Developers should go to Wake Forest prepared
Triangle Business Journal - by Kathleen M. Patterson
WAKE FOREST -- Take a town known for its historic downtown district, complete with a tree-lined seminary campus. Add in the challenges of the new century and the desire for a tax base reflecting significantly more industrial, commercial and office projects.
What do you get? That's what the folks in Wake Forest are wondering. What will the town look like in five years, let alone 15 or 50?
"The town is in transition," town Mayor George Mackie said. "We are going to become the focus of larger undertakings. It is going to be a scramble. We need to protect the lingering enchantment of this town."
Brenda Spruill, president of the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce sees the need for change.
"Our tax base is too heavy on residential. It is more than 70 percent residential," Spruill said. Even with that issue, the town is great place to live, she said.
"We feel we are the best kept secret in Wake County," Spruill said.
Mackie would love to see that figure change to 60 percent industrial and commercial and 40 percent residential to keep property taxes low. But, he realizes that is only a pipe dream.
"That dog won't hunt. That is not reality," he said.
Can this town -- known for the campus that was the original home of Wake Forest University and now serves the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary -- have some cake and eat it too? Can charm and growth coincide as the town's population pushes 10,000 and beyond?
Developers Jeff Looper and Lloyd Mattingly think so. Like many of the current developers, they have strong ties to the community. Looper grew up in Wake Forest and is a second-generation builder. Mattingly may be a New Mexico native, but he is a North Carolina State University graduate who has renovated buildings in the historic downtown Wake Forest.
"Nobody wants U.S. 1 coming into Wake Forest to look like Mini-City," said Looper, whose recent projects have focused on nearby U.S. 1A -- South Main Street.
Developers estimate there are still about 6,000 acres of undeveloped land between Raleigh's city limits and the Franklin County border.
Outside the U.S. 1 corridor, much of the land already developed was not formally placed on the open market. That trend is expected to continue. The landowners tend to take their time. That's where local developers, who know the families, have an edge, several developers admitted. In some cases, the families themselves have become builders and developers, as is the case with Jones Dairy Farm, just outside the town limits.
Jim Adams of Millridge Investments, chairman of the chamber's economic development committee, hears of the tenacity of some developers evaluating strategies already. His father, who lives on 10 acres off the service road, is called regularly by developers asking him to sell.
But those parcels with a service road could be harder to market.
"Frontage roads are needed," said Gould, who is developing the Crenshaw Hall subdivision off N.C. 98 near U.S. 1. He also developed the Hampton Park complex that includes the Hampton Inn and a gas station. Mackie disagrees, saying that service-road needs can be addressed by the developers.
Some of those larger tracts would suit industry, a focus of the Chamber of Commerce which wants to hire an industrial recruiter.
The target list of new industry includes high-tech and pharmaceuticals. "It is important that we be proactive," said Adams.
But taking a plan through fruition takes time.
"If a developer doesn't feel welcome, he hasn't taken the time to talk to people in town and to bring a good plan," Adams said.
Looper agrees that the developers who aren't welcome are the ones who haven't taken the time to present a good plan to the town and citizens.
"Wake Forest has been thorough, but fair," Looper said of the review by town staff, the planning board and finally the town commission. Residents frequently attend meetings to comment on development proposals. Town officials often seek compromises, such as additional buffer zones, to appease the neighbors.
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