January 10, 2007

  Volume 5, Number 2

Published in Wake Forest, NC

  Carol Pelosi, Publisher and Editor
 
 
 
 
 
 
Archives
Where To Find It
Town Meetings
Club Meetings
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 The Growth Rate

           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.”

            We will update information as we get it.

We answer your questions

From Allen: “What’s coming on the corner of New Falls and Capital? That’s a large tract being surrounded by orange fencing.

Answer: It will be the Rex Health Park at Wakefield. There will be a 39,500-square-foot wellness center and a 113,000-square-foot multi-specialty ambulatory care center.

            The wellness center will be similar to those Rex operates in Cary and Garner, with a gym, heated pools, physical rehabilitation services and nutrition and exercise programs.

            The ambulatory care center will provide therapeutic and diagnostic services, heart, vascular and oncology services. It will not be an emergency room. The WakeMed North Healthplex at the corner of Falls of the Neuse and Durant roads, already provides an emergency room for the area.

            In the future, the health park will be part of a larger development that will have retail space, a library, hotels and other commercial uses.

            When representatives from Rex introduced the plan to the Wake Forest commissioners last summer – see the June 7, 2006 issue of the Gazette – clearing was to begin later in the summer.

            The main entrance to the health park will be on Forest Pines Drive.

From Chris: Nice article on the TND.  Something I did not see – where are these children going to school?  Is a school planned in the development? 

            I’m not well educated enough about the development.  I know we have to grow, but it seems that this is just another “plan of the day,” another “commerce center” to draw business away from downtown Wake Forest. 

            While I like convenience, I miss going to the rodeo where Home Depot now sits and actually being able to drive down South Main in less than 20 minutes (or longer).  We are no longer a small town – that’s for sure.

Answer: The editor has lost her crystal ball and does not have a clue where all the children in Holding Village or Reynolds Mill or Austin Creek or Bowling Green or … well, pick your favorite subdivision … are going to sit or where all the teachers are coming from, to name a few of the looming questions.

            She did send the question on to Lori Millburg, the District 1 school board member, and we will see what she says. Given the decision by the county commissioners Monday, she may be as much at a loss as the rest of us. But we all know there have to be seats, teachers, books and all that a school offers for all the children who will pour in the doors.

            Maybe it is time for an adequate facilities ordinance in Wake County, stating that adequate roads, schools, water and sewer have to be in place or on schedule before homes are built for new residents who would require all those facilities.

From Robert: I would like to know if you know what is going on with the building on Rogers Place in Rolesville where we reside and also at the corner where a Lowe’s Food and Harris Teeter are building on U.S. 401?

Answer: Robert did not say that all the pine trees on the south side of Rogers Road behind Eckerd’s have been stripped away. It appears it may be called Rogers Place. Anyway, right where the new Granite Falls Boulevard meets Rogers Road there is a new strip or flex building with three bays. Rolesville Planning Director Bryan Hicks said it would house small retail stores and the developer plans to build some townhouses behind it.

            There is a lot of activity at the U.S. 401-Forestville Road intersection – the biker bar is closed, too – but nothing but signs about the two grocery stores as yet. A call to local Harris Teeter headquarters was not returned.

Future restaurants

  • There may be a Texas Roadhouse, a Chili’s and a Red Robin at the Shoppes at Caveness Farm. The shopping center is on Capital between the entrance to Wal-Mart and Caveness Farm Apartments.

  • A Steak and Shake is possible at Wake Pointe Shopping Center (Wal-Mart) next to O’Charley’s.

  • The building Bennigan’s left after a very short stay in Wake Forest is still vacant, but another restaurant chain is reportedly interested in moving in.

  • There 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.”

  • There will be a Hooters, we hear, but it will be somewhere in Wakefield.

  • Lone Star is constructing a new building in the southwest corner of N.C. 98 (Durham Road) and Retail Drive.

  • Plans for a Carolina Ale House have been approved at the corner between the N.C. 98 bypass, the extension of Retail Drive into the North Park office buildings and the ramp from the bypass to Capital Boulevard.

  • There may be a Japanese Steakhouse coming as a second tenant in the new building on Retail Drive.

New stores

  • 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.

  • 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.

Commercial projects

            It has been a year since the planning and town boards approved the plans, but a three-story, 118-unit apartment building for active seniors is now under construction – grading and ground work – on the east side of South Main Street just south of the N.C. 98 bypass.

            The project is now called the Wake Forest Retirement Residence, but that will probably change. Curry Brandaw in Salem, Ore., is the developer and has about 300 similar facilities throughout the country, about 15 in North Carolina including ones in Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington and Cary.

            The apartments will not have kitchens. The residents, who are expected to be single people in their 80s who do not need assistance, will eat meals in the communal dining room.

* * * *

            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.

* * * *

            A new flex building is being constructed on Retail Drive across from Chick-Fil-A. One tenant is expected to be a Radio Shack. Caribou Coffee, which was named as a tenant at one time, has apparently backed out.

* * * *

            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.

Housing projects approved 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. The increased water allocation for the project was approved by the town board in December. Once it has all the approvals, construction may start in 2007. The developer is Trammell Crow Residential. See the Nov. 29 and Dec. 20 issues 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 recommended by the planning board last week and is on the town board’s agenda for Jan. 16.

            The developers plan to start the first phase on the land nearest the bypass in 2007. See the Oct. 18 issue of the Gazette for details.

 
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