New ABC store planned

A new, larger Wake County ABC Store is planned in Wake Forest to replace the store on Galaxy Drive that was built in 2008. The new store will be built on Royall Cotton Road across from and south of the new Sam’s Club and south of the three restaurants, Texas Steakhouse, Chili’s and Red Robin.

Joel Keith, the general manager for the Wake County ABC Board, said the contract for two adjoining 0.93-acre lots was signed late last week with a 120-day due diligence clause before the contract with Weingarten Investments becomes final. The cost will be $1,050,000 for the two lots.

The site with twice the acreage of the present store, he said, will allow the ABC Board to build a store in a more accessible location, a store twice the size of the older one with twice the parking and twice the product. “I think the public will really like the store and the service we’re going to provide.

“The store will be designed to be more accommodating to the mixed-beverage customer (such as the restaurants next door),” Keith said. Those customers like to be served quickly so the ABC board is updating the computer system to serve them faster.

The current store now generates between $5 and $6 million in annual sales and Keith anticipates the new store when it is completed in 2017 will double that sale volume.

More business and more revenue would be appreciated by the Town of Wake Forest which, like all other county municipalities, receives some income from the county-wide ABC revenues. The municipalities receive a portion of 27 percent of county-wide revenues based on the proportion of their tax base against the county-wide tax base as well as a proportionate share of the state-wide beer and wine tax. In fiscal year 2015-2016 just ended Wake Forest is projected to receive $148,015 from Wake ABC and has received $146,483 from the state ABC, according to Wake Forest Finance Director Aileen Staples.

After the distribution to the municipalities, the ABC board pays the remainder to the Wake County General Fund. Of that, $100,000 may be spent by the county on water and sewer lines and “manufacturing advantages of the area.”

Keith said earlier that the decision to close the store on Galaxy Drive was because it is tucked away on a dead-end road with no visibility. When the store was planned and built there were plans to extend Galaxy to Durham Road (N.C. 98) but those fell through and the trees along Capital Boulevard paralleling Galaxy grew larger and hid the store. The town’s first ABC store was built between Capital and Wake Union Church Road in 1977 and had access from both – Capital was then known as U.S. 1 and had two lanes. It is now a chiropractor’s office.

A five-person board appointed by the county commissioners oversees Wake ABC’s operations: Chairman Paul White, Ricky Wright of Wake Forest, Betty Whitaker of Rolesville, Ken Kirby and vice chairman John Converse.