Chapel Hill’s controversial Franklin Street wet-lab site now has a very different future on the table: a 225-apartment mixed-use building with shops, parking and public space. Redgate is seeking conditional rezoning for the roughly two-acre property, trading a science-and-office megaproject for a housing-heavy downtown proposal.
The proposed building could rise 95 feet at its core and include 237 parking spaces on its first two floors. Plans also call for ground-floor retail, a public courtyard, a pedestrian cut-through between West Franklin and West Rosemary streets, and a possible contribution to Chapel Hill’s affordable housing fund, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
From Life Science Bet To Housing Bet
The property was previously approved for the Chapel Hill Life Sciences Center, a project that was expected to bring approximately 380,000 square feet of research laboratory, office and retail space downtown. The Town of Chapel Hill now lists the earlier project as a previous approval and the new mixed-use proposal as a formal application under review on its Chapel Hill project page.
The original life-sciences plan became a flash point over its height, scale and potential flooding effects, while Longfellow Real Estate Partners eventually backed out after finding market demand lower than expected. The Town Council had approved the project’s conditional rezoning in November 2023, town records show…