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Last month there was news about two
shopping centers along Capital Boulevard
in Wake Forest, and this month planner
Ann Ayers says she has at least
preliminary information about two more,
Wake Forest Commons and La Scala Uptown.
The Shoppes at Caveness Farm
already has an approved master plan, but
during the economic summit in March Rob
Hicks, the regional director for new
development for Weingarten Realty
Investors, announced Steinmart would be
one of the stores at the center.
At the same time, Hicks also
announced that Weingarten is partnering
with Jim Adams to develop the former
Parker-Hannifin site, which Adams owns,
as the Wake Forest Town Center with a
nationally known department store as the
anchor.
Ayers said this week that
she is reviewing the plans for Wake
Forest Commons, a proposed shopping
center on 30 acres north of Harris Road
and on the east side of Capital
Boulevard.
The name will probably be
changed, she said, because it is similar
to Gateway Commons planned for the
intersection of Jones Dairy Road and
N.C. 98. Wake Forest Commons was also
the name proposed for what is now Wake
Forest Crossings, which is anchored by
Lowe’s Foods.
Ayers said the center would
have 80,000 square feet of retail and
commercial space with four out-parcels.
The developer is Regency Center in
Raleigh. Several calls to Regency asking
for more information about the plans
were not returned.
Ayers said she has only very
preliminary information about the second
proposed shopping center, La Scala
Uptown along Star Road. According to the
website, this would have Italian
architecture and be “an open space
lifestyle center” with upscale
boutiques, restaurants, entertainment
and an office park. Another feature
would an amphitheater. The location
sketch on the website shows a full
access intersection on Capital
Boulevard. Daryl Cady, who has been out
of town, is a developer or one of them.
There are a number of
questions about this proposal, Ayes
said, that will be answered by the
traffic study being done now by Kimley-Horn.
The study will show, she said, “how much
can be authorized on Star Road the way
it is now and how much can be authorized
with the connection to Ligon Mill Road.”
That link is on the town’s
transportation map without a defined
alignment. It would have to avoid the
historic Hartsfield house and the
railroad.
Star Road runs north and
south on the east side of Capital
Boulevard from South Main Street, where
there is a right-in, right-out only
intersection, and dead ends near the CSX
rail line just before its bridge under
Capital.
Using that information,
Ayers said, “We might design for the
maximum amount of trips for that area.
What we could do is to define the land
uses we could authorize.”
Some of the other possible
or approved projects on Star Road are a
redevelopment of the Starlite Motel and
pawnshop property, an approved master
plan that will allow Allen Massey and
Jeff Looper to build a five-lot
commercial subdivision just to the south
of Living Word Family Church, and a
commercial subdivision planned at the
end of the road. The land for the
Massey-Looper project is slated for a
public hearing about annexation Tuesday
night at the town board meeting.
As for the other centers,
Ayers said she has not heard from
Weingarten or Adams about the Wake
Forest Towne Center but has had a number
of calls from people wanting to ask her
about it. The building is being
demolished. |
