With a growing array of restaurants, bars and shops, downtown Raleigh's rebound has landed it a new accolade from a statewide group of city planners: Great Main Street.

The North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association gave the honor at its annual Great Places awards ceremony Wednesday.

"Fayetteville Street is a great public space where all of Raleigh and Wake County can come together, and we are proud to have been recognized by APA-NC,” Mayor Nancy McFarlane said at the event.

The award nomination points to the turnaround driven in part by the 2006 reopening of Fayetteville Street to traffic and the renovation of City Plaza: "The historic commercial spine of North Carolina’s capital city, Fayetteville Street has been transformed in less than 10 years from an emblem of urban decline to a dramatic symbol of urban success. By day, Fayetteville Street bustles with business, commerce and government activity. At night, it pulses with youthful energy fed by the restaurants, bars and nightclubs.”

Other "Great Main Streets" recognized were Fayetteville’s Hay Street, Davidson’s Main Street and Blowing Rock’s Main Street.

Raleigh officials have given the development group behind the Charter Square project in downtown Raleigh more time to get the project started.

The City Council approved a request Tuesday to extend the required construction start date in the development agreement to Sept. 20, 2013.

Under the previous agreement, the developers were required to begin construction by Thursday or the city would have to repurchase the property.

The city sold the Charter Square development group a 1.75-acre site on Fayetteville Street in November 2008.

The development group has five years from the sale date to build an office tower on the site or the city must repurchase the property. That date likely will also need to be extended at some point over the next 14 months.

The Charter Square project is ultimately expected to include two towers. It has a 553-space underground deck that was built by the developer and then sold to the city.

Charter Square, like many other office tower projects proposed before the recession, has been delayed indefinitely while the development group tries to line up the necessary tenants that would allow the project to get financed.

Two downtown Raleigh properties were sold last week, including the building at 208 Fayetteville Street that has been home to the N.C. State Bar since 1979.

The State Bar is scheduled to vacate the building early next year when it moves into its new headquarters, which is currently under construction at the corner of Blount and Edenton streets.

The N.C. State Bar sold the 28,000-square-foot building to an investment company owned by the Fumagalli family. A purchase price wasn’t disclosed. The Fumagalli family also owns the building at 19 E. Martin Street that is home to the Square Rabbit bakery. The family bought that building in 2010 for $1.59 million.

The family plans to lease the State Bar building to office or retail tenants, Angel Fumagalli said in a release.

The other sale last week involved the 135 E. Martin Street building across from Moore Square at the northwest corner of Martin and Blount streets.

The Raleigh City Council today approved a rent restructuring for The Mint restaurant located in the city-owned building One Exchange Plaza on Fayetteville Street.

The revised agreement between the city and Raleigh Restaurant Group reduces the rent by $1,159.63 per month for three years and then recoups much of that money with higher rents in the later years of the lease.

The restructuring reduces the overall value of the 10-year lease by $339.

The Mint opened in January 2008, shortly before the economy tanked and consumers severely cut back on eating out.

The timing of the Duke Energy and Progress Energy merger has been unfortunate for downtown Raleigh property owners looking to sell.

Although the merger may not end up affecting property values downtown all that much, the uncertainty caused by the merger could make a nearby building tougher to sell.

Now consider the plight of 227 Fayetteville Street, the 10-story building that is the former regional headquarters for Wachovia.

On Jan. 31, a 50-year ground lease between Wachovia and the owners of the land will expire.

At that point, ownership of the 100,000-square-foot building and the land will revert back to the families of the original owners, Morton Rosenfeld and Milton Schwarz of New York City.

The building, built in 1964, is now up for sale. The owners are open to either selling or signing another long-term ground lease.
 

Durham's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is moving its three-person law enforcement division into its former liquor store at 905 Fayetteville Street.

Preparatory to the move, the building is due for an overhaul to modernize it and improve its appearance, according to an ABC statement released this morning.

"We are hopeful that these updates to the property will contribute to the area as it grows in the coming years," ABC General Manager Randy Mills said in the statement.

ABC had had a store on Fayetteville Street, in the old Hayti area of town, for more than 70 years before closing it in February. The location was one of just two counter-service liquor stores left in Durham County after ABC's gradual conversion to self-service retail.

The board expects to start remodeling later this fall and to move personnel in early next year.

Twenty-one bands and a combined 20 hours of rock music are scheduled for Raleigh Wide Open 5, which kicks off at 11 a.m. July 31. Three stages will be set up near Fayetteville Street from 12:30 to 10:30 p.m.

The day of music is set to begin with a parade on Fayetteville Street at 11 a.m., and conclude with a fireworks display at 11 p.m.

The Cherry Bounce Stage on Hargett Street will offer six hours of Indie Rock from seven different banks. Six other bands will play reggae, soul, blues, country, bluegrass, funk and hip hop on the World Stage on Martin Street. And eight local bands will play on the Raleigh Rocks Stage on Martin Street.

For more information and a list of the bands, go here.

North State Bank will soon open a groundfloor branch on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh.

Greg Hatem, president of Empire Properties, said North State has leased 5,000 square feet of space on the groundfloor of the company's 230 Fayetteville Street building.

North State currently has a branch on the 12th floor of the 16 W. Martin Street building at the corner of Martin and Salisbury streets.

The new location, scheduled to open sometime in June, will provide the bank with a more visible and convenient location for customers and will include a night drop off, an ATM and counters with bank tellers, Hatem said.

Hatem said the 230 Fayetteville Building is full expect for two smaller spaces.

At last week's tree lighting on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh, developer Roland Gammon loved what he saw but not all of what he heard.

What he saw is people flocking downtown to the new City Plaza, Raleigh's $14.8 million public square at the south end of Fayetteville Street.

In addition to the tree lighting, the city has installed a temporary ice rink on a slice of the plaza that runs between the Bank of America building and the proposed site for Charter Square, a two tower project that Gammon's firm White Oak Properties is a partner in.

Charter Square is one of several downtown projects that has been delayed indefinitely by the credit crisis. What bothered Gammon was hearing people say that the ice rink was a great use for the space after "those developers ran out of money."

"I'm sure I heard that ... at least a dozen times," Gammon said. "Our building is not being built, not because we ran out of money--we've got plenty of money--but not enough money to build a building in this awful economy."

About 30 people at the Hayti Heritage Center got an update on plans to perk up the looks of Fayetteville Street Monday night — trees, shrubs, decorative paving, widened sidewalks, fresh paving, art and historical displays.

They also got a price: $33,288,500.