CityPlat wants to turn warehouses in Fuquay-Varina into light industrial spaces as phase one of a larger development.
CityPlat LLC
A Raleigh-based real estate firm has plans for a major development in southern Wake County.
CityPlat wants to build a mixed-use real estate development across two parcels of mostly vacant land in a growing suburban area in Fuquay-Varina.
The development is slated to be built across 93 acres at 1001 Bridge Street near Judd Parkway and U.S. Highway 55.
Currently, 14 warehouses and a small building on the land are eyed for redevelopment and are surrounded by open vacant space that once was farmland.
CityPlat and Rockwest Center III LLC closed on the land on Thursday and paid $16.1 million.
Rockwest Center III LLC is owned by Raleigh investor Salvatore Lampuri. The land was owned by the U.S. Tobacco Cooperative, according to county records.
“They have been asked in the last 20 years, 20 times or more about (selling the land),” CityPlat principal Vincenzo Verdino said in an interview. “We may have just gotten them at the right time when it made the most sense for them to sell. This would be the largest project that we’ve worked on so far.”
CityPlat, which has been behind several downtown Raleigh developments, is planning to redevelop the existing 24,000-square-foot warehouses on the property into modern warehouse and industrial space.
CityPlat seeks to pave the gravel roads, and renovate the existing buildings for industrial tenants. At least four tenants have already committed to space on the property, Verdino said.
“Things are moving pretty immediately,” he said.
The land’s zoning allows for light industrial space, which means the project’s industrial portion won’t need rezoning.
But the project’s latter portion is slated for commercial real estate development facing the road with potential retail and restaurant space, in addition to single-family homes and townhomes.
CityPlat estimates that the complete project will cost $140 million to build.
The developer is preparing site plans for submission to the town and will later need to file a rezoning request to allow for development with mixed-use density.
“The feedback we have from the town is that they have a lot of residential development and they’re looking to see more restaurants and things that complement the residential space,” Verdino said.
The 93-acre acquisition by CityPlat is located inside the Judd Parkway loop of Fuquay-Varina, which is designated as a “Priority Investment Area” in the town’s new 2040 Future Land Use Map.
The newly adopted document makes recommendations for real estate and infrastructure growth for the town of around 35,000 people.
“Infrastructure investments in this area should keep pace with changing economics, evolving technologies, and aging infrastructure,” reads the Future Land Use Map. “Advancing infrastructure investments in these areas should be considered to incentivize concurrent investments by developers or private property owners.”
Developments in this area are recommended to “consider opportunities to link neighborhoods to development activity centers and parks.”
Work is expected to begin on the project by the end of the year, according to CityPlat.
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