Hurricane Helene was not a modest disruption. It was a disaster of historic scale. The North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management estimated total damage and recovery needs at $59.6 billion as of Dec. 2024, including damage to more than 73,000 homes, more than 100 confirmed deaths in North Carolina and a federal disaster declaration covering 39 counties. As a broker in Western North Carolina (WNC), I am often asked why the commercial real estate market has remained as strong as it has. The answer is not that the market avoided pain. It did not. The answer is that a tightly supplied market behaves very differently from a soft market after a disaster. In WNC, Hurricane Helene did not expose oversupply. It exposed scarcity. Before Helene, the Asheville-area commercial market already had very little slack. In NAI Beverly-Hanks’ second-quarter 2024 Asheville MSA commercial market report, CoStar Group-derived vacancy stood at 5.3 percent for industrial, 2.8 percent for office and 1.6 percent for retail. Earlier 2024 reporting from the same source showed similarly constrained conditions, reinforcing the same point: this was already a tight market before the storm arrived. A familiar recovery pattern That pre-storm scarcity shaped the recovery pattern. …
DURHAM, N.C. — Welcome Group has executed a 100,100-square-foot full-building lease at Welcome Venture Park, an industrial and flex business park under construction in Durham. The undisclosed tenant will occupy Building C at the property. Larry Lakins, Andrew Young, Hunter Willard and Shields Liggett of Colliers represented Welcome Group, while Doug Brock of Newmark represented the tenant. Welcome Venture Park will total 1.3 million square feet across 10 buildings upon completion of all four phases. Phase I comprises nearly 395,000 square feet across four buildings and is more than 90 percent leased. Existing tenants include Cavalier Logistics, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Great Day Improvements, Mobile Communications America (MCA), PEP Move and DeHaven’s Transfer & Storage. Scheduled for delivery in fall 2026, Phase IIA consists of Buildings C and H and totals approximately 200,550 square feet. Building C is fully leased, while Building H offers 100,450 square feet available for lease. City Bank is financing Phase IIA. Phase IIB, which will include an additional 439,560 square feet across Buildings I and J, is anticipated to deliver in late 2027 and early 2028. The overall development is designed to accommodate manufacturing, laboratory, warehouse, distribution and technology-focused users. …
PITTSBORO, N.C. — Six new tenants have signed leases at MOSAIC at Chatham Park, a 44-acre development in Pittsboro, roughly 35 miles west of Raleigh. MOSAIC serves as the commercial gateway to Chatham Park, an 8,500-acre mixed-use development currently underway. Italian restaurant a Tavolo is slated to open this August, and Atlanta-based restaurant Flying Biscuit is anticipated to open in the third quarter of 2027. New View Eye Care will open in March 2027, while gourmet ice creamery and candy kitchen Pecan Jacks is anticipated to open this summer. Verizon will open in the fourth quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, First Horizon Bank has acquired a nearly 1-acre parcel for $2.6 million to construct a 3,150-square-foot building. Eight of the 17 buildings planned for MOSAIC are complete. One building is currently under construction and nine are in the pre-construction phase. The project is expected to be fully complete by 2030. Upon completion, Chatham Park is expected to comprise approximately 22,000 homes, with 22 million square feet of office, research, retail, educational and community space. Northwood Landing, a grocery-anchored mixed-used development situated adjacent to MOSAIC, has also recently welcomed two new tenants, including Chase Bank and Wells Family Dental Group. Additional tenants …
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowes Foods plans to anchor Cadia Village Mooresville, a mixed-use development underway in suburban Charlotte. The Winston-Salem-based grocer will open a 52,000-square-foot store that features various departments, including a craft brewery (The Beer Den), coffee shop (Boxcar Coffee) and bakery (The Cakery). The developer, Pappas Properties, plans to break ground on the new Lowes Foods store in the third quarter, aiming for delivery in 2027. Situated near Lake Norman, Cadia Village Mooresville will feature a retail center, offices, a community village green space, for-sale homes, active adult apartments and cottage townhomes. Pappas Properties broke ground on Phase I of the mixed-use project last November.
