Dewitt Carolinas Secures Loan to Kick Off $1B Development

Midtown Exchange in Raleigh, N.C. Image courtesy of HPA Urban Architecture

More than 20 years after Dewitt Carolinas began assembling the properties needed to create a $1 billion, 40-acre mixed-use development in Raleigh, N.C., the real estate development firm has received a $40 million senior loan to fund the pre-development activities and horizontal infrastructure construction for the Midtown Exchange project. The loan puts the firm one step closer to beginning construction on the first phase, which will include a 353,000-square-foot office tower.

Dewitt Carolinas selected Avison Young to arrange the debt financing for the mixed-use project. Avison Young’s team was led by Wes Boatwright, Mike Yavinsky and Jon Goldstein, all principals in the Washington, D.C., office.

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In a prepared statement, Boatwright credited Dewitt Carolinas for putting the deal together including assembling the site, creating the master plan and the architectural design. He noted it is very rare to have a project of the scale of Midtown Exchange be located in a dense, urban setting, especially in a high-growth market like Raleigh.

In November 2019, Dewitt Carolinas announced the master plan for Midtown Exchange. At full build-out, the project will include 790,000 square feet of office space; 1,275 residential units; 300 senior living units; 300 hotel rooms; 125,000 square feet of retail and dining; a convention center, and more than seven acres of green space and park amenities.

According to Todd Saieed, CEO & co-founder, the Raleigh-based firm had originally envisioned Midtown Exchange as a place where family entertainment would converge with high-end offices, high-rise residences, world-class conference space and inspiring outdoor spaces.

The firm had closed on the purchase of an 18.8-acre site near North Hills for $16.3 million in July 2017. The new acreage was contiguous to the Dewitt Carolinas corporate headquarters at One Renaissance Centre, a 20-acre property owned by the company since 1998.

Combining the two properties, bordered by St. Albans Drive, enabled the firm to move forward with plans for the large mixed-use project. The properties had already been rezoned a few months earlier by the Raleigh City Council, giving the developer the flexibility to erect buildings ranging from seven stories to 20 stories.