

On 1/10/2025, the Centennial Authority voted to approve the first round of renovations to the Lenovo Center.

The Hurricanes' "The Storm Report" podcast episode released 1/16/2025 featured a conversation with Hurricanes' President (and NCSU grad) Doug Warf detailing what Phase 1 of these renovations will entail (begins at the 7 min, 22 sec mark). I've included snippets of that conversation below:

  • "...we're going to knock a lot of this out in about a four-month process this offseason..."
  • "...300 level with this new bar that's going to have this great, it's going to be what we call a view bar. We're going to find a cooler name, but the best place on the 300 level, without a doubt, to watch the game with an overlook, end of the bowl, bar behind it."
  • "New concessions on the 300 level. You know, all these new amenities, because we're kind of starting at the 300 level and ice level. And then phases two and three will hit the club level and the main concourse."
  • "And then on the ice level, we're going to have some new amenities that we've never had in the Triangle. So building bunker suites and a new hospitality club that we're really going to make the preeminent space for hospitality in the southeast."

Everything mentioned above honestly sounds pretty great to me, but there is still a lack of available information detailing how this entire project specifically benefits NC State. To get this arena built in the first place back in the 1990s, NC State did itself a total disservice from a flexibility, long-term planning, and leverage/negotiation view in signing a 99-year lease at the arena. Obviously, the building won't be around in 2098 (and neither likely will be any of the people reading this), but that lease agreement effectively locked NC State MBB into playing at this arena until the building is replaced or NCSU negotiates its way out of the 99-year lease and constructs a new arena elsewhere (which is not going to happen).

However, as part of the renovation process and surrounding area development deal, the Centennial Authority needed NC State's sign-off and buy-in on the project. That meant that NC State finally had leverage they could use to partially dictate the future of the arena that they hadn't had since the late 1990s. As such, I would've liked to see NC State use that leverage to negotiate the following:

  • Some type of revenue share on the surrounding development that boosts the income of the athletics department (tbh, I have no idea how feasible this actually would be given that we don't know what the current arena leases look like);
  • Discounts on concessions & merchandise sold at the Lenovo Center for NCSU MBB season ticket holders, WPC members, and 1Pack NIL members like the Canes offer for their STMs;
  • A reconfiguration of the fan/seat layout around the basketball court at the Lenovo Center (i.e., move the students closer and elevate the seating directly behind each basket); and
  • Construction of a permanent team apparel shop for NC State at the arena (like the Hurricanes have with The Eye) that also houses relocated MBB trophies in a display case that's far more befitting for them than being stuck in a 26-year-old cabinet between two stairwells in the concourse.

It is possible that NC State did try and/or succeed in negotiating certain items to improve the MBB experience at the Lenovo Center. However, the fans have no idea about any of this because NC State refuses to provide any update as to how the arena renovations will impact Wolfpack fans. With the Hurricanes operating the arena and acting as the primary tenant, I understand why most of the discussion about the renovations and surrounding area development plan is coming from the Canes. However, it would be nice to hear more from NCSU about how this will impact the fan experience at MBB games. To that point, I'm not certain I've seen a single rendering of what the arena's interior will look like during an NC State MBB game post-renovations, which is frustrating.

Dail Softball Stadium Locker Rooms Renovated; Softball Stadium Relocation No Longer Being Considered:

In advance of the 2025 season, NCSU Softball posted a video to its social media accounts showcasing upgrades to the softball program's locker room.

These renovations are particularly notable given that in the 2023 NCSU Campus Physical Master Plan, the goal was to move the Dail Softball Stadium next to Doak Field and atop what is currently Lee Field. However, what has caused some confusion in recent weeks is the lack of understanding that the NCSU Campus Physical Master Plan is essentially a vision document. It's what the University would do to campus if they had unlimited funding and didn't have to take into account the required number of beds for students on campus in dorms, impacts on parking/traffic patterns, construction phasing, etc. Just because something is in the current Master Plan doesn't mean it will remain in the next version of the Master Plan and it doesn't mean any such changes are 100% going to happen in the future.

If anyone out there is interested in following the various capital projects going on around NCSU (these are projects that money has been spent on, so they're a bit more "real" than all that is included in the Master Plan), then check out the Current Capital Projects PDF on the NCSU Facilities webpage under "Design & Construction" -> "Current Capital Projects". This is a link to the Capital Projects PDF updated as of 2/1/2025, but this link will go dark once a new version is uploaded to the NCSU Facilities webpage later on in 2025. Additional details on each of these specific projects can be found at links on this page. There's also a good summary of the most recent Master Plan from 2023 here on DTR Community.

The 2/1/2025 document shows that the "Cates West" project, which previously included relocating the softball stadium beside Doak Field (more on that below), is now in the "Design Phase" and that the University is currently working to select a designer for the project. As mentioned in the January 2025 Life on Campus, this project will entail:

  • Demolishing Lee Residence Hall, Sullivan Residence Hall, Bragaw Residence Hall, Fountain Dining Hall, and the West Dunn Building as they've all reached the end of their useful lives;
  • Constructing new dorms to house ~3,000 traditional and semi-suite style student beds; and
  • Also constructing a new 1,500-seat dining facility.

