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Attend a Wake Forest football, basketball or baseball game and you’ll notice that the surrounding area is full of cracked parking lots and empty buildings. That won’t be the case for much longer.
Wake Forest University has announced that it will redevelop the property it owns in the area east of its main campus, near the newly named Allegacy Stadium, Couch Ballpark and Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in a mixed-use project aimed at benefiting the local community and visitors. Including its sports venues and other facilities, Wake Forest owns 178 acres in that area.
Wake Forest will work with Winston-Salem’s real estate development and private equity firm Front Street Capital and Atlanta’s real estate development firm Carter, on the mixed-use project.
They will also work with the city of Winston-Salem to develop an initial vision for the project, potentially adding new retail, restaurant, entertainment, hospitality and residential spaces, with the goals of driving economic activity and reinforcing Winston-Salem as a destination for tourism, sports and entertainment.
“We want to support a thriving community where people can live, work, play and stay, with a goal of ensuring the area between Reynolds Boulevard and Coliseum Drive serves our Winston-Salem community,” said Susan Wente, university president.
The academic functions of the university will continue to be based on the Reynolda Campus and at Wake Downtown, Wake Forest said.
Wake Forest had a large hand in downtown’s Innovation Quarter, a mixed-use project that redeveloped vacant tobacco manufacturing warehouses into a variety of residential and office spaces as well as the home for Wake Forest University School of Medicine and undergraduate engineering and STEM programs.
Brett Eaton, chief communications officer for the university, told TBJ that Wake Forest hopes to have more details to share in the next few months.
“We are currently organizing meetings for Carter and Front Street to understand the priorities of community stakeholders,” he said. “Those discussions will influence our timeline and estimated costs. No decisions have been made yet about funding.”
The development will remain consistent with the 2015 North-Central Winston-Salem Area Plan Update and the 2020 Airport/Whitaker Park Plan.
Advancing an area known for its sports venues
“The demand in the region for housing, dining and entertainment options is high,” said Mayor Allen Joines, “and we look forward to working with Wake Forest, Carter and Front Street to create a plan for this area that supports the interests of the surrounding communities.”
Most of the buildings on Baity Street were demolished in May, except for Wake Forest’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials and the Last Resort Bar. Eaton said that it is too early to know what will happen with Last Resort, a bar popular with Wake Forest students.
The proposed area is home to the Health Exercise and Lifestyle Programs (HELPS), Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and the Pitching Lab and the University Corporate Center, whose tenants include Wake Forest, Pepsi and Alight.
It is also adjacent to several residential communities, including Boston-Thurmond, a historically black neighborhood said to have been negatively affected by the presence of Wake Forest and University Parkway, which divides the neighborhood in half.
Wente affirmed that the exploration of development will be guided by “a strong commitment to our community’s collective well-being.”
“This is an exciting opportunity for North Ward residents to influence the future of Winston-Salem,” said DD Adams, mayor pro tempore and city council member. “I look forward to a collaborative process to envision and act on community development priorities.”
Bordered by Deacon Boulevard, University Parkway, the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds and Allegacy Stadium, the proposed area is home to several of Wake Forest’s athletic programs, as well as the Wake Forest tennis is center that provides year-round programming and hosts the ATP 250 Winston-Salem Open.
The area hosts more than 750,000 event patrons annually with more than 260 event days, the university said. Popular attractions include Wake Forest sports games, the Carolina Class Fair, the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds and the Winston-Salem Open.
“There is enormous potential for investment in this area, which would not only bolster our goal of providing the best fan experience in North Carolina but also create year-round opportunities to gather and build community,” said John Currie, Wake Forest’s athletics director.
Wake Forest’s football games have also been strengthened by REVELxp, a company by alumnus Ben Sutton, that provides turnkey group parties and tailgates on game days.
“Coming off an incredible year where our stadiums and LJVM Coliseum hosted over 450,000 attendees for Demon Deacon athletics events, plus a recent history of incredible concerts and special events like Paul McCartney in 2022 and Billy Strings in 2023 and the annual ATP Winston-Salem Open, the time is right to collectively create the most exciting live-work-play development in northwest North Carolina, which in turn will help attract even more major event opportunities,” Currie added.
Front Street Capital, Carter have proven success in similar development projects
After an extensive process, Wake Forest selected these organizations based on relevant project experience and approach to development adjacent to universities, the university said.
A leading real estate development firm based out of Atlanta, Carter has a long list of experience in mixed-use development, including The Banks in Cincinnati and City Springs in Sandy Springs, Ga.
Carter is currently developing Summerhill, an 80-acre redevelopment that includes the former home of the Atlanta Braves and the new center for Georgia State University athletics, Turner Field. Through collaboration with the Summerhill community, city of Atlanta and university, Carter has helped develop 50,000 square feet of adaptive reuse retail and an 85,000-square-foot Publix-anchored shopping center, as well as market-rate multifamily and private student housing.
Led by Robin Team, Front Street Capital is the second-largest commercial real estate developer in the Triad, having developed more than 2.75 million square feet over the last five years. In Innovation Quarter, Front Street Capital recently completed Bailey South, an adaptive reuse, mixed-use project that includes coworking space Sparq, ad agency The Variable and restaurant Six Hundred°.
“The national experience of Carter, bolstered by the local knowledge and development experience of Front Street Capital is a combination that we expect to be very powerful,” said Wake Forest CFO Jacqueline Travisano.
In addition to seeking feedback from community members and stakeholders, the university said the organizations will explore private-sector investment opportunities.
Mark Owens, president and CEO of Greater Winston-Salem Inc., said that this project will complement existing venues and events.
“It helps us continue to compete as one of the best places to live, with family-friendly entertainment options a top factor in people’s relocation decisions,” he said. “Businesses and investors are also going to be very attracted to development opportunities in the Deacon Boulevard area.”