A Sam’s Club in Wake Forest appears to be closer to reality this week with news that the real estate arm of Sam’s Club, part of the Wal-Mart family of businesses, purchased 13 acres from Weingarten Realty Investors for over $2.5 million on Oct. 15. This was reported on Oct. 19 in an article by Amanda Hoyle in the Triangle Business Journal and some of the information in this article is from Hoyle’s article.
This will be the fifth Sam’s Club in the Triangle area. The project already has a construction permit from the Town of Wake Forest, but there are no indications when construction will begin. The approved plan includes extensive improvements to Capital Boulevard which also have not begun yet.
The land for the club store is at the intersection of Caveness Farm Avenue and an unnamed access road behind Chili’s, Texas Roadhouse and Red Robin. It is also almost adjacent to the strip mall that is part of the Wal-Mart shopping center with a main entrance on South Main Street (U.S.1-A).
Weingarten sold the 13 acres to Sam’s Club from 36 acres it has been holding for the Shoppes at Caveness Farms shopping center, which was approved by the town in 2004. According to the Triangle Business Journal article, Weingarten plans to build the shopping center with 100,000 square feet of retail space next to the 140,000-square-foot Sam’s Club building. However, there is apparently no date for that construction and no announcement about the names of the future tenants.
Weingarten purchased the 36 acres in 2006 from a Charlotte firm, Realticorp, which planned the shopping center and won town approval after a series of highly disputed hearings.
Weingarten is related to Interface Properties and WRI-Wake Union Place, the companies which planned to build the Wake Union Place shopping center less than two miles north along Capital Boulevard. Weingarten also owns other Wake Forest properties, including Heritage Station shopping center at the intersection of Forestville and Rogers Roads which is anchored by Harris-Teeter.
