May 29, 2018
On Monday, April 30, Raleigh city officials and residents gathered to celebrate the grand opening of Union Station, a new regional transportation hub built by Clancy & Theys and Skanska in association with Holt Brothers. The multi‐modal station in the heart of downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District will accommodate current and future demand for intercity passenger rail, commuter rail, buses, taxis and other forms of transportation.
Union Station will replace the current Amtrak station on Cabarrus Street. The new station features a 920‐foot raised platform, a circular drive for dropping off and picking up passengers, and cost‐effective parking options. The raised platform is the first of its kind in North Carolina, allowing easy boarding for all passengers.
City, state and transportation officials joined in the grand opening celebration. Several officials offered remarks at the event, including:
- Mayor Nancy McFarlane
- S. Representative David Price
- C. State Representative Nelson Dollar
- NCDOT Chief Deputy Secretary David Howard
- Joe McHugh, Amtrak VP for State Supported Services & Business Development
Union Station features steel pillars and ceiling beams in the main hall, maintaining the look and feel of the old Dillon Supply warehouse around which the station was built. The station also offers 3,847 square feet of ground‐floor retail space, 6,262 square feet of office space, and a 2,702‐square‐foot retail or restaurant space with a rooftop patio on the third floor. This space has not yet been leased.
Raleigh’s train station is the second busiest in North Carolina. This new transportation hub will easily accommodate the current and growing ridership demand in the city.
McHugh, who has visited many stations in his tenure at Amtrak, remarked, “I will tell you that few match the vision, the grandeur, the utility and the basic this‐was‐built‐for‐the‐ages feel that this station possesses.”
Clancy & Theys was thrilled to be a part of the Union Station project, as it will support the growing and thriving Raleigh population, and we look forward to continuing to support the revitalization of the downtown area.
Read more about the grand opening of Union Station from the Triangle Business Journal here.
