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If
you have questions about what is being
built where, please call 556-3409 or
send a note to
cwpelosi@aol.com and we will try to
answer it. For large residential
subdivisions, you can
Go to
http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/residents/
planningzoning_subdivisions.aspx?rld=308
and look for “plan review information.”
What’s hot and what’s not
New
There may be a Steinmart at the Shoppes
at Caveness Farm, and some of the other
national stores looking at Wake Forest
are Kohls, J.C. Penney, Marshall’s and
T.J. Maxx.
For the knife and fork
crowd, the latest restaurants that are
tentatively planned locally are a Texas
Roadhouse at Shoppes at Caveness Farm
and Steak and Shake at Wake Pointe
Shopping Center (Wal-Mart) next to
O’Charley’s. Another restaurant chain is
eyeing the building that Bennigan’s
vacated after a short stay, but there is
no word about its name.
Despite the rumors and
statements about an Eckerd’s drug store
and a Food Lion at the corner of Jones
Dairy Road at the N.C. 98 bypass, those
do not appear to be materializing.
Planner Ann Ayers said she does expect
some type of neighborhood shopping
development at the intersection of the
bypass and Heritage Lake Road, and she
expects to see the plans very soon.
* * * *
This may be old news for
some, but that will be a Wendy’s on
Capital Boulevard just south of Wake
Forest Crossing shopping center (Lowe’s
Foods). The restaurant is being
constructed on land belonging to
Southeastern Baptist Theological Center
along Agora Drive, the name for the new
street that runs east from where Wake
Union Church Road meets Capital
Boulevard.
Ryan Hutchinson, the senior
vice president for business
administration at the seminary, said,
“SEBTS still owns the new tract, but
this particular parcel will be taxable.
SEBTS is doing a ground lease on the
Wendy’s site as well as a
yet-to-be-determined second tenant to
the south of Wendy’s.”
The seminary owns, among
other properties, about 140 acres
between Stadium Drive and Durham Road
that it purchased along with the campus
from Wake Forest College in the 1950s.
The two taxable tracts are coming from
that larger tract.
* * * *
It was a year ago that the
planning and town board agreed to a
three-story, 118-unit apartment building
for active seniors on the east side of
South Main Street just south of the N.C.
98 bypass.
“We’re starting construction
right now,” Dan Roach, project manager
for Curry Brandaw in Salem, Ore., said
Dec. 19. The contractors collected all
the big equipment this week, Jan. 1.
“The goal is to make it look
residential, not institutional. It’s
going to look like people live there
with balconies and lots of sloped roofs.
It’s going to look like a house,” Roach
said.
The exterior will be brick
and hardi-board. The 118 suites will not
have kitchens; residents, expected to be
single people in their 80s who do not
need assistance, will eat meals in the
communal dining room.
The company has about 300
similar facilities through the country,
Roach said, with about 15 in North
Carolina in Charlotte, Greensboro,
Wilmington and Cary.
The name now is Wake Forest
Retirement Residence, but that will
probably change.
* * * *
Crews are clearing land on
the south side of Rogers Road behind the
BB&T Bank and The Factory for a
32,000-square-foot, two-story building
that will be Heritage Medical Park. Andy
Ammons said he sold the land two years
ago and the developer now is a group
called Vanguard, headed by George
Venters of Raleigh. One of the tenants
will be a specialized pediatric dentist.
* * * *
Wake Forest is getting the
food but not the girls.
Yes, there will be a Hooters
locally, but it is going to be built in
Wakefield, Wake Forest planner Ann Ayers
said. Steve Hooker of Milton’s Pizza,
who seems to consider his location in
Wakefield as being a part of Wake
Forest, expressed some concern about the
Hooters location, but I have no more
information than reported above. Steve
and Milton’s are welcome and appreciated
in Wake Forest.
There are four more local
restaurants being planned. Chili’s and
Red Robin will be on outparcels at the
Shoppes at Caveness Farm on Capital
Boulevard, and Lone Star is about to
build at the southwest corner of N.C. 98
(Durham Road) and Retail Drive. A
Carolina Ale House is planned for the
corner between the N.C. 98 bypass, the
street into the North Park office
buildings and the on-ramp from the
bypass to Capital Boulevard.
* * * *
A new flex building is being
constructed on Retail Drive across from
Chick-Fil-A. The word is that the
possibility Caribou Coffee was going to
be there has apparently fallen through,
but now a Japanese Steakhouse is said to
be interested. Another tenant will be a
Radio Shack.
* * * *
At the end of South Main,
between it and Capital Boulevard, the
former Weavexx tract will be transformed
in 2007 into Glenn Boyd’s Nissan
dealership. He also owns Crossroads Ford
in Cary and Wakefield Ford in Wake
Forest.
What’s old
The village of Forestville,
which was large enough to support
schools and a Masonic lodge in the
1820s, has largely been absorbed into
the town of Wake Forest. The remnants
include Forestville Baptist Church,
three houses and the 1920s brick church
for Friendship Chapel Baptist Church.
Although not large enough for a historic
district, the area has been recognized
by the Wake Forest Historic Preservation
Commission, which has just erected one
sign indicating the district with a
second to follow.
The first railroad station
for the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, North
Carolina’s first, was in Forestville, as
was the post office. The station was the
bone of much contention as Wake Forest
College and its auxiliary town grew, and
the college trustees eventually paid
$2,000.03 to move the station next to
the college. The Wake Forest passenger
station stood in front of the
Poteat-Swett House (now offices for Wake
Forest Baptist church) and the site for
the freight station is now the South
White Street gazebo parking lot.
Residential projects that have town
board approval for more water
Alexan at Ligon Mill will be
a 288-unit apartment complex south of
Caveness Farm Apartments, north of the
Wal-Mart store and east of the Shoppes
of Caveness Farm shopping center. Once
it has all the approvals, construction
may start in 2007. The developer is
Trammell Crow Residential. See the Nov.
29 issue of the Gazette for details.
* * * *
Holding Village will be a
1,200-home traditional neighborhood
development that includes shops and
services south of the N.C. 98 bypass,
east of South Main Street and the CSX
rail line, west of Heritage North and
north of Heritage Wake Forest. The town
board approved the increased water
allocation in October, and the proposed
change to the town’s zoning ordinance to
allow for a traditional neighborhood was
heard on Dec. 7 and tabled to Jan 2 for
discussion and action by the planning
board. The developers are planning to
start the first phase nearest the bypass
in 2007. See the Oct. 18 issue of the
Gazette for details. |
