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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, go to
http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/residents/
planningzoning_subdivisions.aspx?rld=308
and look at “plan review information”
for the status.
We will update information
as we get it.
Update:
Jim Adams said this week that the
Parker-Hannifin building is being
demolished. The work began at the back
of the derelict building and should be
complete in about six weeks. He also
said there was no TCE (trichloroethylene,
a solvent) contamination in the
building. “It’s all in the ground.”
Adams also said he is moving
forward with plans for an upscale mall
on the 30-acre site and is working with
a firm that specializes in securing
stores for malls and shopping centers.
We answer your questions
Greg:
I went to the link for the subdivision
plan review status (in
www.wakeforestnc.gov). I noticed one
called The Reserve. It says it is on Oak
Grove Church Road and N.C. 98 (Wait
Avenue). Do you know anything about this
one? What open space/greenway plans are
in it? I don’t recall that (property)
being called The Reserve, and more
recently, that has been referred to as
Bishop’s Landing.
Answer: The Reserve
and Bishop’s Landing are not on the same
property although both abut Bishop’s
Grant on N.C. 98 (Wait Avenue) and have
asked for access to the highway through
the subdivision.
The Grote brothers, Jeff and
Rick, who own Blue Sky Technology which
purchased the Griffin property, 66
acres, and two smaller tracts in 2004,
are also the president and head of
construction for the Weisgerber Goup, a
Wake Forest development company. The
land lies north and east of Bishop’s
Grant and immediately west of the Wake
Forest reservoir.
In 2004 the Grotes worked
out access to Wait Avenue through
Bishop’s Grant and presented a
large-lot, cover-all-the-ground plan to
the town using town water and sewer.
Planning Director Chip
Russell looked at the reservoir frontage
and suggested a cluster form of a
planned unit develop with the land next
to the reservoir left in hardwoods and
pines. He said he would work on
revisions to the town ordinance while
the Grotes changed the plan. They would
need to tie to the sewer line Steve
Gould and Bob Neeb were planning for
their Bowling Green subdivision.
In April of 2005 the Grotes
returned to the town’s comprehensive
planning committee with a plan that left
the 30-35 acres next to the reservoir
untouched, 42 percent of the 74-acre
tract. A possible walking trail there
would have to be surfaced with wood
chips.
The Grotes planned 37
estate-sized houses on the east side of
the tract and a sewer pump station. No
streets would cross the streams.
The problem was the amount
of impervious surface because of the
long driveways. The town’s regulations
say there can be only 6 percent
impervious coverage in the critical
reservoir watershed area, and the plan
had 10 percent.
Russell’s suggestion, which
the Grotes successfully followed, was a
variance from the Wake Forest Board of
Adjustment, increasing the impervious
area to 10 percent.
The tract has also been
annexed by the town in July of 2005, and
a master plan with some revisions has
been submitted to the planning
department. There has been no further
action at the town level, though in
October of 2006 Russell said the Raleigh
Public Utilities Department is requiring
a gravity sewer line rather than the
pump station in the original plan.
This week, Jeff Grote said
they have been acting like the woodchuck
on Feb. 2. “We’re just sitting back in a
hole, waiting. We have been focused on
other areas in southern Franklin County
and other areas in Wake County.”
They own several lots, for
example, in the Lakes of Rolesville
subdivision.
“We have put our dollars and
our resources into other things,” Grote
said, but added that they may be
focusing again on The Reserve in 12 to
14 months.
Future restaurants
-
Old Chicago, featuring deep-dish
Chicago-style pizza and 110 beers
from around the world, is headed for
the former Bennigan’s building in
Wake Pointe Shopping Center, but
there is no activity at the building
yet.
-
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
Boulevard between the entrance to
Wal-Mart and Caveness Farm
Apartments. Ground has been cleared
but there is no indication yet which
is going where.
-
A Steak and Shake is possible at
Wake Pointe Shopping Center
(Wal-Mart) next to O’Charley’s.
-
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.”
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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.
Ground is being cleared.
-
There may be a Japanese Steakhouse
coming as a second tenant in the new
building on Retail Drive.
New stores and services
-
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
The clearing underway in the northwest
corner of Capital Boulevard and New
Falls of the Neuse Road is for 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.
* * * *
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 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. |
