Updated November 10, 2021
Street and highway update
The CSX Railroad crossing on Rogers Road has been a two-lane bottleneck since the road was opened in 2000. Help is on the way if the latest update from the North Carolina Department of Transportation will hold to its plan of beginning to construct a four-lane street bridge over the railroad tracks, which is the fall of 2022 or a year from now. Do not hold your breath because the date has slipped several times, but DOT’s financial situation is much better now so it may be true.
Also, commuters from Wake Forest and much farther north are still waiting for the long-promised widening of Capital Boulevard. Currently the right-of-way acquisition and construction is not planned to begin until October 2024 for the first segment from I-540 to Durant Road/Perry Road.
Apparently right-of-way acquisition for the next two segments, B and C, Durant Road/Perry Creek Road to Burlington Mills Road and Burlington Mills Road to NC 98 (Durham Road)) will also take place beginning in October 2024 with construction beginning in 2026.
The final segment – NC 98 (Durham Road) to Purnell Road/Harris Road – is not funded and right-of-way acquisition is scheduled to begin in October of 2028.
The total cost right now is $747.7 million with $32.3 million for utility construction cost, $246 million to buy the right-of-way, and $469.4 million for construction. It is Project U-5307.
You can look at it all at https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/capital-boulevard-upgrade/Pages/default.aspx
Plans under review at the Wake Forest Planning Department
The October Monthly Report from the Wake Forest is listed below.
*White Street Townhomes is a plan for 79 townhouses on two lots owned by David Smoot at the intersection of South White Street and East Holding Avenue.
*Hawthorne Wake Forest Phase 2 will be an apartment building(s) with 48 units on the east side of Star Road.
*Averette Road Assemblage is the new name for Rosedale Subdivision (formerly Averette Road Subdivision) Phase 2, a plan for 66 single-family lots. It is associated with Tryon subdivision. Former Pearce family land, Priest Craven & Associates is the engineer for this.
*Star Road PUD is a plan for both office space – a maximum of 60,000 square feet – and townhouses with a maximum of seven units per acre on the east side of Star Road. The only available plan shows only the lot and the stream buffers.
*Gateway Commons Lot 10 is a plan for a 9,500-square-foot office building.
*Mason Oaks Parcel 3 is a plan to build 21 townhouses along Edgemoore Trail.
*Legacy Center Church will be in a 12,400-square-foot building on Rabbit Run Road. This has been approved for construction and will be off the list next month.
*Marshall Station is new to the list. It is planned for 186 townhouse lots.
*Joyner Property on Capital Boulevard is a plan for 249 single-family lots and 137 townhouse lots. It is not yet on the planning department’s map of active developments.
*Wait Condos has been approved for construction and will be off the list next month. The plan calls for 40-unit condominium apartments with above-ground and underground parking in the block between North Taylor Street and North Franklin Street on Wait Avenue. Two existing houses would be razed. The engineers are Priest, Craven and Associates. The land is owned by PGNC Ventures LLC with offices at 7208 Falls of the Neuse Road. The site is 1.55 acres. The plan was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on May 18, 2021.
*Forest on Franklin will be 12 townhouse lots on North Franklin Street which have been approved by the town board.
*Foundation Drive Apartments is at least the second proposal to build on the drive that also leads to Heritage High School. The page for this in the town’s interactive development map is not available, but it is planned for 48 units.
*Austin Creek Phases 6 & 7 is a plan for 67 single-family lots.
*Patronies Pizza will be a 5,838-square-foot restaurant on Crenshaw Corners Drive.
*Quail Crossing on Wait Avenue just to the east of Radford Glen is planned for 254 rental multi-family units by Middleburg Communities and their engineering firm, the McAdams Company. The rezoning to multi-family was approved by the town board on Sept. 21, 2021, and the remaining residents of the mobile home park have eviction notices with a January date.
*Carolina Chimney will be in a 1,925-square-foot building on North White Street.
*Kinsley Phases 19-29 is new to the list. The entire project on both sides of North Main Street was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on Feb. 2 of this year. This portion of the project will build 298 single-family lots. The entire project covers 203 acres and will have 724 dwelling units with the number of townhouses not to exceed 450.
*Grove 98 North is a plan for 354 multi-family units on the north side of the N.C. 98 Bypass with a commercial section. It is part of the Wegmans large development and includes an extension of Ligon Mill Road. It has been approved by the town board.
*Traditions Townhomes will be 37 townhouse lots on Traditions Grande Boulevard that have been approved by the town board.
*Hawthorne at Traditions will be 272 apartments on Gilcrest Farm Road. It has been approved by the town board.
*Traditions Grande Care Facility on Gilcrest Farm Road between Del Webb at Traditions and Hawthorne at Traditions will be a residential care facility with 119 beds.
*Gateway Commons Lot 1 is a request to build a 5,500-square-foot office building.
*Casa Esperenza Montessori Charter school wants to build a school with 49,490-square-feet for elementary and secondary students on Star Road. It has been approved by the town.
*Infrastructure plans are only listed for Kinsley and include the widening of North Main Street, an off-site waterline extension and extending the Richland Creek sewer line to North Main Street.
Approved residential projects not under construction
*Hawthorne at Traditions is on Gilcrest Farm Road and Royal Mill Avenue. It will have 272 units in two four-story buildings. Its subdivision and master plans were approved by the town board in April.
*Thales Academy on Wait Avenue (N.C. 98) at the intersection of Averette Road has been approved by the Wake Forest Town Board. The school for elementary and secondary students will have 37,151 square feet.
