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Consider Proposed East Rosemary Downtown Redevelopment Project.
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Staff:
Department:
Maurice Jones, Town Manager
Manager's Office
Dwight Bassett, Economic Development Officer
Economic Development
Amy Oland, Director
Business Management
Overview: The Town of Chapel Hill has affirmed in recent years its commitment to strengthening its fiscal and economic sustainability by enhancing its Downtown business corridor. The Town has encouraged the development of new office space, a market that until recently had remained stagnant for over a decade. Several new projects will assist with improving the office market for Chapel Hill.
In 2019, Well Dot, Inc. announced its plans to invest $3 million to establish a new operations and corporate center along Franklin Street in Chapel Hill that will create about 400 high-paying jobs over a five year period of time. Grubb Properties also announced its intentions to move forward with the creation of new office space as part of its Glen Lennox redevelopment project.
On the east end of Downtown, Grubb Properties acquired the 137 East Franklin office building and parking deck in 2019 with the intention of turning the building into Class A office space that would attract innovative companies with an eye toward technology and biotechnology.
Grubb is now considering a larger redevelopment project on East Rosemary Street that would build upon the inspiration behind the 137 East Franklin Street Building. Their vision would transform East Rosemary Street into an Innovation Hub in Downtown Chapel Hill.
The East Rosemary Downtown Redevelopment Project would require the exchange of the Town's ownership stake in the Wallace Parking Deck for Grubb Properties' ownership of the 137 East Franklin (CVS) Parking Deck and adjacent parcel(s). The project could potentially result in the creation of a new 200,000 square foot office building (on the existing Wallace Deck site) and a new parking deck (on the existing CVS Deck site) wit...
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