August 22, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            This week town planner Ann Ayers discussed the projects she is reviewing or has some information about.

            The future of The Shoppes at Caveness Farm shopping center is murky. Weingarten Realty Investments, the third owner, is reportedly selling the property. The shopping center has an approved master plan, and Weingarten had announced Steinmart would be one of the tenants. A Weingarten representative did not return a telephone call this week.

            Separate lots along Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1) in front of The Shoppes are being developed independently. The Purefoy-Dunn House, an historic property, will be preserved, reportedly as an antiques store. Two fast food restaurants in addition to Chili’s, Red Robin and Texas Roadhouse (under construction) are tentatively planned, and Ayers has the plans for a retail building of 12,000 square feet called Caveness Corners, which will house small retail shops.

            Weingarten is working with Wake Forest developer Jim Adams to build Wake Forest Town Center on the former Parker-Hannifin site. Ayers said she does not have the plans or know the future tenants, but she said they are planning 366,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space with 85,000 square feet of office space.

            There are some indications Wake Forest Crossing shopping center is about to develop its unbuilt phases to the north along Capital Boulevard, but there are no details as yet.

            In Heritage, Bob Luddy, the president of Captive-Aire and a backer of Franklin Academy, a public charter school, is eyeing property along South Franklin Street just north of Rogers Road for his recently-announced private school, Thales Academy. The land will have to be rezoned, Ayers said.

            Across from Heritage Station on Rogers Road, RBC Bank is being constructed and two office buildings are also in the planning stage.

            Wake Forest builder Daryl Cady is already moving dirt along Star Road for the first part of a larger project, LaScala. He wants to build a 90-room hotel, a separate ballroom/convention building behind it and a 28,800-square-foot office building near the road. The site for these three buildings is just north of Living Word Family Church. It was rezoned for a commercial office subdivision called Capital Pines by Allen Massey and Jeff Looper

            Cady’s preliminary plan for the larger development include nine office buildings, two hotels and 19 retail buildings mostly set around the three roundabouts strung along a road parallel to Star Road. He will petition the state Department of Transportation for a full signalized connection to Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1). Ayers said there will have to be quite a bit of road construction to loop Star Road back to South Main Street (U.S. 1-A) and to connect it to Ligon Mill Road.

            Along Rogers Road, Mark Wallace of Wake Forest has submitted a floor plan for the proposed Wake Forest Family Entertainment Center which would have 32 bowling lanes, a laser tag room, a game room and a party room. It would sit between the entrance to the Factory and the Factory ball fields and the railroad.

            Two developers each have plans to build a Walgreen’s drug store at the intersection of South Main Street and the N.C. 98 bypass, one in the southwest corner and one in the southeast. “I made them talk to each other,” Ayers said. The one in the southwest corner has DOT permission for a right-in, right-out access to the bypass.