Kite Realty Group on Tuesday paid $5.8 million for 98 acres at N.C. 55 and New Hill Road. It is the Indianapolis real estate investment trust's second big purchase at the intersection this month. It also paid $2 million for adjacent tracts totaling 6.24 acres.

Kite is snapping up the land for what would be its third Triangle shopping center, New Hill Place.

In 2006, Kite planned as much as 1.5 million square feet of shops, offices, hotel rooms and homes on 125 acres in west Cary. And in 2007, it began planning a 115-acre Wal-Mart shopping center in Apex.

Preliminary plans for New Hill, filed in recent months with planners in the western Wake County town, show 700,000 square feet of shops and 400 homes.

Kite has not specified what type of housing will be on the site. The company still needs to submit a detailed site plan for approval.

The purchase indicates that Kite has faith in Wake County's growth. The price shows that land values are holding up in Holly Springs, despite a drop in demand from home builders. The timing will indicate the commitment of retailers, which is needed to start construction.

A map on the company's Web site shows several proposed New Hill tenants, including Target, Lowe's Home Improvement, Michael's, TJMaxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, PetSmart and O2 Fitness. But the named companies say it's too early to confirm plans for new stores.

Office plans could be turning into hotel plans at the old VilCom campus in Chapel Hill.

Redwing Land LLC submitted a concept plan to the town in hopes of building a four-story, 125-room hotel at the office park between Weaver Dairy Road and Interstate 40.

The developer already has permission to build a third office building on the site. But having a hotel plan in the back pocket could give the developer options if demand for offices wanes.

The park's second office building, Dawson Hall, opened seven months ago. That 72,000-square-footer is still empty.

Office rents continued to rise in the second quarter but at a more moderate pace.

Average Class-A asking rates in the Triangle were $21.44 per square foot, up 0.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to Grubb & Ellis/Thomas Linderman Graham data. Rents were up 3.6 percent from the same period a year ago, down from a 8.7 percent rise during the year before that.

Nationally, office rents rose 1.1 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months, the smallest gain in almost three years, according to Reis research.

(Staff writer Sue Stock contributed to this report.)

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