Developers unveil first plans for apartment development in Southeast Raleigh
Developers have revealed some of the first concrete plans for Olde Towne, another massive residential and commercial Triangle development.
The Halle Building Group, an Apex-based home builder belonging to Maryland-based real estate group The Halle Companies, initially submitted preliminary plans to the city of Raleigh for stage one of the 514-acre development, which lays out the infrastructure plans for residential housing.
Stage one will have residential and commercial space built in parcels of land across 240 acres.
The Halle Building Group, which is handling the residential side, submitted additional plans for stage one of Olde Towne for a residential apartment community consisting of 12 three-story buildings and “various related amenities” to be built across 45 acres.
The plans call for 24 buildings total with 288 apartment units, a clubhouse, parking lots, seven parking buildings, a car wash building, a pool with a deck, and recreation areas. Apartment plans include 180 one-bedroom, 96 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom units. The land has already been zoned for 1,700 units.
“Development and build-out will be a many-year endeavor,” said Eric Rifkin, assistant vice president of The Halle Companies. “It’s going to evolve as we move forward.”
Olde Towne’s completion timeframe ranges from 10 to 12 years, Rifkin said. Development can’t begin on the remaining 278 acres of stage two, the other half of the property, without receiving permits for impacting streams and wetlands on the site.
“We’ll have to hold off plans for half the site until we’re granted approval by the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers],” Rifkin said. “The permit process can be as short as four months or two years. It could be done by the summer of next year, or 2021.”
The Halle Companies bought the site last December for $10.5 million. The Olde Towne property is just outside the Beltline at the intersection of South New Hope and Rock Quarry roads.
The project will involve multiple developers handling different parts of the property. Stage one plans contain the site of future retail space, for which separate plans will be submitted. The project’s total cost depends on which commercial property partners are chosen. Development and infrastructure for stage one will cost around $100 million, Rifkin said.
“This is a huge undertaking and a big investment for us and we’ll be staking the next decade of our time on this future project,” he said.
The News & Observer previously reported that owners of the commercial portion filed a rezoning request earlier this year for a 300,000-square-foot shopping center, office space and 450 apartment units. A project designer said there had been little opposition to the project. The Southeast district of the Citizens Advisory Council approved it on a vote of 17 to four.
The Halle Companies plans to move forward with stage one of the development but will seek to amend some rezoning conditions. The company will reveal more details of the project’s development within the next year, Rifkin said.
Similar mixed-use developments of this scale in the Triangle include Chatham Park in Pittsboro, Wendell Falls and the recently announced Midtown Exchange.
According to the Triangle Business Journal, the property had been vacant for more than a decade after land was cleared for Olde Towne. It was meant to be a residential development with a golf course until the recession in 2009 caused developers to abandon their plans.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
