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Monday, June 27, 2016
New Building Permit no. 9256, Project Title, “The Chemistry Lab,” Land Use Description “Bar/Tavern” issued June 23, 2016 to RCI Builders for 318 West Davie Street.
“No!” I cried out. “That’s not true! That’s… impossible!”
318 West Davie, if, of course, home to none other than the fantastic Boxcar Bar + Arcade, which offers everything from StreetFighter to Star Wars Trilogy the Arcade Game. How dare they replace it with something that sounds like it would be a better fit for Glenwood South!
Fortunately, as is often the case, I was completely wrong. It turns out “The Chemistry Lab” was merely the name of the previous tenant housed in this prime spot next to The Pit in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District. And Boxcar isn’t going anywhere: they’re just adding a new canopy.
Boxcar’s Patio
We weren’t able to find much on what we assume was a bar that once catered to Raleigh’s “I F-cking Love Science!” crowd: even the vaunted Wayback Machine couldn’t pull up an old version of its website, and the majority of the old Facebook page for The Chemistry Lab is taken up by advertisements for another club, Liquid.
But since neither Chemistry nor Liquid have anything to do with this new canopy project, it doesn’t really matter. As it happens, Boxcar already has a pretty decent patio setup, so it looks like the owners are just adding some protection from the elements for its outdoor guests. Very sweet of them. The $13,000 job will be handled by RCI Builders.
The week’s other two new building permits somehow ended up being even less interesting than a new wooden canopy structure, but let’s take a quick look at them anyway.
First up is yet another self-storage facility, the appropriately named Glenwood Self Storage, which will be located at 7901 Glenwood Avenue. Described as a “type 2-B S-1 building,” the new Glenwood Self Storage facility will be housed in a brand-new, 3-story, 70,104 square-foot structure.
The property was purchased in March by an LLC whose Dallas, Texas address traces back to both a web design firm and a company that bills itself as one of the “leading veterinary practice transition firms.” We don’t want to imagine what a veterinary firm would need with 70,104 square feet of storage space — we’re envisioning some kind of nightmarish, Beethoven-esque scenario — so thankfully it turned out the LLC owner is actually a subsidiary of Baranof Holdings.
Come on Charles Grodin; how could you not know this man was a villain?
Per an article on Storage.com, Baranof is making a serious investment in self-storage facilities. Their managing partner, Andy Hendricks, apparently told the website that Baranof decided to get into the storage game due to “superior fundamentals in the space that are not found in any other property type.”
“Large investors and institutions who have identified the storage sector for its performance during the downturn have a high demand for quality infill properties, yet few quality infill properties are available for acquisition as the public REITS rarely sell any properties of quality. The result is a void of quality infill product available for acquisition,” Hendricks told Storage.com
I’m imagining that interview was conducted through email.
In addition to the Glenwood facility, Baranof is also presently building out two locations in Austin, Texas and another in Portland, Oregon and planning future locations in Seattle & Vancouver Washington. Plans are also in the works for a second Portland facility, and another one in Raleigh at 622 Capital Boulevard.
Here’s how Baranof describes the Glenwood location on their website:
“7901 Glenwood Avenue Self Storage is a 452 unit, 50,285 rentable square foot (70,104 SF gross) 100 percent climate controlled state-of-the-art Class A self-storage development opportunity located in the NW submarket of Raleigh, North Carolina along Highway 70 (Glenwood Avenue). Construction has begun with completion expected by Q4 2016.
The facility will be third party managed.”
Sounds exciting. The $3.5 million structure will be built by P.B. Brown, a contractor that apparently specializes in self-storage facilities.
Baranof Holdings
A rendering of the Glenwood Self Storage Facility
The final new building project from last week is a new dental office/laboratory planned for 8116 Creedmoor Road. According to the permits, this new one-story, 3,447 space will be the home to the Gudger Dental Office Building.
Dr. Christopher Gudger, a well-reviewed Raleigh dentist currently operating out of a nearby location at 8351 Standonshire Way, will be both the building’s owner and its tenant, a sure sign of a successful practice.
One odd thing on the permits for the Gudger building: in the same section (“Project Name”) that described the Boxcar Bar + Arcade as “The Chemistry Lab,” this project is described as the “Kanawati Building.”
Just as “The Chemistry Lab” was the previous tenant in Boxcar’s Space, Dr. Beverly Goode-Kanawati was, along with her husband, the previous owner of 8116 Creedmoor, until they sold it to Gudger in November 2015.
Goode-Kanawati currently owns & operates the Beverly Medical Practice just down the road at 6008 Creedmoor Road.
The new Gudger Dental Office Building will be built at a cost of $595,696 by Chambliss & Rabil contractors.
