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New Condos in Downtown Kernersville


twincity

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Over the past few months, there has been a lot of development news in the Kernersville/SE Winston-Salem area. This is the first urban project, that i know of, proposed for downtown. 5 storeys is pretty large by Kernersville standards, and its a good start in turning the town into an urban enviroment. This, the 85 acre mixed use development near the Dell site, nd Calebs Creek, the 2nd largest residential devlopment in Forsyth Co., are signs that Kernersville's day of being a small town are numbered.

Town gets condo plans

Some neighbors oppose project, say it will worsen traffic

By Wesley Young

JOURNAL REPORTER

KERNERSVILLE

Harold Dunlap is betting that folks will pay $200,000 for an 850-square-foot condominium in the heart of Ker-nersville.

Dunlap's Salem Properties LLC is ap-plying to build a 40-unit condominium building that would rise five stories at the corner of Harmon Lane and Broad Street. The project would represent a $10 million investment downtown.

"People want this as an alternative living style," Dunlap said. "The location is well-suited because you can walk to Main Street, offices and churches. What we see in a market is everything from singles or young professional couples all the way to your early baby boomers that have gotten tired of keeping up a big house."

To build the condominium building, Salem Properties will have to get 1.2 acres rezoned from office to residential use. One neighbor, Marge Cahill, said she and others are trying to decide how to fight the project.

"This used to be a nice, quiet neighborhood until Forsyth Memorial rezoned and went on the rampage of building," Cahill said.

Novant Health Inc., which owns Forsyth Medical Center, owns the land that lies at the border of residential and office properties. Salem Properties plans to buy the land if the necessary rezoning can be accomplished. The building would be called Harman Place.

The condominiums would have 850 to 1,800 square feet and would cost from $200,000 to more than $300,000, Dunlap said. The units would have floor-to-ceiling windows and designer bathrooms.

There will be 9-foot ceilings and gas fireplaces. Residents would use a video monitor to buzz in visitors. The units would have individual balconies and be reached by high-speed elevators.

"This is new urbanism," Dun-lap said. "These types of buildings are in Asheville, Wilmington, Greensboro and Winston-Salem."

Dunlap and his business partner, Jim Glasscock, stared buying and reselling condominiums in the mid-1990s. They have had units in Albert Hall and the Mill at Tar Branch, both in Winston-Salem.

Dunlap said that Novant had planned to put medical offices on the property, but that the extension of Harmon Lane in past years had cut the property off from the rest of the hospital's land.

While Harmon Place may be as tall as anything else in town, Dunlap said that the low site will keep it from having a bad effect on the neighborhood.

"There's a bank across the street, a dentist within walking distance, and Kernersville Family Practice (nearby)," Dunlap said. Also nearby are a savings and loan and a restaurant.

Dunlap said he has spoken to neighbors who approve, but knows that Cahill is opposing his rezoning effort. She said she believes that 40 condominiums will make traffic worse.

"The cut-through traffic is incredible," she said. "I've talked to four or five neighbors, and we are getting our act together and seeing what we are going to do."

Dunlap said he hopes to be-gin construction in the fall. Units would be available for occupancy in the summer of 2006.

"I think it would be a catalyst for better restaurants and a little more variety, some more street-scape businesses," Dunlap said.

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I've never actually been to Kernersville, but just by looking at its location on a map I've always thought it had the potential to turn into something a lot like Cary in the Triangle. If that does happen, hopefully they'll do a better job at checking some of the "stupid" growth. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's a single building with even 5 stories in downtown Cary.

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