These newly constructed areas are anticipated to provide approximately 800k gross square feet ("gsf") of housing, 100k gsf of dining, and 25k gsf of "student life space". The project is planned to be completed in these phases:

  • Advance Planning: December 2025
  • Phase 1: January 2030 – Construct approximately 1,500 beds.
  • Phase 2: January 2032 – Demolish one residence hall, West Dunn Building, and construct approximately 750 beds & the dining hall/student center space.
  • Phase 3: January 2034 – Demolish remaining buildings and construct approximately 750 beds.
2023 Master Plan Rendering for the "Cates West" Campus Hub Project (ignore the mention of "New Softball Stadium" above)

The Technician put together a good write-up on the Cates West Project at this link that includes quotes from NCSU officials about what to expect over the next decade with these planned new campus buildings.

On the softball stadium relocation discussion, if NCSU just spent $ to renovate the locker rooms at the current softball facility, that also likely meant that their plans had changed to relocate the softball facility beside Doak (as reflected in the Master Plan graphic above from 2023). This was apparently confirmed when NC State contacted Pack Insider about some outdated information included in a recent article PI published on those softball stadium relocation plans.

NCSU Facilities

In this scenario, not moving forward with relocating the softball stadium beside Doak Field would allow NCSU to do something beneficial for the fan experience at baseball games with Lee Field and activate that space with beer tents, food trucks/booths, and additional restrooms. Even if the plans for the Cates West project have shifted to where Lee Field will now in the future be absorbed by an expansion of the footprint for the new dormitories - dirt won't move on that project for at least another 5 years. It is way past time to finally utilize Lee Field to enhance the fan experience at Doak.

Phase 2 of Doak Field Renovations Progressing:

I've long been critical of how NC State has handled the Doak Field renovations originally announced in January 2022, but Phase 2 of these renovations appears to now be progressing. As of early 2025, a new indoor batting cage is under construction, the RF foul poles are being moved, locker rooms are being renovated, and a pitching lab is set to be constructed. This is the player-facing portion of the renovations, so fans shouldn't expect to see much change to the areas of the park that we have access to during the 2025 season.

The way the athletics department has communicated with the fanbase on this Doak Field renovation project has been underwhelming from the start, but at least they're finally moving forward with something after 2+ years. The program, the coaching staff, the current players, and the program's alumni simply deserve more commitment from the administration towards baseball - but that's nothing new.

Western Blvd. K-Mart Sold to CityPlat:

Local Raleigh development firm, CityPlat, purchased the Western Blvd. K-Mart site in January 2025 for a $14M purchase price.

The K-Mart has been vacant for a while now and faces the area of Western Blvd. that's been under construction for 5+ years to install a diverging diamond interchange & also collect a perpetually growing number of orange/white traffic barrels. The previous owner's plan was to construct a Harris Teeter where the K-Mart currently stands, but now that it has been sold to CityPlat, their plans for the site are:

  • The short-term plan is to spend $5M on cosmetic renovations, parking, and facade. They’ll then subdivide the building into separate retail suites for new tenants and are hoping to have it fully leased “within months”;
  • "Grand Slam USA" is vacating soon & the Wells Fargo out parcel has 1 year left on its lease; and
  • Within the next 10 years, CityPlat "wants to spend $500M" to redevelop the site into a high-density mixed-use development, including retail, office, hospitality, and residential.

Given how many of CityPlat's Hillsborough St. holdings have sat undeveloped for years, we'll see if any of the above plans for this Western Blvd. site actually come to fruition in the short or long term.

Raising Canes to Open on Hillsborough St. Across from NCSU's Campus:

Speaking of Hillsborough St., everyone's favorite former porn theater/McDonald's/textbook shop/failed sit-down restaurant iteration of the month will now be turned into a Raising Cane's chicken fingers location. Per Raleigh Magazine, the plan is to "...keep the outdoor marquee sign + gut the entire inside to hopefully be open by the end of the year."

I'm glad something is finally opening in this spot and I'm sure Raising Cane's will do absurd levels of business just a short walk across Hillsborough St. from the heart of campus. However, when this spot was renovated back in 2018 or so, it had the perfect sports bar layout - a large wrap-around bar on the left, an open kitchen to the right, plenty of seating on the lower level, an upper-level bar with additional indoor/outdoor tables, a projector set-up, etc. The renovation was perfect, but the concepts that opened there never seemed to realize that they were located across from a college campus. Their pricing was often too high and they simply didn't cater to a college crowd.

An extremely popular fried chicken spot is better than nothing, but it just feels so uninspired for this area of Hillsborough. I still maintain that you could've opened something like Sammy's Tap & Grill or Brickhouse Sports Bar & Grill in that space, and it would've been a great fit. Hillsborough St. is in desperate need of spots to watch State games other than the long-time staples of Players' Retreat and Mitch's Tavern. There are plenty of new options that have opened up nearby - Gussie's, Wolfe & Porter, Red Line Beer & Wine, etc. - but none of those are sports bars and they're also not in the middle of that main drag of Hillsborough St. across from campus.

The next best hope for a new sports bar on Hillsborough IMO would be a two-level bar in the long vacant Two Guys location that has been a literal hole in the middle of Hillsborough St. for over a decade now. However, given that the former Two Guys site traded hands to CityPlat 4-5 years ago and nothing has materialized there in the time since, I'm not overly optimistic about that happening.

Pedestrian Bridge on Blue Ridge Delayed:

A pedestrian bridge currently under construction parallel to Blue Ridge Rd. and stretching over Wade Ave/I-40 has been delayed to an estimated Summer 2025 completion. This project will significantly improve pedestrian walkability around the NC Art Museum, Carter-Finley, and the Lenovo Center. There are a number of road and infrastructure projects ongoing around the Blue Ridge Corridor that will make the entire pedestrian experience in this area much better for years to come.

City of Raleigh

Other:

Go Pack.