During his keynote address at InterFace I-85 Industrial Corridor, a two-day conference held May 19-20 at the Hilton Uptown Charlotte, Gregg Healy, executive vice president and head of industrial services at Savills, shared a quote from Charles Darwin to end his presentation. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.” Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Industrial owners and developers have had to be adaptable given the haymakers issued by macroeconomic forces the past several years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they rode the reinvigorated demand wave for e-commerce fulfillment with large-scale developments in key transportation corridors. In the following years, they scaled down their pipelines to focus on smaller, more targeted requirements as construction and capital costs rose significantly. And since Liberation Day, when the Trump administration declared a sweeping package of tariffs for foreign trade partners and specific commodities in April 2025, industrial developers have been building and leasing facilities for domestic and global manufacturers that were nearshoring their investments. Today, owners and …
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Obrecht Properties LLC has purchased 30 acres adjacent to Fort Bragg, a U.S. military base spanning 160,000 acres in central North Carolina. The Maryland-based developer plans to develop The Gateway at Military Business Park, a six-property industrial park spanning 325,550 square feet, on the site at 2755 Procurement Circle in Fayetteville. The park represents Obrecht’s entry into North Carolina. The developer plans to break ground immediately on Phase I, which will comprise two single-story buildings totaling 52,500 square feet, with plans to deliver the first phase next summer. Obrecht has tapped Neil Grant and Roger Marx of Grant-Murray Real Estate to oversee leasing at The Gateway at Military Business Park.
DURHAM, N.C. — A partnership between Hines and an Ares Real Estate fund has begun construction on Parkside Commerce Center, a four-building industrial park spanning 809,141 square feet in Durham. The project will be situated along Silicon Drive and sit adjacent to Research Triangle Park. The co-developers have tapped Foundry Commercial to lead leasing and marketing at Parkside Commerce Center, which will be developed in two phases. Phase I, which is slated to deliver in fourth-quarter 2027, will include Building 1 (a 237,824-square-foot rear-load facility) and Building 2 (a 283,724-square-foot rear-load building). Both buildings will feature 36-foot clear heights and 63 trailer stalls. Phase II will include Building 3 (a 172,289-square-foot facility) and Building 4 (a 115,304-square-foot property), both of which will have 32-foot clear heights.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Wilder and Greenberg Gibbons have formed a joint venture to acquire Wakefield Commons, a 163,975-square-foot shopping center located in Raleigh. According to the Triangle Business Journal, an entity doing business as Mishorim Gold NC LP sold the asset for $33 million. The acquisition marks Wilder’s entry into North Carolina, as well as Greenberg Gibbon’s first purchase through its $300 million Real Estate Income Fund II. Wakefield Commons was 96.3 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Starbucks, Marquee Cinemas and Burn Boot Camp. Greenberg Gibbons plans to renovate and improve the shopping center. Additional details were not disclosed.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Midway through a panel discussion comprising apartment operators, moderator Stephanie Garris, director and head of North Carolina at property management firm Arqline, asked the panelists for one thing in multifamily operations that they wish they could stop doing tomorrow. “Offering concessions,” said Dallas Green, regional vice president of RPM Living. “Dallas stole my answer,” said Sherry Yarborough, director of multifamily management Southeast at Drucker & Falk. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. The panelists were part of InterFace Carolinas Multifamily, an annual networking and information conference held on May 21 at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown. The conference, hosted by InterFace Conference Group and Southeast Real Estate Business, brought in 273 attendees. Concessions often take the form of free rent for a set period, typically one or two months. Renters at newly delivered properties can get up to three months of free rent in some markets today, with longer rent-free periods reserved for those who sign longer term leases or for signing a lease within 24 to 48 hours of touring the property. Yarborough said …
CARY, N.C. — Mesa West Capital has provided a $29.7 million acquisition loan for The Ellery of Cary, a 194-unit apartment community located at 100 Hempstead Court in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh. Trevor Brotman, Tricia Linden and Kara Profitt of Walker & Dunlop’s Irvine, Calif., office arranged the five-year, non-recourse loan on behalf of the borrower, McDowell Properties. The seller and sales price were not disclosed. Built in 1988 on nearly 19 acres, The Ellery of Cary offers a mix of one- and two-bedroom floorplans averaging 875 square feet in size. Amenities include a swimming pool with a sundeck, 24-hour fitness center, dog park, outdoor courtyard with fire pits and grills and walking trails with direct access to the Black Creek Greenway.