Scoop: After completing Hotel Indigo, New York developer eyes next project in Raleigh

Tidal Real Estate Partners, the New York developer that just completed a $36 million renovation of the former Holiday Inn, isn't slowing down its work in downtown Raleigh.

Why it matters: The real estate company plans to break ground as soon as the next 60 days on a 20-story tower at 521 S. Wilmington St., Tidal's CEO Mick Walsdorf told Axios.

• Tidal, which owns land across three separate areas in downtown, is betting big on downtown's momentum growing over the next decade, he said.

Driving the news: Tidal, which operates in New York and other Southeastern cities, entered the Raleigh market in 2021, splashing large sums on the former Holiday Inn, land near CAM Raleigh in the Warehouse District and the Lincoln Theatre on Wilmington Street.

• The company originally planned to demolish the circular Holiday Inn before changing its mind and renovating it into a swanky Hotel Indigo. "It wasn't the original plan, but it probably should've been," Walsdorf said.

The big picture: Walsdorf said that getting any project over the line is always complicated, especially when interest rates have remained stubbornly high.

• But Tidal sees downtown Raleigh's momentum taking off as more projects get completed.
• "What we believed and still believe is that not enough of [Raleigh's growth] has been captured downtown," he said. "You need more projects, more existing buildings like [Hotel Indigo] revitalized, and more projects built to really kind of create enough gravity in downtown."

What's next: Walsdorf said that Tidal's next priority is its Wilmington Street project.

• That project — billed as 20 stories with 374 apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail — will be built on a parking lot near the under-construction Omni Hotel and Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.
• The goal is to make the project one of the most amenitized apartment buildings in the city, with features like a rooftop pool, outdoor pickleball courts, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a theater room and more.

After that, Walsdorf said, it hopes to begin work on the gravel lot that is adjacent to the new Hotel Indigo.

• Tidal is not ready to say what it plans for that lot, but it has an idea in mind. Earlier this year, though, it did file plans for another hotel project on that lot.
• "I'm not sure we're ready to talk about it too much yet ... [but] they're meant to kind of work together," Walsdorf said of the future plans.