The Tower at 101 South Main Can Never Be a Showroom. That Rule Is Why It Is Becoming Apartments.

The sunken brick plaza at 101 S. Main St. is torn up right now. Crews are doing stormwater work under the historic pavers. Once that's done, they plan to rebuild the steps, put the pavers back and add courtyard amenities around the glass pyramid where Noble's Restaurant used to be. The eight-story tower above it has carried a lot of names over the years: First Factors, Culp, GE Capital, Showplace West. It held offices from the 1970s until about 2010.

Fall High Point Market ran October 17 through 21 and has packed up. Most of the buildings around this plaza will stay quiet until spring. This one has a different future, and the reason is written into its deed.

The Gift Came With One Condition

In 2019, the company now called Andmore donated the building to Downtown High Point, the nonprofit that works on the downtown district. Andmore owns Showplace, IHFC and other High Point Market showrooms. The donation came with deed restrictions that prevent the building from ever being used as a showroom, even though showrooms are the main use all around it.

That one clause took the easiest option off the table. The Market district's default answer for a big empty building is more showroom space. Once that was ruled out, the tower had to find a use that works all year. Amber Williamson, who chairs the Downtown High Point board, told the High Point Enterprise that the goal was year-round use "with perhaps the most important thing that every downtown needs," which she named as residents.

Downtown High Point recruited the developer and sold it the property. FOX8 reported in April 2026 that LBD Investments of Richmond, Virginia, bought the building for $300,000 and planned an investment of more than $30 million. The low price makes sense next to the cost of the work. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024 for its 1970s modernist architecture, and that listing opened the door to historic preservation tax credits. According to Downtown High Point, the project would not have been financially feasible without federal, state and local historic incentives. Developer Randy Cosby told the Enterprise those incentives can generally cover about 20% to 30% of the cost of a project like this.

What 143 Apartments Look Like Inside a 1970s Office Tower

The project is now called Elwood on Main, and leaders held a ceremonial groundbreaking in June 2026. At that point, Cosby said asbestos abatement was largely finished, framing was laid out on most floors and a couple of floors were already being framed. Next comes rough-in, when crews run the pipes, wiring and ductwork.

Here is the building as the development team has described it:

• Size: about 135,000 square feet over eight floors
• Unit mix: about 75% one-bedroom, about 23% two-bedroom and about six studios with large windows and wide views
• Rents: not set yet
• Builders: general contractor Rehab Builders of Winston-Salem and architect WPA Studios of Richmond
• Street level: two small commercial spaces at the public entrances, one on Main Street and one on Wrenn Street

With so many one-bedrooms, Cosby expects mostly young professionals plus some empty-nesters looking for a maintenance-free place to live. Historic rules also mean the outside will change very little. "This will look pretty similar to what it was," he told the Enterprise.

The two storefronts matter most to people who already come downtown. No tenants have been named. Cosby said the team hopes for "a coffee shop or a little cafe or a little neighborhood market." At the groundbreaking, Downtown High Point CEO Rebekah Cansler said the building's residents would become regular customers for local businesses, FOX8 reported.

The Old Radisson on the Same Block Bet on Market Instead

A few addresses away at 135 S. Main St., the former Radisson shows what happens without a deed restriction. It opened in 1983, and at 252 rooms it was the city's largest hotel until it closed in June 2020. Through a series of owners and names, it had trouble drawing business outside Market weeks.

The owner, HDDA LLC, leased the ground floor to Market showroom tenants. In fall 2025, Triad Business Journal and the Enterprise reported that HDDA was testing demand for turning floors two through eight into condominiums under the name Foundry on Wrenn. Director Tim Moore described the likely buyers in Market terms. "Our thought is, those furniture manufacturers and vendor-suppliers might want their own place right there front and center in the middle of the show," he told the High Point Enterprise. The plan was in its early stages, and HDDA said it might still sell the property. Most of the condos discussed were 2,000 to 2,500 square feet. HDDA planned to keep gauging interest into early 2026 before deciding whether to go ahead.

Both buildings sit on the same stretch of South Main. Elwood's apartments are under construction, and the Radisson's condos are a proposal. Either way, upstairs homes are on the table at both, and the difference is the ground floor. Wherever showroom space is allowed, the ground floor goes to Market. Elwood's ground floor got a coffee shop pitch only because a deed took the showroom option away.

Why Showroom Space Wins the Ground Floor

The pull toward Market makes sense when you look at its scale. Market brings in about 75,000 visitors each year across its two shows and has an annual economic impact of $6.7 billion, the largest single economic event in North Carolina each year. About 2,000 exhibitors spread across roughly 11 million square feet of showroom space. Many downtown owners can earn their best rent from two short stretches a year, so it's hard for any other use to compete on price.

The flip side is a downtown that only runs on Market weeks. For Fall 2026, buyer registration was up about 2% from the spring show and roughly flat compared with fall 2025. Market Authority CEO Tammy Covington told the High Point Enterprise that consumer spending had gone "on things other than home furnishings or people buying new homes." If downtown depends on that calendar alone, it also depends on the furniture business cycle. That is what makes 143 people who buy coffee on a Tuesday in March valuable to downtown.

Elwood is only the second new multifamily project downtown in recent years, after decades without one. The first was The Point, a 28-unit building from Peters Development at 650 N. Main St. that opened in 2024. In December 2025, Mayor Cyril Jefferson told FOX8 that downtown had not seen many apartment projects in a while.

What Comes Next on the Downtown Calendar

Elwood is the furthest along of several projects that would put more people downtown outside Market weeks. Here they are in rough order:

1. September 29, 2026: Smitty and Pearl's held its downtown grand opening, FOX8 reported. The High Point Enterprise had placed the restaurant at W. English Road and N. Lindsay Street, near Congdon Yards.
2. Spring 2027: Elwood plans to start leasing three to four months before opening. Cosby said the team would decide then whether to open the whole building at once or a few floors at a time.
3. Late summer to early fall 2027: The first Elwood apartments are expected late in the summer of 2027, with the full building targeted for early fall 2027.
4. By August 2030: On August 3, 2026, City Council voted 8-0 to approve a revised agreement with Tara Investments for a hotel of about 100 to 130 rooms at 305 and 315 N. Elm St. The project includes a parking deck that will also add parking for downtown businesses. Under the agreement, construction must start within four years.
5. Planned, no construction date given: An affiliate of the Congdon Family Foundation planned about 250 apartments and up to 200 public parking spaces on roughly 4 acres at W. English Road and N. Lindsay Street, across from Congdon Yards. The High Point Enterprise reported a land closing set for March 17, 2026, with the foundation expecting to formalize a development partner after that. Congdon Foundation CEO Joe Blosser told FOX8 the likely plan was a four-story mixed-use building with first-floor retail.

Spring Market 2027 will still fill South Main for a week. When it leaves, the plaza at 101 S. Main should be close to having tenants upstairs and a storefront on Wrenn Street waiting to open.

If you own property near downtown High Point and want to know how projects like Elwood on Main might affect what you own, Heidi Christie follows these changes block by block and is glad to talk through your situation. Schedule a free consultation.