As anticipated, the Wake Forest commissioners voted unanimously to go forward with the SunTrust project Tuesday evening. Commissioner Keith Shackleford recused himself from voting because he is a partner in the James Warren law firm and the town is purchasing some land from the partnership as part of the SunTrust project.
There was a short presentation by Sonyia Turner with the Development Finance Initiative, which advises local governments and is part of the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She said the project with a building stretching from South White Street (three stories) to Brooks Street (up to six stories) will be a bridge between the current downtown and the Renaissance Plaza and will offer “engaging street level uses” on the first floor next to a wide sidewalk. She emphasized that the building’s design “is going to be very important for this project” and the town must consider design carefully as it selects the private developer for the project.
The one-acre site limits the density and the size of the project, Turner said. The addition of the land the town is purchasing along Brooks Street and the parking garage to be built as part of the overall project means public participation will be required, an estimated $9 to $11 million. The parking garage will hold 360 spaces with 180 of those to be private for the residents of the apartments above the retail and for the two businesses which will lose parking space, the law firm mentioned above and the NC Society of Surveyors.
When Turner finished her short presentation, all verbal, Mayor Vivian Jones said she had expected a more elaborate presentation similar to the one DFI showed at Garner. Turner said the final solicitation for bids packet will include that and will be shown to the town staff before it is sent out.
Commissioner Jim Dyer asked what the cost per space was for the parking garage — $20,000, Turner estimated – and the charge for parking in one space per month — $50, Turner said.
Commissioner Nick Sliwinski asked if there were any alternatives to the parking garage considered, and Strategic Performance Manager Lisa Hayes told him, “The only way to get that much parking is a structured parking (building).”
Dyer then said that parking in the garage would cost $1.66 per day. Turner began saying the town would not plan on recouping its investment in the parking garage immediately, and Dyer that he did not want to be misunderstood – “I agree with you.” – and then Jones said the town board would be determining the parking costs later.
Commissioner Chad Sary said it was obvious the solicitation of bids is only a first step, and Turner assured him “We will be involved every step of the way. This will not be the last time you see me.”
Town Manager Kip Padgett said he was happy to report there were no power outages and no serious traffic problems or crashes during the rain-snow-sleet-freezing rain event over the weekend.
There were two rather special commendation awards. At the beginning of the meeting, the mayor recognized Betty L. Pearce, who has been employed by the town for more than 26 years, serving first in the public works department and most recently with Wake Forest Power.
During her years as mayor, Jones said, Pearce has received the most compliments from town residents of all employees for her treatment of them and she has been “the sparklingest and shineiest” of employees.
Toward the close of the meeting – because after all the years when the meetings began at 7 p.m. town attorney Eric Vernon was late – he was recognized for the courage he has shown in advising the board for 31 years.
Vernon said he followed Ellis Nassif who was the town attorney for 28 years. Vernon said that after Nassif was born in Lebanon in 1907 and came to the United States soon after. “He truly did embody courage,” Vernon said. After working his way through law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Nassif was told by the North Carolina Bar Association that he could not sit for the bar examination because he was not born in the United States, a North Carolina law.
Nassif appealed that law all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor, Nassif sat for the examination and passed. He became a resident of Wake Forest after marrying the daughter of George and Mary Bolus, fellow Lebanese who owned Bolus Department Store. The couple lived in the small stone house at the corner of Elm Avenue and South Main Street.
Vernon, who lives in Raleigh, is still a lawyer with the firm of Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton.
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Along with the redevelopment of the Suntrust property, there are three current or future projects which will change and enliven the part of South White Street from Elm Avenue to Holding Avenue.
What can you do with a warehouse? Atlas Stark Holdings of Raleigh purchased the empty former Welsh warehouse at 535 South White Street for $1,250,000 in May of last year even though the Wake County website said the building and land are worth $786,367. Atlas Stark Holdings then changed its name to Wake Forest Adaptive Re-Use LLC.
Its plans are not firm – it could become a food hall or office space – but it has 16,000 square feet in that vacant warehouse. We are told that the owner “intends to preserve the character of the 535 Warehouse while completely restoring the space inside and out, meeting today’s demands for the growing numbers of residents and visitors venturing downtown.”
The first one was so well received, the partners in Powerhouse Row are already planning the second phase. It will be larger than the first building with 12,000 square feet of commercial and retail space on the street level. The three floors above will have various sized apartments, and there will be a fourth floor with five penthouse apartments facing South White with a rooftop deck.
PowerHouse Row’s second phase will have a substantial amount of commercial space and 47 apartments with the investment of about $14 million.
You know why it was called PowerHouse Row? Because the land was purchased from the Wright family, which began the Electric Motor Shop, and the project is neighbor to the beginnings of Wake Forest Power, the town-owned electric utility.
PowerHouse Row will soon have to raze the second home of the Electric Motor Shop, the brick building twinned with the second home of The Wake Weekly. (Years ago the late Ricky Wright recalled that his father, Thomas Wright, began to repair motors in a tiny cinder block building behind their house in the Mill Village. The first home of the newspaper was in a tin-sided and -roofed building on a dirt street about where SunTrust was built years later.) And PowerHouse Row is across the railroad tracks from the original brick building that housed the GE generator which powered the 1909 electric system. You can still make out the faint paint sign saying Water Light.
Finally there is the Loading Dock, operating out of the former office and warehouse for the W.W. Holding cotton company. Actually, since the extensive renovations it is difficult to see the original building, and it looks smart and modern.
The first Loading Dock opened in 2016 in Raleigh. The concept and its execution have been so popular that it now has three campuses and is about to open it’s fourth in Raleigh.
The Wake Forest Loading Dock was launched Dec. 4 and is now welcoming its first budding entrepreneurs. It is estimated that the Loading Dock, once it is fully operational, will have an annual economic impact over $178 million across Wake County with a $101 million impact in the Town of Wake Forest.
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