Palmer Jones.
Sports & Data October 24, 2026 · 6 min read

The Lenovo Center District Plan, Mapped

What could get built around Lenovo Center, where the office tower would go, and how you could get there.

An oval clay arena surrounded by district parcels, small building stacks, scaffolds, terracotta markers, trees, and a northwest office tower, in clay-on-paper style.

A new office tower could be the first project in the planned district around Lenovo Center. Triangle Business Journal’s October 22 headline calls it a 20-story tower. WRAL’s October 23 report says it could have up to 16 floors of offices, just northwest of the arena. No work has started yet.

The interactive district map shows where the tower would go and where the district’s edges are.

The short version

What could get built

Raleigh approved new zoning rules for the site on April 15, 2025. Those rules cover about 80.69 acres around the arena. They allow up to 4,200 homes and 3,010,000 square feet of offices, shops and entertainment space.

That’s on top of the arena buildings already there, and open parking decks are counted separately. The plan sets how much can be built. It doesn’t say when.

The Hurricanes’ September 2024 announcement pitched the district as a roughly $1 billion project. No construction budget or financing has been reported.

What the renderings show

The 2024 pitch showed a 600-foot walking promenade, a five-acre gathering area and a 4,300-seat music venue. The final layout depends on later plans.

Aerial concept showing the arena, gathering space, nearby buildings and parking.

Concept: September 2024 rendering from the Hurricanes/NHL. It shows an idea. Nothing here is built or final.

The first phase in that 2024 announcement had more than 500 apartments and a 150-room hotel. The announcement also included more than 200,000 square feet for shops and entertainment, plus 150,000 square feet of offices. That 2024 office number and the 2026 tower come from different versions of the plan, so don’t add them together.

Fans gather along a grassy promenade between buildings in a developer rendering.

Concept: September 2024 drawing of the promenade and fan area. Credit: Hurricanes/NHL, public release.

How the city plan divides the land

The city-approved site plan splits the land into four areas: A for the arena and parking, B for entertainment, C for a mix of uses and D for homes and workplaces.

Approximate district map showing areas A through D and a tower pin northwest of Lenovo Center.

Approximate: this map follows the city-approved boundary. The tower pin marks the spot reported in October 2026, not a building outline. Existing buildings: City of Raleigh GIS, accessed October 23, 2026. Carter-Finley sits outside the district.

Approximate: interactive map of the district and the reported tower spot, until detailed building drawings are public.

If one area uses less than its share of homes or floor space, that share can move among A, C and D.

City-approved site plan showing four areas, open space and building limits.

Adopted plan: City of Raleigh Z-38-24, Kimley-Horn sheet C03.0, adopted April 15, 2025. The plan sets how much can go where. Final building shapes will come later.

How you’d get there

Lenovo Center is at 1400 Edwards Mill Road in west Raleigh. The arena’s directions send you from I-40 or I-440 to Wade Avenue, then Edwards Mill Road. Carter-Finley is just south of the arena, and the fairgrounds are across Trinity Road.

Approximate Triangle map showing Lenovo Center near Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill and RDU.

Approximate: Triangle map with rough place locations. It isn’t to scale and doesn’t show the district boundary. Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Driving routes from OSRM, a free online mapping tool, put downtown Raleigh about 5.5 miles away and downtown Cary 4.6 miles away. RDU is about 8.5 miles away, Durham 20 miles, and Chapel Hill 23 miles. Treat those as ballpark numbers. They use rough start and end points and skip traffic, event lines and finding a parking spot.

GoRaleigh 27L and GoCary 2 run along Trinity Road. Check their schedules before you plan a game-night trip.

Wolfline 60 stops at the Carter-Finley lot, where you can park and catch a bus. It runs on fall and spring weekdays only, with no weekend service to that lot.

The 2035 Wake Transit Plan lists a possible I-40 bus rapid transit (BRT) route via Lenovo Center and RDU. BRT means fast buses with their own lanes. The I-40 line is only a study corridor for now. It still needs a major investment study, and nothing is under construction.

Western BRT, from Raleigh to Cary, is in design and has no branch to Lenovo Center.

When work might start

WRAL’s October 23 report says there’s been no district groundbreaking yet. Hurricanes Holdings CEO Brian Fork expects work to start in early 2027, after football season.

WRAL also reports the tower could have about 550,000 square feet of offices and 158 parking spaces inside, plus a separate four-story deck with 672 spaces. We won’t know how the office floors and inside parking stack up until detailed building drawings are public.

I’m a Caniac who gets to a few games a year, so I’ll be watching parking and access around Lot 3000 first.

Open the interactive district map to see the tower pin and the four areas around today’s buildings.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Lenovo Center district? It’s at 1400 Edwards Mill Road in west Raleigh. The city-approved district covers about 80.69 acres around Lenovo Center.

Has construction started at Lenovo Center? Not yet. WRAL’s October 23 report says there’s been no district groundbreaking. Hurricanes Holdings CEO Brian Fork expects work to start in early 2027, after football season.

Is Lenovo moving its headquarters here? No move has been announced. WRAL says Lenovo extended its Morrisville lease through 2031 and hasn’t decided what comes after that. The tower plans filed with the city don’t name a tenant.

Will all 4,200 homes be built at once? No. The city’s plan allows up to 4,200 homes across the district. It doesn’t promise that many or set a date.

Can I take a bus to a Lenovo Center game? GoRaleigh 27L and GoCary 2 serve nearby Trinity Road, so check their schedules for your game. NC State’s Wolfline 60 doesn’t run to the Carter-Finley lot on weekends.

Sources

Tagged
LocalMapsRaleighLenovo-CenterArena-District