Development Beat

Friday, September 4, 2015

As we bring the week here to a close at the Development Beat, let’s finish what we started yesterday by examining some of last week’s renovation permits.

Although it received 10 separate permits, the fifth-largest renovation job from last week concerned a large roofing and siding job for an apartment complex on Shadetree Lane, off Glenwood Avenue near the Townridge Shopping Center. Wilkinson Construction will be handling the $500,000 project.

Also receiving roofing renovations last week was the Garcia Moto motorcycle dealership on Wadford Road. The $71,000 project will be handled by Teamcraft Roofing. We imagine something like out of that scene from Cool as Ice will transpire on site during a lull in construction, because if there’s one place you really want to ride a motorcycle, it’s around and through an open job site. 

Rounding out the roof jobs from last week is one getting done at the Church of Christ on Dixie Trail. The church is actually installing a solar roof panel, at a cost of $28,500. Baker Roofing will be handling the work. If I were the snarky atheist type, I’d insert some joke about how the church leaders should just call these “Jesus-powered panels” because Christ is the Light of the World etc. etc. But I’m not, so you’ll all be spared. Saved, as it were.

There wasn’t a whole lot of interesting renovation work done last week — a couple of office fit-outs, some cell towers, laundry room repairs, etc. But we figured we’d mention at least one more, since we touched briefly on it yesterday: work at Leith Toyota by Diamond Contracting. In addition to the $1 million in, um, addition work we already reported on, Diamond will also be doing a $20,000 alteration of the employee restroom. They must have a Kevin on staff, if you know what I mean.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

As evidenced by yesterday’s drawn-out, ill-conceived conspiracy piece, it’s a bit of a slow week here at the Development Beat. So what we’re going to do is stretch our usual Friday roundup of recent renovation permits into two days. Why not?

The biggest renovation from last week (technically it’s an addition) was also the site of a highly-publicized car accident last Monday: Hayes Barton Baptist Church. While some theorized that “this could just be an ITB mom who missed the turn on to Whitaker Mill bc she was posting first day of school pics to Fbook while driving” we never cared enough to follow up and find out what actually happened.

The important part is that there’s a big construction project that’s about to take place there, a 563,356 square-foot “Family Life Center” that’s getting built at a cost of $9,450,724. Brasfield and Gorrie, which did a recent demolition project at the church, will be handling the construction for this project as well.

Also receiving permits last week was another addition project, this one at Leith Toyota on Capital Boulevard in far North Raleigh. Permits describe the addition as a 19,535 square-foot service bay. Our old friends at Diamond Contracting will be handling the job for $1 million. A million bucks can buy a lot of high-quality gems, so they must be excited to have won this project.

The final, and third-largest permit from last week that we’re going to look at today is for a long-anticipated new bar at 201 W. Martin Street. Once home to the White Horse Taxi Company, the space will soon be filled by Whiskey Kitchen. The outfit is described on its website as a “Chef’s barroom coming to Nash Square in Downtown Raleigh.”

We’ve written about the project before, as it received approvals from the city in April on site plans submitted in February. Not a bad turnaround time, we suppose. As we reported back then, “the 6,074 square foot structure would receive both interior and exterior renovations, based on plans drawn up by local firm ORA Architecture.”

It looks like that time has come. On August 25, Southeastern Properties & Development received $719,779 worth of permits for a change of use at the space. Interestingly, the square footage listed on the permits is nearly double what was found in the original site plans. Interesting.

The property has been owned by the same company, Execucorp, since 1997. Although not listed on the site plans or permits, the owner and future operator of the Whiskey Kitchen is Jeff Mickel, who worked from 2002-2015 at the Flying Saucer, where he was a general manager. As we said back in April, this means he probably knows a thing or two about running a successful bar.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Today on the Development Beat, we’re going to take a brief look at a new subdivision planned for South Raleigh just a little ways up from Tryon Rd.

Named Idlewood Village, the project will create 39 single family homes on an 11.6 acre lot. The homes will all be three-bedrooms, and developed by Marlow & Moye LLC. The company purchased the property in late July through a subsidiary, Idlewood Property Development LLC.

Since there’s not really a whole lot to talk about with this project — it’ll be a bunch of new, densely-packed single-family homes in an area rich with dense subdivisions — allow us to go all Dan Brown for a minute. Below is a picture of the proposed layout of the new homes. Scroll through the gallery for our theory.

