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Monday, February 29, 2016
We’ve got two new-ish buildings to look at today: one of them a storage facility we mentioned a few weeks ago, and another, a family fun center, that we *should* have mentioned a few weeks ago.
The storage facility is none other than the brand-new, 36,000 square-foot, three-story building going up at Uncle Bob’s Self Storage at 2401 South Wilmington Street.
After we covered the demolition permits issued in early February for some of the existing structures at Uncle Bob’s, a representative from their company, Diane Piegza, reached out to let us know what their future plans were.
The existing storage facility
The new facility will offer climate-control and video surveillance, and was described by Piegza as “state-of-the-art.” It was designed by Stinard Architecture out of Atlanta.
McKenna Construction, which received permits for the demolition phase of the project, will be handling work on the new $1,478,975 building. Honestly, I never would have expected storage facilities to cost that much.
The only time I ever used one it felt like someone had subdivided up a warehouse with a bunch of garage doors and drywall and found a way to charge hundreds of people a monthly fee to use the space. But I imagine this building at Uncle Bob’s will be a little nicer.
Next up is something that’s (no offense Uncle Bob’s!) much more exciting to me on a personal level: a new family fun center at the Wakefield Commons Shopping Center on Falls of Neuse in North Raleigh.
Now, I never claim to be on top of every single construction project in Raleigh, but if it’s interesting & it’s received permits, it should at least get a cursory mention in this space. This one happened to get its first permits way back on December 29, but I failed to cover it at the time. Instead, the Triangle Business Journal ran a long piece on January 15 about plans for the new Galaxy Fun Park.
Given that the permits at the time were described as “alterations to a shell” and “interior demo work,” and cost more than $50 grand, I really should have noticed something was up. Throw in the fact the Kroger at that shopping center has sat empty for years and it would’ve been easy to do the math on which “shell building” was getting prepped for renovation. And that something big had to be coming.
Although those permits didn’t mention the Galaxy Fun Park or the proposed future use of the space, the company did have their Facebook page up and running in early January, complete with photos of them outside the Kroger holding a banner that read “Galaxy Fun Park.”
Galaxy Fun Park
They look excited. I would be too!
But it’s pointless to dwell on the past. Last week, a change of use permit was issued that *did* specifically name the Galaxy Fun Park as the future tenant.
Here’s how the company is described on its Facebook page:
OK, this sounds like it may be a little below my age level, but I do live near, and visit, Adventure Landing, and yesterday went to Frankie’s Fun Park with my 26-year-old brother who enjoys those kind of places as much as I do, so I’ll reserve judgment on whether I’m “too old” for Galaxy Fun Park until the grand opening in July. Which, as a distinguished member of the media, I expect to be receiving an invitation to.
Although the Triangle Business Journal said the size of the space would be 55,760 square feet, the permits list the square footage at 63,490. Whether this discrepancy has to do with unused space or the possibility that the Mezzanine-level Galaxy Lounge mentioned in the Facebook post was not included in the original 55,760 square foot description. I reached out to the owners for clarity.
Either way, Carolina Building Systems will be handling the $1.3 million build-out inside the former Kroger.
Galaxy Fun Park
Demolition underway inside the former Kroger
