Retail space is becoming such a hot commodity in North Carolina’s urban markets that developers are changing their plans to include more of it.

New York-based Tidal Real Estate Partners has altered plans for its proposed 20-story mixed-use tower in downtown Raleigh to add retail space, the Triangle Business Journal reported. The project's ground-floor retail space will now span 20,601 SF instead of the originally planned 18,650 SF.

A Colliers Raleigh-Durham Q1 2026 retail market report noted that this is “the fourth consecutive year the market has maintained sub-3% vacancy, highlighting the ongoing scarcity of available space.” Raleigh's Village District even has a waitlist for retailers looking to lease space, TBJ reported.

A Marcus & Millichap retail forecast published in March ranked Raleigh and Charlotte as the top two retail markets in the U.S. Throughout last year, the report found, Raleigh withstood the departures of many big-box retailers through increased leasing demand from small-business owners.

Andrew Margulies, Marcus & Millichap’s senior managing director of investments for the Carolinas, previously told Bisnow that there is an almost unlimited appetite for well-located retail centers in both Charlotte and Raleigh.

Several of Raleigh’s incoming high-rises will include ground-level retail, among them the 20-story The Strand, a predominantly residential building with nearly 9K SF of retail, and the 37-story Highline Glenwood, another residential building that will include 7,500 SF of retail.

With Tidal’s revamped plans for its tower, which sits on a 1.4-acre lot at 521 and 529 S. Wilmington St. and 108 Stronachs Alley, the developer has also added parking space and taken away some apartment units. There will now be 368 parking spaces in a 153,812 SF parking deck instead of 313 spaces in a 166,400 SF deck, as well as 13 fewer apartment units.

These changes — part of Tidal’s application to extend the approved site plans, which had been set to expire in February — have increased the size of the proposed tower from about 583K SF to just under 591K SF.

The developer reportedly originally paid $12M for the site in 2021.

Tidal’s extension was permitted, and the revised plans are good until January 2028, according to TBJ. While the developer has not yet submitted an application for a building permit, the site review process is already complete.

Tidal’s other Raleigh projects in the works include the renovation and rebranding of its Holiday Inn on Hillsborough Street and the construction of a 13-story luxury hotel next to it.