Town purchasing SunTrust block

With a simple statement Tuesday night, Town Manager Kip Padgett announced a major step by the Town of Wake Forest. It is purchasing the SunTrust bank building and land for $1.5 million. “And closing costs,” he added.

Mayor Vivian Jones said the town is making the purchase “to take care of our downtown.” After Commissioner Brian Pate noted that the building and block along Elm Avenue, a short block between South White Street and Brooks Street, is “a key piece in the development of downtown,” Jones added, “We will work with a developer to do something really nice for this property.” The town is expected to close on the purchase in May.

The mayor responded to a question – “Are you thinking that the SunTrust block could become, with the Powerhouse project, the beginning of the Renaissance Plan vision of buildings with retail on the first floor, living spaces above?” – by emailing, “Yes! Our belief is that someone will come forward with an idea to use this space in a way consistent with the Renaissance Plan. It is certainly a key property as downtown expands down White Street. We felt it was important for all of downtown for us to be able to influence the redevelopment of this property.”

Wednesday Padgett confirmed the SunTrust purchase “was one of the subjects of the last two closed sessions.” We will have to wait to find out what the other subjects were, but downtown redevelopment and a large industrial/business park are town goals.

Those closed sessions were “To establish, or to instruct the public body’s staff or negotiating agents concerning the position to be taken by or on behalf of the public body in negotiating (i) the price and material terms of a contract or proposed contract for the acquisition of real property by purchase, option, exchange, or lease; or (ii) the amount of compensation and other material terms of an employment contract or proposed employment contract.” N.C.G.S. 143-318.11 (a) (5)

The modern blue and white building with ample parking was built as the result of little local strong-arming and a swap. In the late 1960s Central Carolina Bank & Trust, which had moved into a small office downtown back in the 1930s after both local banks failed, planned to renovate its Colonial-style building at 123 South White. However, the Wake Forest men on the bank’s local board of directors – Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Olin T. Binkley, former mayor H.L. Miller, and former chamber president John Wooten Jr. and others – persuaded bank officials to make a swap: Build a new bank and allow the town to purchase the existing bank as a library. The new bank opened in 1972 and town residents and organizations raised $22,500 within four months to buy the new library. The Town of Wake Forest paid operating expenses and maintenance. (There had been a small library, also supported by town residents and government, since 1961. But that is another story.) The former bank and library is now owned by AJB Capital and holds offices and a small shop.

SunTrust plans to close the downtown banks in Wake Forest and Youngsville (this is a surprise) at mid-day on Tuesday, April 10, and open the new bank on an outparcel at the Harris Crossing shopping center on Friday, April 13.

“We are counting on that being our lucky day,” Mark Marley, a SunTrust vice president and Wake Forest branch manager said. He also said it was not closing – “more like moving.” And, after showing some of the new owners around the building Wednesday, “I am excited that it will likely not be available to a competitor and I hope that the town will utilize our tax dollars as wisely as possible.”

The Wake Forest bank was built in 1972 on 0.85 acre and has been owned by NNN SUN LLC, a corporation related to SunTrust since June 2013. Central Carolina Bank & Trust owned the property from January 1969 until May 2008 when Island American ST Portfolio III LLC became the owner. The 2017 town and county property tax total was $8,891.60.