East Cary Gateway

[SydneyCarton]

1 hour ago, nicholas said:

Fencing is up around what looks to be the Midtown Exchange property. A good bit of land has been cleared.

Thanks.  During Corona times, I rarely leave Chapel Hill, so I wasn’t sure of the status.

[orulz]

Fenton may be exciting / interesting for some reasons, but for now it sure looks like a civil war fortress from Cary Town Blvd, with that retaining wall on top of a hill. May change, but count me as underwhelmed so far.

[KJHburg]

unfortunately that is a problem of topography but this is a home run project and people will be drawn into it from all over the region for its retail, restaurants, apartments etc.  

[KJHburg]

speaking of Fenton saw this today from Hines over 70% of the retailed is leased or under letter of intent.

https://www.hines.com/news/fenton-breaks-ground-advancing-69-acre-mixed-use-district-in-cary-nc

[SydneyCarton]

I heard that the Cary Towne Center nearby might get redeveloped too.  Right now, it's basically a bunch of crap on pretty prime land.    I go there only for Dave and Buster's, which my kids love.  

Edited November 12, 2020 by SydneyCarton

[SlackJack]

10 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I heard that the Cary Towne Center nearby might get redeveloped too.  Right now, it's basically a bunch of crap on pretty prime land.    I go there only for Dave and Buster's, which my kids love.  

It will be a massive redevelopment by Turnbridge Equities, as described on their website:

Turnbridge Equities acquired Cary Towne Center, an 980,000 SF, 87-acre regional mall located in Cary, NC, just outside of downtown Raleigh, in January 2019. Turnbridge acquired Cary Towne Center in a distressed sale driven by the loss of three of the mall’s five anchor tenants and an unsuccessful redevelopment effort, which left the mall approximately 65% occupied at the time of acquisition. Despite the mall’s distress, Turnbridge saw value in the property’s location in the heart of North Carolina’s rapidly growing Research Triangle, immediate access to I-40 and I-440, Cary’s outstanding demographics, and the secular shift toward walkable mixed-use places.  Upon acquiring the property, Turnbridge successfully assembled the unowned anchor parcels, removed the remaining long-term encumbrances, and rezoned the property for up to 4.5 million square feet of mixed-use set amid a walkable urban grid.  The new development, Carolina Yards, is expected to break ground in early-2021 with a first phase consisting of over 1.2 million square feet of mixed-use, including residential, office, retail and hotels.

Please visit www.carolinayards.com for more information.

 

[SydneyCarton]

Thanks.  That's good news.  I remembered reading that somewhere.  I go only to Dave & Buster's there.  The rest of the mall looks like garbage.   This has huge potential.

P.S.: Here's a recent article:

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article246148565.html

Edited November 13, 2020 by SydneyCarton

[KJHburg]

drive bys of Fenton site today.  Did not see vertical development but thought I saw some foundational work like slabs.  anyway this is the project to watch among others in 2021.

 

[KJHburg]

Okay major news out of the Cary Town Center.  The current developer who wanted to convert it into a major mixed used project called Carolina Yards has sold the entire site to Epic Games for their new HQ campus.  Where this leaves Belks who knows?  

Epic Games buys Cary Towne Center for $95M, plans new headquarters campus - Triangle Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

maybe they will have some leftover land for some housing etc but this is a big expansion for Epic Games.  

Epic Games announces new headquarters at site of Cary Towne Center :: WRAL.com

Edited January 4, 2021 by KJHburg

[Brendan]

I just heard about Epic.  This is devastating news for those of who have been waiting for Cary Towne Center to be turned into something nice.  The plans sounded so great, but now the owners dump the property to Epic who will turn it into a campus for their small company.   So instead of nice stores, restaurants and other venues for residents, we get nothing.  Typical Cary. 

The owners must have gotten cold feet with retail plummeting due to the pandemic.  Seems odd since it would have been years before the site would have been built.  

Fork.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Brendan
Typo

[KJHburg]

Well Fenton is going in of course the street and it will have a good bit of retail but one wonders about Belk's?  will they build elsewhere in Cary or maybe even across the street at Fenton?  I was surprised by this move too as I thought the Carolina Yards project was a good one with lots of residential and some retail. 

[rancenc]

Follow up article to @KJHburg posting on Epic's proposed new headquarters in Cary.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article248249275.html?ac_cid=DM356382&ac_bid=-977287740

[Jones_]

18 hours ago, Brendan said:

I just heard about Epic.  This is devastating news for those of who have been waiting for Cary Towne Center to be turned into something nice.  The plans sounded so great, but now the owners dump the property to Epic who will turn it into a campus for their small company.   So instead of nice stores, restaurants and other venues for residents, we get nothing.  Typical Cary. 

The owners must have gotten cold feet with retail plummeting due to the pandemic.  Seems odd since it would have been years before the site would have been built.  

Fork.

Epic made it sound like they would be somehow including features or things that would be available for the whole Town to use. What this is exactly is anyone'e guess. I am hopeful. And to look at more positives, Cary has always been hurting for jobs within its Town limits...it is a bedroom community after all. This will dramatically balance that out. 

