What's next for Kane Realty in 2026
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The One North Hills building as seen from the Raleigh beltline. Photo: Kane Realty
Like seemingly every year, 2026 is shaping up to be another busy one for Raleigh-based Kane Realty, the development firm most known for its work creating North Hills into Raleigh's second skyline.
Why it matters: Kane Realty remains one of the most prolific developers in the region, even as more out-of-town companies move in.
- From North Hills to Dix Park, the company is remaking large swaths of the city, and that is set to continue apace this year.
Zoom in: The company has more than 1,200 apartments either under construction or about to begin, including two new apartment buildings in the West End neighborhood, a name the developer chose for a quickly densifying area between downtown and Dix Park.
- Already completed buildings like Rockway by Dix Park and the new North Hills Innovation District have seen many new tenants open in the past year, bringing important activity to the areas, said Mike Smith, CEO of Kane Realty.
- And One North Hills, a new office tower that opened in 2024, is now 100% leased, making it one of the best-performing new office towers in the region and giving a signal to Kane that office is working in places like North Hills.
Yes, but: Raleigh has such a glut of apartments that it's one of the metros with the highest percentage of properties offering concessions, such as free rent, to lure tenants, per the WSJ. Smith, however, said Kane continues to build aggressively because the demand is there.
- Kane's goal is to build multifamily properties offering more than just housing — think ground-floor retail and restaurants that keep residents from needing to use their cars as often.
- "You saw the population numbers," he said, referring to the Census Bureau's recent estimates. "We're a market that's in one of the top states [for growth] and then one of the top regions for it within all of that." It's really important that we're all thoughtful in what we're doing and not just throwing stuff up."
Between the lines: Kane has some big decisions left to make. It recently won a rezoning that was years in the making to add additional 37-story towers along Six Forks Road in Raleigh.
- And it recently closed on a $72-million deal for a 28-acre site along Navaho Drive that would conceivably stretch North Hills all the way to Wake Forest Road.
Smith said that the company was not yet ready to talk about potential plans for the Navaho Drive property or for the recently rezoned parcels in North Hills, but he hopes to have something to share soon.
- "We are always thinking through what we're going to do in these areas that have been rezoned, but we're not breaking ground on something here in the next quarter," Smith said. "What we want to be able to do is be very thoughtful. This is very precious land and we want to make sure we do it right."