Makes sense, right? You’d have to be blind not to notice the obvious symbolism carved into the plans by Jones & Cnossen Engineers. Naturally, there are 13 characters in “Jones & Cnossen,” a dead-giveaway to their ties to the Masonic Order. Scholars (bloggers) believe that 13 is a significant number for the group, as it includes everything from the original 13 colonies to the 13 Satanic families. Um, whatever that is.

Here’s our favorite explanation:

E.W. Bullinger writes:

“As to the significance of thirteen, all are aware that it has come down to us as a number of ill-omen. Many superstitions cluster around it, and various explanations are current concerning them.

“Unfortunately, those who go backward to find a reason seldom go back far enough. The popular explanations do not, so far as we are aware, go further back than the Apostles. But we must go back to the first occurrence of the number thirteen in order to discover the key to its significance. It occurs first in Gen. xiv. 4, where we read ‘Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and the thirteenth year they REBELLED.’

“Hence every occurrence of the number thirteen, and likewise of every multiple of it, stamps that with which it stands in connection with rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, revolution, or some kindred idea.”

If you’ve been following along … there are 39 homes in Idlewood Village. 13 x 3 = 39. We’re not saying this subdivision is part of the New World Order or going to become a neighborhood of devoted Masons, but we’re not saying it’s not going to become that either.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

It’s Teardown Tuesday here on the Development Beat€, and we’ve actually got a demolition project that’s sort of worth looking at!

The drab and seemingly unending commercial strip that makes up a long stretch of New Bern Avenue just outside the beltline is not much of a sight to behold. Fast food restaurants, banks, gas stations, motels, you get the idea. It’s a lot like Capital Boulevard in that regard.

So it isn’t really surprising that one of the buildings out on New Bern is getting torn down. 3701 New Bern Avenue was once home to a place we’ve never been, or even heard of: New Bern Subs.

It’s a shame, because an archived version of the menu makes it look right up my alley: hot and cold subs, cheesesteaks, wings, Oreo cheesecake … the list goes on.

 

A quick perusal of the Yelp! reviews backs up this assertion: people seemed to dig their cheesesteaks and wings, and apparently they also sold chicken pitas, which is pretty amazing. Out of 22 reviews, it had an average of 3 1/2 stars, which is pretty decent.

The 2,806 square-foot building which once housed this well-regarded sandwich shop was first built in 1997, on a spot that once housed an Exxon gas station. So if you ever had a sub there that seemed a little oily …

The property is still owned by the same family/corporation which first purchased it in December 1996. The land itself is currently valued higher than the building, so maybe this demolition shouldn’t be coming as a total surprise.

The work will be handled by Qualified Builders for a cost of $25,000.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Welcome back to another week of the Development Beat, where we’ll take a quick look at a project we first mentioned way back when in March of this year.

This is what we reported at the time:

Site plans for a new shopping center on Capital Boulevard were also filed this week, by Florida firm PHDevelopment, which owns and manages a number of properties in the area, including 6201 Glenwood, which was once home to Fat Daddy’s burgers and is now occupied by a Panera Bread.

According to county records, PHDevelopment purchased the property at 5501 Capital Boulevard, currently a car dealership, from Charlotte’s Muskgrave Properties in December 2014 for $3.1 million. The site plan is being handled by the Curry Engineering Group, and calls for a 19,426 square-foot space.

We went on to speculate that the space would become a new shopping center, as this is what PHDevelopment specializes in, but we were way off. In what is probably no surprise to anyone but this reporter, PHDevelopment will be turning this former car dealership into … another car dealership.

Building permits were filed August 25 for two new structures at 5501 and 5505 Capital Boulevard, one for a 6,422 square-foot building and the other for a 13,004 building. Both permits were pulled by Callahan Construction, and both were listed at a cost f $13.5 million. We imagine that’s the total cost of the project, but if anything, the lesson for today is that we shouldn’t speculate in this space.

One small piece of vindication though — the “development plan” under which these permits were issued is titled “Capital Boulevard Retail” — so at least our speculation wasn’t totally groundless.

That aside, astute readers and pop culture aficionados will likely appreciate the fact that a Callahan company is involved with an automotive project, as the 1995 road-trip comedy Tommy Boy centers around a company named Callahan Auto Parts. The movie’s plot, as it is, features Chris Farley and David Spade traveling around the country trying to sell brake pads, which is probably the most boring description of the film possible. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out.

Of course, we have no idea what brand of cars will be sold at this new location, as the permits show no indication of this. Oh well. As long as they find a pitchman along the lines of say, Ray Zilinski or Irwin Mainway, the place should be a smashing success.