New Bern Avenue Will Be a Work Zone Until 2030. Its Newest Spots Opened Anyway.

In June 2025, the owners of Neuse River Brewing rolled up the garage doors on Blotto, a neighborhood bar in the old New Bern Mini Mart at 1601 New Bern Ave. Ryan Kolarov told The News & Observer that the bar was "for the folks on this side of town, who want to grab a drink but don't want to mess with downtown." A year later, Carl and Allison Vick opened an artisan market farther east on the same avenue, next door to the bakery they already run.

Both openings landed on a street that the City of Raleigh now expects to be under construction until summer 2030. Anyone who uses this part of east Raleigh will spend the next four years reaching them through cones, lane shifts, and moved bus stops.

Two Addresses Carry Most of the New Activity

Most of the new life on the corridor sits at two addresses. Both are older buildings put to new use.

Blotto is deliberately simple. The N&O reported a 2,500-square-foot room with a wrap-around wooden bar and a nitro line for Guinness. Kolarov chose not to call it a dive bar: "You earn a dive bar, you open a neighborhood bar." In early July, the same address drew a second business. New York Bagel Brothers, which started in Clayton, announced on Instagram a soft launch from its trailer there on Friday, July 3, with single bagels for $3 and bagels sourced from Long Island, the N&O reported.

At Longview, the anchor works more like an incubator than a café. Carl Vick told Business Debut that Little Blue Bakehouse gives four other baking businesses their own production space, and each one stocks its own display case in the café. One of them makes doughnuts. The bakers share the ovens and the dishwasher, which lets a small food business grow without paying for a storefront of its own.

All Kinds came out of that same setup. Local makers often asked to sell their work at the bakery, and the café could not fully accommodate them. According to Business Debut, Carl Vick described the new shop as a late-afternoon or early-evening place to work, talk, or shop with a glass of wine, rather than a traditional bar, and said it will not operate as a restaurant. Triangle Business Journal reported pottery, candles, clothing, and jewelry from 12 artisans, plus beer and wine. The space is already drawing outside events. The James Beard Foundation listed its Raleigh Advocacy Training at All Kinds for Tuesday, October 27.

What the Construction Looks Like Right Now

The businesses at 1601 and 2116 share one condition. Getting to either one means driving, walking, or riding a bus through an active work zone. The City's New Bern Avenue BRT construction updates page laid out the work, west to east, in its September 2, 2026 entry:

1. Person Street to Blount Street. Crews were finishing water main installation through the Person Street intersection and moving toward Blount. Service lines between East and Blount streets were scheduled to be done by late September, followed by asphalt repairs.
2. State Street to Swain Street. Sewer work was underway on New Bern Avenue.
3. Poole Road to Sunnybrook Road. A crew was still removing trees and shrubs to make room for a new sidewalk, bus lanes, and a multi-use path.

The clearing east of Poole Road started in July, beginning with the median so crews could begin underground utility work between Poole Road and Raleigh Boulevard. The City warned that bus stops in that stretch might be moved or closed during heavy clearing, and it points riders to GoRaleigh for transit changes. Lane closures change week to week, so the most reliable current view is the City's interactive construction map.

ABC11 reported in August that trees along the avenue had been removed and that some businesses and homeowners had lost portions of their property to the project. City staff told the station that the removed trees will be replaced with North Carolina native trees and shrubs once the roadway work is complete. In the same report, Allison Vick said the work "definitely backs traffic up a bit." She planned to spend $2,500 in grant money on signage to help customers find her shops.

"Hopefully, it will draw more attention to the complex itself so people don't forget there are a couple of small businesses here that still need support."

Allison Vick, to ABC11

Dr. Stephen Oradesky of Josef's Pharmacy, another business on the corridor, admitted to ABC11 that "it doesn't look great right now." He also said he hopes the line brings more people and more businesses to the area.

Why the Finished Street Is Still Years Away

The 2030 date is the reason the businesses' timing matters. The 2016 Wake Transit Plan named four bus rapid transit corridors to be built by 2027. New Bern Avenue was picked to go first because it already had heavy ridership and a pedestrian project in the works.

Then the bidding stalled. The News & Observer reported in July 2025 that the City's first bid round drew no bids at all. The second drew a single bid that came in more than $41 million over the City's estimate. The City responded by splitting the work into three packages and giving contractors longer construction windows. Two of those packages are now underway, with Rifenburg North Carolina on phase one and Fred Smith Company on phase two. The City plans to advertise the third and final package by the end of 2026, and that package covers construction of the stations themselves.

So the work now happening is utilities, clearing, and roadway prep. The stations will come later, and the work that most changes how the street looks comes after that. On the finished line, about 3.3 miles of the 5.1-mile corridor will have dedicated transit lanes, running from GoRaleigh Station downtown to Sunnybrook Road. East of Sunnybrook to New Hope Road, buses will share the general traffic lanes.

The City has put some money toward the businesses caught in between. Its small-business resource page says the Raleigh Chamber Foundation is using a grant from the Public Project Community Support Fund to run the BRT Business Resource Collaborative, which offers corridor businesses free workshops and a resource guide. Business owners can find that program on the City's BRT resources page.

Using the Corridor While It's Torn Up

The construction runs in segments and moves over time, and so does the easiest way into each stop. A few specifics that help:

• Blotto, 1601 New Bern Ave. This end of the corridor is closest to the water and sewer work between Person and Swain streets. The bar has a patio and eight draft lines, and its owners pitched it to the N&O as a place for people on this side of town who would rather skip downtown. Its current drink menu is posted on Blotto's website.
• Little Blue Bakehouse, 2116-H New Bern Ave. The bakery's website lists hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, and notes that hours can change. The display cases also hold goods from the bakers who share its kitchen.
• All Kinds, 2116 New Bern Ave., Suite J. It's next door to the bakery, so one parking spot covers coffee, a browse through local pottery and jewelry, and a glass of North Carolina wine. Check current hours with the shop before you go.
• Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh, 2116-D New Bern Ave. It sits in the same center, so a movie, dinner, and the bakery can all happen in one stop. The theater's Raleigh page lists current showtimes and posted a menu update on August 25, 2026.

If you ride the bus, check GoRaleigh before heading out. Stops between Poole Road and Sunnybrook Road are the ones the City flagged for possible moves or closures.

If you live along New Bern Avenue and want to know how these years of work and new openings figure into your home's value, John Merriman can walk you through it. Let's connect, and I'll put together a complimentary market valuation grounded in what's actually happening on your stretch of the corridor.