Raleigh Revives Moore Square Redevelopment Push After 2022 Setback

A $56.8 million affordable housing project on city-owned land beside Moore Square collapsed in November 2025 when its developer let a ground lease option expire unsigned. Now Raleigh is rebuilding its redevelopment strategy from scratch.

The City of Raleigh is conducting a consultant-led market and design study to guide its next move on the Moore Square East site, with plans to readvertise the parcel for potential buyers and development partners later in 2026. On the adjacent South Site, the city remains in active negotiations with LODEN Hospitality for a boutique hotel that would include adaptive reuse of the historic Esso Station.

The collapse closed a chapter that began in March 2022, when the city issued a Request for Proposals for two parcels totaling more than three acres east and south of the square. That November, the Raleigh City Council voted 6-1 to enter negotiations with Raleigh-based Loden Properties and its partners Northpond and Greystone, alongside Harmony Housing Affordable Development. The sole no vote came from outgoing council member David Cox, who argued the decision had been rushed.

The original vision was sweeping: 160 affordable apartments, a market-rate residential tower with more than 500 units, a grocery store, restaurants, shops, coworking space from Raleigh Founded, and a new permanent facility for the Raleigh Rescue Mission. The city committed $15.7 million toward the project, and the Raleigh Housing Authority was authorized to issue up to $31.7 million in private-activity bonds. The affordable units were intended to serve residents earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, secured by a ground lease priced at $10 per year.

By 2024, rising interest rates and declining downtown asking rents made the market-rate tower impossible to finance, and that component was quietly dropped. Plans to relocate the historic Norwood House were also scrapped. As late as May 2025, city staff told the council that Harmony Housing's 160-unit project was still on track to break ground in January 2026.

It wasn't. By late 2025, LODEN had withdrawn from negotiations on both sites. Harmony Housing did not exercise its lease option before it expired in November, and no lease was ever formally executed. City spokesperson Julia Milstead confirmed the outcome: "Loden has withdrawn from both efforts and their affordable housing partner, Harmony Housing, had an option to lease a portion of the Moore Square East site for their project. They did not exercise the option before it expired in November and no lease was executed."

Indy Week reporter Chloe Courtney Bohl broke the story on February 13, 2026. Council member Mitchell Silver called the outcome disappointing. District C Councilmember Corey Branch, one of the project's most vocal supporters since 2022, framed the collapse as a pause rather than an end: "We don't have a timeframe on it now because we're not sure what the final verdict will be with Harmony or if another RFP is needed. But the goal, the intent, is within this calendar year to find a way to move forward." Harmony Housing's representative Holstad said the firm "remains fully committed to advancing much-needed affordable housing throughout Raleigh."

The pressure to act is substantial. Downtown Raleigh renters represent 64% of all downtown residents, compared to 48% citywide, in a metro that ranks among the fastest-growing in the country. City staff have stressed that any new development on the East and South sites should "activate" Moore Square, the four-acre public green that surveyor William Christmas laid out in 1792, the same year Raleigh was founded. Branch noted that more foot traffic around the square would also improve safety, a concern that has shadowed the site for years.

The market and design study now underway is expected to shape a new solicitation process that will determine what finally gets built on city-owned land next to one of downtown Raleigh's most historic corners.