Holly Park Shopping Center Redux

[Gard]

This is certainly good news for the surrounding area. Holly Park won't be such an eyesore in an area that is building up anymore. Hopefully they will bring in an anchor for the park like Trader Joes.

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/714091.html

[NCMike1981]

Was there once a grocery store anchoring that center?

[Jones_]

Holly Park needs to tie into Industrial Drive somehow.....its light onto Wake Forest is adding to one of the most congested and accident prone intersections in the entire State.

[JeffC]

extending that road along the south edge of that property to Industrial would require a portion of the Alcatel plant property, which wraps around the eastern edge of the Holly Park property, according to Imaps...Alcatel/ITT is still tangled up with environmental contamination issues. I don't know which way the plume under that site is heading, but if its north across Holly Park, that could impact/limit redevelopment of Holly Park by sending costs through the roof. (i.e. because excavated soil would be contaminated...)

[Subway Scoundrel]

Holly Park needs to tie into Industrial Drive somehow.....its light onto Wake Forest is adding to one of the most congested and accident prone intersections in the entire State.

[JeffC]

BTTT to report that I heard the "Trader Joe's to Holly Park" rumor yesterday from another person who does not read these boards... Where there's smoke...

[Beth Y]

It has been years since I looked at this issue (long story) but I think that the soil contamination at Alcatel is limited to the Alcatel site, so if the contamination does go offsite, it would be only in the groundwater. Groundwater contamination should be at some depth there, so I wouldn't think it would cause soil disposal issues at Holly Park. Especially since the level of the Holly Park site is mostly raised above the Alcatel site. Plus, I recall that groundwater follows surface gradient around there, which means it heads down toward the WF/6F intersection.

I also recall that the old Raleigh City landfill was under the old Pepsi plant (can anyone confirm this?) which is now the Costco. Talk about an environmental issue...and that didn't stop that development!

[Gard]

It has been years since I looked at this issue (long story) but I think that the soil contamination at Alcatel is limited to the Alcatel site, so if the contamination does go offsite, it would be only in the groundwater. Groundwater contamination should be at some depth there, so I wouldn't think it would cause soil disposal issues at Holly Park. Especially since the level of the Holly Park site is mostly raised above the Alcatel site. Plus, I recall that groundwater follows surface gradient around there, which means it heads down toward the WF/6F intersection.

I also recall that the old Raleigh City landfill was under the old Pepsi plant (can anyone confirm this?) which is now the Costco. Talk about an environmental issue...and that didn't stop that development!

[Jones_]

My 86 year old neighbor from the former Whitaker Park apartments, told me that the landfill was quite extensive and specifically said it was under the car dealerships. This makes sense if you look at the typical soils around the creek up near Kiawanis and notice that on both sides of the creek the ground does seem several feet higher....it would have been swampy marshland for a a hundred feet or so off each creek bank. Interesting. Also the Civel War era camp Crabtree was located here, mostly on teh north side of the creek. One of the old Mills here produced gun powder...not sure if Civil War era operations such as this would have a lasting environmental effect or not, but the coal/gas plant downtown from the 1870's left a lot of soil that had to be removed for the convention center.

[Beth Y]

I do not recall the exact location, only recall that some of the offsite groundwater wells for the Alcatel investigation, at/near the old Pepsi plant, turned up trash at depth during their construction. The explanation was, and I don't remember from whom, that it was the "old Raleigh landfill". It was likely closed before landfills were "closed" under Subtitle D, so may not be on any official state list. I remember it, obviously, cause that is not something you see often!

[unique1rdu]

Looks to be official on Traders Joe here

[Gard]

Looks to be official on Traders Joe here

[Gard]

N&O had an article this morning on Trader Joes moving in there and gave a small peek at some other changes planned for the shopping center. http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/781243.html

[HollyM]

According to this list (which lists all the closed landfills in the state of NC), there is not mention of a landfill at the intersection of Six Forks and Wake Fores rd. There are a TON of other sites though that have been redeveloped. Very interesting list:

http://www.wastenotnc.org/SFHOME/IHS_Landfill_List.pdf

[Jones_]

I saw the Six Forks/Wake Forest landfill site on the above site. Scroll down to Wake Co and it's LF#8 (description is Wake Forest North, right on Creekside, Left on Industrial).

HollyM

[Gard]

^^^^

My exact thoughts when I read that list. I was amazed by how many dumps Raleigh had.

[JeffC]

FYI, the renovation of the shopping center is underway...the old Taco Bell building has been demolished and work is proceeding on an addition to the Melting Pot building to (presumably) house the rental car place. Addition doesn't appear large enough to house car rental place, so maybe Melting Pot is moving somewhere else in the shopping center?

[ncwebguy]

I think I read somewhere that the paint store (Benjamin Moore) is moving into the shopping center itself and Enterprise will get that space and Melting Pot will expand where it is. But that was a while ago and I want to say it was the N&O's Taking Stock, but that could just be me filling in the blanks.

[JeffC]

fyi for those who don't drive by this spot regularly, but construction is underway both on the old gym location, and on a new building that will be located about where the old Taco Bell was...I haven't seen any plans for the center, but I'm guessing they might be going for something a little more neo-urban than the old L-shaped row of stores facing out onto a vast square of asphalt...

[cthayes75]

Does anyone know if the widening of Wake Forest Rd. from the beltline to Six Forks was planned before Trader Joe's announcement, or was it part of the enticement/incentive package to get the to locate there?

[Gard]

^^^

The road widening is a state project and was planned by NCDOT back in 2005 IIRC. The primary purpose that the state gives for it is that it is to eliminate the bottleneck there created by traffic from the beltline.

[dmccall]

Does anyone know if the widening of Wake Forest Rd. from the beltline to Six Forks was planned before Trader Joe's announcement, or was it part of the enticement/incentive package to get the to locate there?

[Subway Scoundrel]

I live near here and my big hope is that with the road widening, they still maintain sidewalks and encourage pedestrian traffic under the bridge. It is amazing how many people walk this area and without a good sidewalk, you might as well build a wall and put a gate under the bridge since the beltline acts much like a wall.

Talk about traffic at this location, a few years ago I ran out of gas at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon right under the bridge. Needless to say I was not a popular guy. A guy stopped and took me to a gas station and I got out of there but my lack of watching the gas needle caused a fairly large traffic jam.

[dmccall]

I can't believe they didn't do an inverted SPUI when they replaced that Beltline bridge. This diamond thing really doesn't work with the traffic load there.

[Jones_]

I can't believe they didn't do an inverted SPUI when they replaced that Beltline bridge. This diamond thing really doesn't work with the traffic load there.