[Rufus]

49 minutes ago, Jones_ said:

Epic made it sound like they would be somehow including features or things that would be available for the whole Town to use. What this is exactly is anyone'e guess. I am hopeful. And to look at more positives, Cary has always been hurting for jobs within its Town limits...it is a bedroom community after all. This will dramatically balance that out. 

It also reasserts that Epic is committed to the area. I am intrigued to see how it is developed because the other buildings in that area were somewhat excited for the redevelopment prior to the purchase. 

[KJHburg]

Epic Games mentioned they will work with the town on some sort of recreation facility.  With Fortnite being so popular around the world they need a small museum or way for people to visit their HQ.  It would attract people from around the world believe me.   Epic is already based in Cary but Cary does have a lot of jobs inside the town like SAS with its 5000 plus workers, MetLife with 2600 plus jobs, lots of office space along Weston Parkway and of course Regency Park on the SE side of town.  

From the Cary Chamber 

[KJHburg]

this is getting a lot of national real estate press Epic buying the mall.  Wonder if they are going to use the existing mall or tear it down?

Epic Games to Convert Mall to Global HQ (cpexecutive.com)

Epic Games Acquires Metro Raleigh Mall for $95M, Plans New Headquarters Campus | REBusinessOnline

[joenc]

Wonder if they'll build some sort of esports facility.

https://www.sportspromedia.com/analysis/esports-week-rise-purpose-built-esports-arena

Edited January 5, 2021 by joenc

[paytonc]

On 1/3/2021 at 7:44 PM, Brendan said:

The owners must have gotten cold feet with retail plummeting due to the pandemic. 

Eh, they doubled their money (after expenses) within 1-2 years. 

What annoys me: CBL held on to their property for about three years too long, somehow thinking that yet another anchor-box-swap would rescue their mall with little effort on their part.

If Columbia or Turnbridge or someone else had purchased CTC instead of the state land (Fenton parcel) in 2015, we'd probably already have a Wegman's-anchored lifestyle center instead of CTC. Meanwhile, the hillier Fenton parcel would make a great corporate campus, a la SAS, and backing up to the soccer park. 

On 1/5/2021 at 4:20 PM, joenc said:

Wonder if they'll build some sort of esports facility.

That's exactly what the Town has proposed ("indoor recreation," for either basketball or e-sports), and apparently is still in negotiations to purchase land for, at the Walnut/Maynard corner. The previous owner was willing to cooperate, but dunno about now.

Maybe I should suggest to the town that they should negotiate to buy the entire Walnut St. frontage, and resell the excess for mixed-use. That's what they did with the Downtown Park, and plan to do for the new transit center.

Edited January 12, 2021 by paytonc

[KJHburg]

Fenton lost its Cinebistro anchor but quickly found another operator for the movie theater with dining.  Also to note the project's first phase is 78% preleased which is excellent in this market.

Cinebistro is out at Cary's Fenton – so another upscale theater is taking its place (Gallery) - Triangle Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[KJHburg]

Speaking of Cary Town Center I heard it is closing for good this Sunday all but Dave and Busters and the closing includes Belks.  I guess it is full steam ahead with Epic Games but I would have thought they would have wanted to keep it open until they started construction.  

Cary Towne Center closing Sunday :: WRAL.com

[KJHburg]

Now why must I drive up from Charlotte to show y'all what is going on in Fenton in Cary?  Okay I was up in Chatham County and Fuquay today and decided to drive by.  Guess what Fenton is finally vertical and that would be some of the office/retail buildings rising.   Today and I drove by Belks at the Cary Town Center and there were lots of cars there guess store closing sale.    Plus there is now a tower crane up.  Call this Cary Rising. 

 

[Phillydog]

1 minute ago, KJHburg said:

Now why must I drive up from Charlotte to show y'all what is going on in Fenton in Cary?  Okay I was up in Chatham County and Fuquay today and decided to drive by.  Guess what Fenton is finally vertical and that would be some of the office/retail buildings rising.   Today and I drove by Belks at the Cary Town Center and there were lots of cars there guess store closing sale.    Plus there is now a tower crane up.  Call this Cary Rising. 

 

LOL.  It's an excellent point.  You are absolutely correct.  Thank you for the pix!

[paytonc]

Tough to see much from Cary Town Boulevard, since it's all so high above! The building on the right is apartments over retail, though it looks like it's on a two-story concrete base.

Surprised to see a tower crane for mid-rise, but maybe it's needed for the Type I offices.

[KJHburg]

It is probably a crane for the office building.  Here is the layout in this video. Here is rendering from Loopnet.  First phase in the Wegmans, apartments, retail around the Wegmans and the hotel.

Behind the Wegmans is the hotel and behind that is the Class A office building.  

here you go this points out the first phase under construction now. 

[KJHburg]

here are some photos I took yesterday of Fenton.  Really rising fast now all but the grocery spot where Wegmans pulled out.  any word on a new grocer?  This is such a great project.  

Shopping, Dining & Entertainment in Cary, NC - Fenton (fentonnc.com)