Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street skyline has a new heavyweight: a 12-story student housing tower built to bring nearly 2,200 residents to the edge of NC State. Hub Raleigh is opening as students prepare for fall move-in, giving one of the city’s busiest college corridors a dramatically different backdrop.
The development, created by Core Spaces, has already remade the look of Hillsborough Street, according to Triangle Business Journal. The project sits near the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Cox Avenue, within a short walk of NC State’s main campus.
Core Spaces lists Hub Raleigh at roughly 1 million square feet, with 665 apartments and 2,195 beds. The company’s project portfolio identifies the Raleigh building as a 2026 development and one of its largest student housing communities.
What’s Inside Hub Raleigh
The building is designed less like a basic dorm and more like a self-contained student resort. Project builder Power Construction says the complex includes five levels of parking, 20,000 square feet of amenity space and another 32,000 square feet of terraces.
Planned features include a rooftop pool and spa, fitness center, coffee bar, study and lounge areas, a green roof and a dog park. The amenity package also includes an outdoor living room and a lobby and leasing area facing Cox Avenue, according to the builder.
The official Hub Raleigh website says the property is about a six-minute walk from NC State and offers studio through four-bedroom layouts. Its leasing page currently advertises move-in beginning Monday, putting the building’s first residents on the doorstep of the 2026-27 academic year.
Another Major Shift For Hillsborough Street
The project’s impact goes beyond its apartment count. A 2026 development report from the Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation calls the $220 million development the corridor’s largest residential address and describes it as a new student-life center at the campus edge.
That timing matters because Hillsborough Street is already in the middle of a broader makeover involving restaurants, housing and hotel proposals. Triangle Business Journal reported earlier this year that the corridor was being reshaped by a wave of new investment, and Hub Raleigh now gives that transformation its most imposing residential piece.
For students, the building adds a highly amenitized option close enough to campus for most daily trips to happen on foot. For the businesses and neighbors along Hillsborough Street, the arrival of roughly 2,200 new residents could mean a much busier customer base—and a very different rhythm once the fall semester gets rolling.
