Life on Campus at NC State: What's Happening - January 2023

I last wrote one of these NCSU campus area updates with this PNC Arena-specific post back in December, but I wanted to put together another of these development rundowns for the area around NCSU to kick off 2023.

New Tenants Coming to Hillsborough St.:

One of my favorite things to see in Raleigh is quality development on Hillsborough St. Hillsborough has long been overlooked with much of the development in Raleigh focusing on areas close to campus like Glenwood South, North Hills, Downtown Raleigh, or the Village District. However, the area on Hillsborough St. directly across from DH Hill Library known as "The Electric Company Mall" will soon see "Crumbl Cookies" and "The Dankery" as new tenants. This space was originally constructed in the 1980's and then later renovated in 2004.

While Crumbl Cookies is a national brand, The Dankery is a local concept that opened with a Durham food truck in 2016 and then a Durham-based storefront in 2021. The Dankery serves a variety of offerings with chicken tenders, chicken & waffles, wings, shrimp, fries, cookies, etc. Their Instagram page shows that they are now open on Hillsborough St. and also includes some recent pics of what their newly opened Raleigh space looks like.

These new tenants are part of the renovation plans for this building from Carolina Capital Real Estate Partners, who purchased The Electric Company Mall in December 2021 for $5.8M. In addition to finding newer, quality tenants, these renovations will include storefront upgrades to the building's façade, as well as a mural.

I'm personally hoping some kind of bar offering will also open in this space given that it's basically just PR, Red Line, and Mitch's Tavern on Hillsborough St. these days. I'd also enjoy some better restaurant/bar options further down Hillsborough closer to Nelson Hall to have somewhere to visit before/after games at Doak Field and to also fill the void that East Village's departure left in my heart.

Integrative Sciences Building:

When Harrelson Hall was razed in 2016, voices of skateboarders across campus all suddenly cried out in terror. The area where Harrelson once stood has since been a large green space area with pathways crossing into different areas of the Brickyard.

NCSU recently announced that the "Integrative Sciences Building" will be constructed in this space, which will be five stories and more than 150,000 sqft large. Conceptual art of what this building is currently planned to look like can be found here.

While having some green space in the Brickyard has been a nice change of pace for the last 7 years, I am looking forward to seeing a new building constructed on main campus. Given the age/history of this area of campus, you generally only see building renovations here - with Centennial Campus getting the bulk of any new building construction. I'm hoping to see something similar to what happened with Harrelson Hall eventually occur in the space currently occupied by Dabney & Cox Halls as those hold the distinction of being my two least favorite looking buildings on campus (with Poe Hall a close runner up).

Under Armour's Partnership with NCSU:

In early December 2022, NCSU announced a partnership with Under Armour, which included UA opening a space on NCSU's Centennial Campus. UA plans to invest more than $1M into research alongside NCSU in the first year of the partnership that is to be directed towards the textiles and materials used within the design/manufacturing for apparel, footwear and other accessories.

There's also been rumors that this partnership may position Under Armour to become NCSU's official athletics apparel provider, which would help to shed a bit more light on why the supposed renewal of the Adidas apparel deal in the summer of 2022 went so far under the radar.

New Scoreboard at Carter-Finley:

At the Boston College football game in November 2o22, State officially announced that a new scoreboard would be installed at Carter-Finley prior to the start of the 2023 football season. Nothing else of note occurred at that game, so it's best we all forget everything else from that day other than the scoreboard announcement.

The video linked above notes that the scoreboard will be over 6.6 million pixels, 43 feet tall, 166 feet wide, and will be one of the top 10 largest scoreboards in the country. This should be a great addition to Carter-Finley as my eyes still hurt from trying to make out what was happening in replays shown on the pixelated mess we had at Carter-Finley in 2022.

I've got my fingers crossed that this will be a first big step towards additional Carter-Finley renovations that hopefully will include some concourse/restroom renovations, concession expansions, and continued improvements made to the new-ish Raleighwood area. I'm not of the opinion that we currently need more seating at Carter-Finley, but some refurbished fan amenity areas would be more than welcome.

Wolfe & Porter Renovations:

Wolfe & Porter has gotten to be a recent favorite bar of mine near State's campus that's located just off of Hillsborough at 905 W Morgan St. closer to Downtown Raleigh. They announced in late 2022 that they were temporarily closing for renovations with a planned reopening in spring 2023. The renovations will include an all new patio facing the street, a new back deck, as well as future renovations in subsequent phases.

With new apartments planned in this area (replacing Goodnight's Comedy Club which is in the process of moving to The Village Underground), the new "Bend" project coming from Carpenter Development, and with already established businesses around the corner with Trophy Brewing & Pizza and Wye Hill, there should be a lot more activity around this area of Morgan St. between NCSU's campus and Downtown Raleigh.

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Other News Items:

"More Than a Building" - The Future of NC State's Campus Video

"The Corner" Outdoor Gathering Area Opens on Centennial Campus

NCSU Natural Resources Library Renovation at Jordan Hall

"The Collegeview" Apartments from The Preiss Company to Open Near Greek Village

The Priess Company Purchases Valentine Commons, Plans Major Renovations

"29 Enterprise" Condos to be Developed Between Hillsborough & Village District

Core Spaces to Construct Student Apartments on Hillsborough at Former Brownstone/Double Tree Site

JD Signature Homes to Build "Canvas at Pack Place" Apartments Near PNC

"Fun Dippot" to Open in Former Taco Bell Cantina Space on Hillsborough

Trophy Brewing Collabs with NCSU Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences on "Howlin' Pack" Red IPA

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Go Pack.