Raleigh exit ramp closes to make way for downtown development
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NCDOT permanently closed westbound MLK to northbound McDowell ramp earlier this month.
- CCUD bought the land where the ramp sat; property rezoned for downtown development.
- Contractors altering cloverleaf and expect restored MLK-to-McDowell access by year’s end.
Drivers may be confused about why a ramp connecting Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with McDowell Street suddenly closed in downtown Raleigh, but there’s logic behind it.
The N.C. Department of Transportation permanently closed the ramp from westbound MLK to northbound McDowell earlier this month. The 1,400 drivers who used it each day on average are being directed to nearby Wilmington Street into downtown.
The closure is a step in the development of a prominent piece of land at the south end of downtown known as the City Gateway district.
The company behind the district, Capital City Urban Development, bought the land on which the now-closed ramp was built from NCDOT, which gave up its easement for the ramp to allow the company to develop the property. It’s part of 6.75 acres the city rezoned a few years ago to allow office, hotel or residential towers up to 40 stories tall.
With the ramp closed, Capital City Urban Development will extend a short street and create a new intersection at MLK. Kindley Street now ends in a thicket of bushes and trees outside the Mira, a 2-year-old apartment building perched above MLK and the first piece of the City Gateway district to be built.
The Kindley Street connection with MLK fulfills the city’s goals of improving the movement of traffic and pedestrians near the convention center and the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts. The city’s Comprehensive Plan was amended several years ago to show the street’s extension with a dotted line, said Robert Ferris, the Raleigh architect and developer leading the Gateway project.
“The city hopes to create a more connected, pedestrian-friendly environment,” Ferris wrote in an email. “And it was our pleasure to align this project with the city’s goals.”
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In addition to extending Kindley, Capital City Urban Development is working with the city and NCDOT to restore access from westbound MLK to northbound McDowell. Contractors have begun to alter the cloverleaf on the south side of MLK and create a new left-turn lane.
The access should be finished by the end of the year, according to Eric Battle, the city’s right of way supervisor.
Plans for the City Gateway district have changed over the years. At one point, they included a 10-story building called the Gateway Center that would have housed Exploris, a K-8 charter school. After that plan fell through, Exploris bought three quarters of an acre on Kindley Street from Capital City Urban Development in 2022.
The next phase of the development will be an underground parking garage between Kindley and McDowell, Ferris said.
“Our plans are flexible,” he wrote. “But at this point in time we are planning to have a hotel connected to the parking deck and look forward to continuing to work with the city and NCDOT on additional mixed-use opportunities.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Raleigh exit ramp closes to make way for downtown development."
