There will be no shopping center on the former Parker-Hannifin, once Schrader, property where Wake Union Church Road meets Capital Boulevard, at least not in 2010 and not one named Wake Union Place.
            It was one of the most discussed long-running events of 2008 when Weingarten Realty Investors, a firm which owns and/or operates local shopping centers, announced plans to build an upscale shopping mall on the former factory site. There were reports from experts about the retail possibilities, at least two meetings with neighbors in the St. Ive’s subdivision, and then there were the public hearings before the town planning board and commissioners.
            Those hearings stretched out for hours over three months, September, October and November. In December, the town commissioners unanimously said no to the special use request, and in January Raleigh attorney Clyde Holt, on behalf of the developer firm of WRI-Wake Union LLC, appealed that decision.
            The commissioners based their decision on the grounds that Holt and WRI-Wake Union had failed to show that the shopping center would not cause undue traffic congestion or a traffic hazard. In a special use request, there is a test, eight findings of fact. The town’s zoning ordinance says: “In order to grant a special use permit, the planning board and town board must make the required findings of fact” based on the factual information the applicant supplies.
            Superior Judge Carl R. Fox issued his decision Friday, Feb. 26. He wrote that the evidence at the public hearings about traffic was “conflicting.”
            Will Letchworth, an engineer with Wilbur & Associates, was hired by the town and had done an independent traffic analysis, concluding there would be a “large negative impact” on Capital Boulevard traffic if the shopping center was built.
            WRI hired another engineer, Robert Ross, who used a different approach to the traffic analysis and found Capital Boulevard traffic would “operate better with the project” and proposed improvements than if left undeveloped although the Jenkins Road intersection at Capital would be impacted.
            Although Letchworth later said Ross’s method was valid, he never backed away from his earlier testimony.
            Therefore, Fox found that the decision the commissioners reached was supported by the record of the hearings. “The sole issue before this Court is whether the decision by the Town of Wake Forest is supported by substantial, material, competent evidence using the whole record test. The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners properly weighed the evidence presented at the public hearing. There is no evidence on the record that the Board acted out of political motivation or based upon factors outside the record. The decision by the Board of Commissioners is supported by substantial, material, competent evidence based upon the whole record.” He denied the appeal and ordered that each side would bear its own court costs.
            Wednesday Wake Forest developer Jim Adams, who owns the 67-acre site, said, “We’re trying to figure out exactly what our options are. One option is to appeal it. We would love to find a reasonable solution with the town so both of us can stop paying legal fees.”
            Noting that the shopping center would bring over 700 jobs and a $50-million increase in the tax base to Wake Forest, Adams said he had made at least two overtures to the town board seeking to find a solution but had heard nothing in return.
            WRI and Weingarten own Heritage Station shopping center at the corner of Forestville and Rogers roads as well as the largely undeveloped land on the east side of Capital Boulevard north of Wal-Mart that is still called The Shoppes at Caveness Farm. Relatively recent reports from town staff were that Weingarten and the other property owners and developers in that area with several streams and steep hills are continuing to seek a way to build the Ligon Road extension northward from its present deadend near Wal-Mart.

Judge’s decision ends second re-use possibility for the site
            The decision in the Wake Union Place appeal is the second time this decade that plans to redevelop the site have fallen through.
            Parker-Hannifin, the last owner of what was Wake Forest’s first industrial plant, closed its doors in 2002. The building and land had been owned by the Wake Forest Industrial Development Corporation since 1964.
            In 2003, Glenn Boyd, owner of Crossroads Ford in Cary, announced he wanted to turn the empty factory into an indoor car sales center and immediately fell afoul of traffic and road problems.
            Kimley-Horn, the town’s traffic consultants, developed a plan to extend Wake Union Church Road into the northern section of the property, then swing it back southward in an old-fashioned hairpin shape to meet Capital Boulevard at the present intersection. A second road would run along the back or west side of the property to connect Wake Union Church Road to a separate parcel to the north owned by Jim Adams.
            At the time, Adams was developing the St. Ive’s subdivision on Kearney Road to the west of the Parker-Hannifin site and he also owned a 20-acre parcel at the corner of Kearney and Wake Union Church roads adjacent to the Parker-Hannifin site.
            Because of that, Adams was involved in meetings between the town planning staff, Kimley-Horn engineers and Boyd’s representative to try to work out road alignments.
            The town and Kimley-Horn had backed away from the hairpin turn proposal and Planning Director Chip Russell was recommending dedication of road right-of-way along the north and west property lines.
            John Rich, one of the two remaining directors for the IDC, opposed Russell’s plan, saying it would disturb too much land contaminated by trichloroethylene, which had been dumped or spilled in the 1960s and 1970s. Parker-Hannifin had already entered an agreement with the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources to clean up the contaminated soil and water – and still continues to do so.
            Rich also said predicating the road network around the factory site on the state’s plan to turn Capital into a limited-access freeway is “a twenty-year what-if. If they want to upgrade, they can buy what they need.”
            By the time of this hearing, June 2003, Boyd had indicated through his attorney he was not interested in dedicating any right-of-way, and the town board voted unanimously to turn down the plan.
            As a by-the-way, the second project on the planning and town board agendas that month was Jeff Ammons’ plan to change the old Athey Products factory on South Main Street into what is now The Factory. The vote by the boards was an enthusiastic yes. And Ammons was purchasing the land and old factory from Adams and Jim Goldston, partners in the 1839 Development LLC.
            Adams kept his eye on the Parker-Hannifin property after Boyd’s plans dissolved. (In the spring of 2005, Boyd purchased the former Weavexx factory and land where he has built Crossroads Nissan of Wake Forest.)
            Finally, on June 1, 2006, his company, St. Ives 220 Commercial LLC, purchased the 30.5 acres and the buildings for $2.9 million. After fees and other claims, the IDC received $2.2 million, which it has contributed to the town, and dissolved itself.
            Adams added his two separate parcels to the Parker-Hannifin acreage to create the land for the shopping center.
            One reason it took was Adams so long to purchase the property was the contamination, which has migrated toward the St. Ive’s subdivision to the north and two other subdivisions to the west. Adams, Parker-Hannifin and the state were involved in the negotiations for a brown-fields agreement under which Parker-Hannifin posted an $11-million bond as assurance it will complete the cleanup, which could take up to 20 more years.
            Adams said he would donate – and the Wake Union Place plans always included – a site where the Wake Forest Fire Department could build the needed west-side fire station.