*Forest on Franklin is planned for 12 townhouses facing Franklin Street on the east side of the street. The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners approved the plan on April 20. The master plan was submitted by The Nau Company for 2.105 acres zoned urban mixed use.
*Radford Glen has been approved for construction by the town commissioners and its annexation request was on the May 18 agenda. On the south side of Wait Avenue, it will have 165 single-family lots. It is one of two properties sold recently by former mayor George Mackie Jr. The second is the former Wellington Mobile Home Park, now rezoned as Quail Crossing and to be named The Hamlet.
*Grove 98 North is part of the larger Wegmans development that includes the new grocery store. It will have 354 units of multifamily housing on the north side of the N.C. 98 Bypass and some commercial. It will include an extension of Ligon Mill Road.
*Traditions Townhomes on Traditions Grande Boulevard is planned for 37 townhouses. It was approved by the Wake Forest Planning Board and then by the Wake Forest Town Board on May 18, 2021.
*Holding Village North Lake Phases 5-8 along South Franklin Street are planned for 208 single-family lots and 156 townhouse lots. The developer will also be constructing the new section of South Franklin Street which will meet the N.C. 98 Bypass.
*Rosedale/Averette subdivision will have 890 homes on both sides of Averette Road. It is an extension of the Tryon subdivision.
*Kinsley on both sides of North Main Street, 203 acres with 274 single-family lots and 450 townhouse lots – 724 in all – was approved by the Wake Forest commissioners on Feb. 2, 2021. This is a somewhat smaller version of the subdivision than was originally proposed, but the amount of affordable townhouses remains the same.
*Royal Mill Apartments is planned for 96 apartments in four three-story walk-up buildings with one building for three townhouses all on 6.3 acres at the southeast corner of the Royal Mill Avenue and Flaherty Avenue.
Residential projects being constructed
*Kitchin Farms Phase 2B on Burlington Mills and Ligon Mill roads for 123 single-family lots. The master plan has been approved.
*Meridian Rogers Branch Apartments on Rogers Branch Road is planned for 264 units. The Wake Forest Town Board has approved this project.
*Legacy Heritage, an apartment complex of 308 units at the N.C. 98 Bypass, Heritage Lake Road and Friendship Chapel Road, was approved by the town board in 2019. There has been blasting to take out the granite, tree clearing and substantial site preparation. Building permits were issued in April 2021.
*Holding Village North Lake Phase 9 is a plan for 33 townhouse lots near the lake and the community center and swimming pool.
*Holding Village South Lake Phase 4 along South Franklin Street is for 25 single-family lots.
*Holding Village Apartments on Friendship Chapel Road plans 320 units.
*Crenshaw Trace will be a four-story apartment building on Durham Road with 68 units for people 55 and older who will not have to pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent.
*Everly amendment for the subdivision on Stephen Taylor Road to increase the plan to 173 lots.
*A building permit has been issued for the St. Catherine of Siena Parsonage at 600 West Holding Avenue.
*Devon Square on Capital Boulevard with a second entrance on Harris Road was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on April 17, 2019 by an unusual three to two vote with Mayor Vivian Jones voting in Commissioner Liz Simpers absence. It will have 148 townhouses and an unspecified amount of commercial nearest Capital Boulevard, as well as 40 single-family homes in back. There are 68 acres and the plan includes a 50-foot naturally wooded buffer between the single-family residential section and E. Carroll Joyner Park.
*Greenway Village at Heritage on South Franklin Street has been approved for 188 apartments.
*Siena Drive Phase 1 & 2 Revisions is for a townhouse development with 96 units.
*Brewer Circle subdivision calls for nine lots.
*Forest Pines Retirement Community on Royall Cotton Road is a 130-unit apartment complex.
*Tryon Phases 10 & 11 on Copper Beech Lane plans for 35 single-family lots.
Commercial or institutional projects being constructed
*Wake Forest High School Stadium, Trentini Stadium, will be renovated by BAR Construction Company, which was the low bidder at $6.6 million of six bidders when the Wake County Board of Education put the put out the project for bid. BAR will demolish and replace the existing grandstands, athletic field and track. The track will also be brought to current standards and existing drainage problems will be addressed.
The target date for completion is March 2022.
The stadium began life as Groves Stadium for Wake Forest College. It was named for a donor, completed in 1940 and could hold 20,000 people. Trentini Stadium is named for Anthony Trentini, a Wake Forest College football player 1952-1959 and the coach of the Wake Forest High School football team 1959-1963.
*The Loading Dock, a co-working facility in the former warehouse at 525 South White Street, is under construction. It was built as an office and warehouse for the W.W. Holding Cotton Company and is owned by Bob and Elizabeth Johnson.
*Heritage Corner in the northwest corner of South Franklin Street and Rogers Road across from Sheetz will be two two-story buildings with commercial uses in the first story and office space in the second story.
*The Tru Hotel on Wake Union Church Road and Hampton Way Drive was at a standstill – red clay, a couple pieces of equipment – for months but Novel Construction has finally pulled the permit which had been languishing in the Wake Forest Inspections Department.
*1628 South Main Street is being built by Marlowe Construction of Raleigh, its owner, and will be a two-story building facing South Main with its entrance from Forbes Road. The building will have commercial uses on the first floor and office space on the second floor. It will be named the Marlowe Building.
*A Wake Forest food hall, future name unknown, is planned for the second warehouse on South White Street.
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