Tuesday night the Wake Forest Town Board agreed to lease 114 acres on the east side of Capital Boulevard just north of the Neuse River and across the highway from the former Burlington Mills factory, now used for U-Haul sales, to the Complex Sports Group.
That group – Steve McKinion, Bobby Murray, Jason McCoy and Jonathan Hayward –plans to build an athletic sports complex that will include an inflatable dome with room for two multi-use athletic fields and fields for baseball, soccer and lacrosse. The fields will be of synthetic turf that will drain within 30 minutes after the heaviest rain storm. The dome will be used for training, strength conditioning and yoga and will have a coffee shop and other amenities.
McKinion, who spoke for the group Tuesday night, said they plan to complete the construction in the first year and be able to offer the facilities for local and regional teams to rent. The town will have the use of the fields on weekdays; the fields and dome will be rented on weekends. McKinion said by year 15 of the lease the town will have benefitted by as much as $15 million because of not having to rent or lease other fields and facilities. “We worked with the town staff for their needs,” he said.
Because it will draw over a million visitors to town for regional, national and even international tournaments and other activities – trade shows, small concerts – McKimmon said the town should experience an economic effect between $10 and $15 million each year. There will be five fulltime employees and 20 parttime.
“We’re really excited about this,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.
Commissioner Jim Thompson said he hoped the group will made a connection to the Neuse River Greenway.
John Behringer, the treasurer for the Shearon Farms Homeowners Association, threw at least a bucket of cold water on the plans by pointing out how difficult it will be to get the teams and visitors to the complex given the traffic conditions on Capital Boulevard at all daylight hours and the two rush hours. He also noted the complex with its lights and noise will be “only a few hundred feet” from homes in the subdivision. He offered to help them find another location. “I love the idea but it’s just not in the right spot.”
The board voted unanimously for the lease.
It was also a unanimous vote to declare the old cemetery owned by Friendship Chapel Missionary Baptist Church a locally historic landmark. The 1.64-acre cemetery is on the edge of the Holding Village subdivision and contains about 570 graves including one mass grave used as a last resort when there were so many deaths during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. The church maintains the cemetery but uses a newer cemetery now for burials.
Senior Planner Michelle Michael said the town’s Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously on Nov. 8 to recommend the board make the designation and showed a number of photographs illustrating the 16 remaining headstones and the condition of the cemetery. A committee from the Wake Forest Historical Association obtained a grant and contracted with used it for a ground-penetrating radar study to identify graves. The cemetery will be fenced and a sign will inform visitors of its significance.
The newly elected commissioners, Liz Simpers and Bridget Wall-Lennon, were present. They and the re-elected mayor, Vivian Jones, will take their oaths of office after the Dec. 19 board meeting.
9 Responses
1. More transparency is needed for projects like this. The property lease agreement comes after a development group presentation of what is proposed for the site, however there may only be be a “public comment” opportunity versus a “public hearing” for the project.
2. The numbers look off. The presenter said it will attract 1,000,000 annual visitors. That equals 2,739 a day or 19,230 a week. For reference, the PNC Arena houses about 19,000+ for college basketball, NHL hockey and concerts. Validate the numbers.
3. The identified “economic benefit” to Wake Forest of the $10 – 15 million a year works out to about $10 – 15 a visitor – the price of a couple of hot dogs, chips and a soda. Validate the numbers.
4. The site plan looks like it will require the loss of a significant number of trees and the aerial maps appear to show some wetland areas. Take a look at Wake County flood map # 1738.
5. Yes…the Town of Wake Forest receives benefits from the lease arrangement via the use of facilities during the week and that appears to save all of the taxpayers in the near term and down the road. Let’s be sure the deal is well vetted and that you or I get the same arrangement if we owned the land and leased it to another party.
6. What other tracts of land does the Town of Wake Forest own that might be leased?
The town of wake forest only cares about money not its people and natural habitat
It’s greed at its best
Thanks Vivian and crew of money hungry officials
This proposed sport complex is literally in my back yard. An eagle was surveying the scenery today. I wonder if he will stay when they complete the Astro turf. That wondrous material may drain if it is not sitting on the flood plain or in the already designated wetlands. My backyard is so designated and I am not to develop there! Why are they? We cannot replace the ecosystem of the land that abuts our Neuse River. We can locate the sports complex in an area that did not take generations to evolve.
I don’t recall any time allowed for public input before a decision on the sports complex was approved which I think is inappropriate. What will the environmental impact be with it being so close to the river and lake behind this acreage? Have studies been done?
They are trying to rush this through and avoid any such assessments. They’re talking about destroying dozens of acres of marshland, which not only floods when the Neuse backs up, but is habitat to a multitude of animal species — including eagles. Their plan shows building right up along the edge of the Neuse, not to mention right up against the property line of resident’s backyards.
It’s a completely insane plan that only corrupt officials blinded by dollar signs would approve. This will destroy the area and make the nightmare that is the Capital/Burlington intersection that much worse for everyone.
Where did you see plans?
Would a high speed railway solve many problems? Now is the time. Let’s join the 21st century!
Good lord. That will do WONDERS for the already ludicrous traffic on capital and S. Main. Brilliant minds we have leading this town.
In our geographic area, how many such complexes can we really support?