February 14, 2007

  Volume 5, Number 7

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, 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.

            New: CVS Pharmacy will open in its new location at Roosevelt Avenue and North White Street on Sunday, March 4, and employees will begin moving stock from the old store to the new this week.

We answer your questions

            Betsy: The Wake County Public School System is about to start construction of Heritage High School on Forestville Road. We in Heritage Wake Forest would like our children to be able to walk to that school, but we are told by the school system that Wake Forest is not requiring them to install additional lanes, curb and gutter and sidewalk along the front of the school property. The only road improvement will be turn lanes. Why are no sidewalks included in the plan?

            Answer: The fast answer is that sidewalks will be built in future years as Forestville Road is widened and upgraded. If a sidewalk were built on the school property it would not connect to anything because, as planner Lisa Potts said, the property line for the school does not extend to the intersection of Forestville with Rogers Road. “If we did have them put sidewalks in, they would not connect to any existing sidewalks. Also, they would end up being torn out later on” when the road is widened.

            Potts and Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori said the town is collecting a payment in lieu of the road improvements and sidewalks to be used when the road is widened and sidewalks installed.

            The town’s transportation plan calls for Forestville to be rebuilt to four travel lanes with a landscaped median.

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.”

  • 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.

 
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