Soon you can get beers after eating at Mami Nora’s: New bars and shops are planned nearby

A craft beer bar and bottle shop and an oyster bar will anchor a new development near Mami Nora’s Rotisserie Chicken on Wake Forest Road.

McNeill Pointe will fill in a 4.3-acre property at the corner of McNeill Street and Wake Forest Road. Developers Bobby Lewis and Dale Elmore have begun clearing the site for construction on four buildings that will have a combined 31,400 square feet of space for retail, restaurants and office. It is expected to open this winter.

The space is already 45 percent leased and will include Shuckin’ Shack, House of Hops and a nail salon run by the owners of Hayes Barton Nails and A Suite Salon, said Jon Bradley an associate at Avison Young, a Raleigh property management company. A few more tenants are still in negotiation and will be added later, he said.

The developers say they want the shopping center to blend into the nearby neighborhood, providing a place for nearby residents to walk or drive for dinner and a drink.

“I think it’s going to be a walkable development as well as a destination,” Lewis said. “Our tenant mix is going to be awesome.”

Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar has several locations on the coast and opened in Cary in early 2016. This will be the second location for House of Hops, which has a site on Glenwood Avenue near the intersection with Duraleigh Road.

Lewis and Elmore, both developers who have completed other projects separately, are working together on McNeill Pointe. The land was purchased for $667,500 in 2014, according to property records.

At one time, a small diner that had several names, including the Ham ‘N’ Egger Cafe, sat on the property, but the structure was demolished years ago.

The new buildings will be built on a 6-foot tall retaining wall that goes around the property, keeping it far above floodwaters that hit the area from time to time.

The project, which will start with three of the four buildings, is expected to cost about $7 million, Elmore said.

The four buildings will have steel awnings, large window bays, brick facades and massive skylights that resemble the ones at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport terminal. Surrounding the buildings, plans call for ample parking spaces and lots of patio space for diners.

The developers chose the design to catch the eye of drivers coming to and from downtown Raleigh for work, but also to blend into the area.

Lewis sees Wake Forest Road as a place for positive growth and said he hopes McNeill Pointe will add new offerings for drivers heading north past Trader Joe’s in the Holly Park Shopping Center and the yet-to-be-built Wegmans.

“Wake Forest is perfect for the next phase of development,” he said. “I think we’re just anchoring down the southern end of that area.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 9:29 AM with the headline "Soon you can get beers after eating at Mami Nora’s: New bars and shops are planned nearby."