The Growth Rate: ‘Ghost’ shopping centers

This fall there has been a lot of discussion about the need for more commercial property in Wake Forest. The ideal percentage would be 30 percent commercial real estate (industrial and retail) and 70 percent residential, but the town is currently about 20/80. Twenty and 30 years ago we were close to 30/70, but that was when there were three large industries in town: Weavexx, Athey and Parker-Hannifin (Schrader).

New Town Manager Kip Padgett says retail will come with population growth and his aim to attract high tech and related industries. All five town board candidates want to see more commercial property in town.

Close to 100 acres of prime commercial/retail land has been tied up for years, one for more than a decade, without any steps toward development in what could be called “ghost” shopping centers.

In a check this week with the Wake Forest Planning Department, Senior Planner Charlie Yokley said the department has not heard from the owners nor have any development applications been submitted. In each case, the approved plan goes with the land whoever the owner is but can be altered after the required hearings and/or application.

Those empty sites are:

1) 64 acres for the Wake Union Place shopping center approved in January 2011 by the Wake Forest Town Board. In mid-2012 WRI-Wake Union Place and Interface Properties, two closely allied companies which were to develop the property, had walked away without purchasing the land.

That meant that Wake Forest developer Jim Adams lost control of the property to an unnamed bank, and a Florida bank holding company, RREF BB NC SICP LLC, purchased the four parcels for $3.53 million. According to the Wake County website, the parcels are valued at over $10 million. The bank reportedly is holding it for up to five years or if there is a significant uptick in the economy.

One result has been that the Wake Forest Fire Department, which stood to gain the land for its fourth station that Adams had set aside, had to search and is now building that station on the nearby Jenkins Road.

The 64 acres are in four parcels and comprise almost all the land – minus the site of the Sleep Inn and a matching rectangle of land next door – between Kearney Road and the Wake Forest Presbyterian Church along Wake Union Church Road and Capital Boulevard. The site has groundwater contaminated with trichloroethylene which is being monitored and treated with an agreement between Parker-Hannifin and the State of North Carolina.

2) 13 acres in the southeast corner where the N.C. 98 bypass and Jones Dairy Road meet was to be Quail Crossing shopping center when it was approved in 2008 for five buildings and one outparcel. The anchor store was to be Food Lion’s upscale Bloom grocery store. It was abandoned in 2009 after clearing, grading and infrastructure installation. Reportedly the grading company went into bankruptcy but the then owner, JDH Capital of Charlotte, was suing Food Lion and its owner, Delhaize America at the same time. The property was purchased by Food Lion in July 2012 for $1.7 million.

3) 20 acres owned by Weingarten Investments Inc. next to the future Sam’s Club on an unnamed service road behind four outparcels on Capital Boulevard. The larger site before the sale to Sam’s, about 36 acres, was to be the Shoppes at Caveness Farm when the plan was approved in 2004. Weingarten has built the extension of Ligon Mill Road north from South Main Street to an intersection with Caveness Farm Avenue to provide access for the Woodfield Creek Apartments.

Send your questions about growth to 556-3409 or cwpelosi@aol.com.