Wrecking crews start tearing down vacant Southern Season end of Chapel Hill’s mall
Heavy equipment was unleashed Monday at University Place in Chapel Hill, ready to rip out storefronts so crews could continue the mall’s transformation into a mixed-use development.
Mayor Pam Hemminger and Town Council members joined Ram Realty Advisors and others at the groundbreaking ceremony. They watched from a tent in the parking lot as an excavator tore into the tower at the corner of the vacant A Southern Season store, which closed in early 2020.
The demolition work at the mall could take about two months, followed by another 16 months of construction to add six buildings on the eastern end of the site, said Jeff Kurtz, Ram Realty’s vice president of development.
That portion of the project and the 900 Willow apartment building underway on the western end should open by late 2024 or early 2025, he said. The ground floor of the apartment building will include a parking deck and upStart, a retail incubator for eight small businesses on the ground floor.
“We think this is a great way to reactivate this and become the new center for Chapel Hill,” Kurtz said. “The mall had historically been a place where people came and shopped, met friends and hung out, but I think that over the years, it lost some of its luster.
“Now, with this being a true lifestyle community where people live, work, play, the new offices that are intended to be here, I think this really is going to become an 18-hour destination and a new center for Chapel Hill.”
Modern redevelopment
Ram Realty bought the 40-acre mall property in 2018, and has since launched a modernizing effort, turning inward-facing storefronts around to face the parking lot and adding new tenants, including Silverspot Cinema, bartaco and Hawkers.
The demolition will allow Ram Realty to turn the remaining indoor storefronts outward, add restaurant and retail space, including a possible food hall, and leave additional room for Kidzu Children’s Museum to grow.
Construction began last year on a seven-story building in the western parking lot between Willow Drive and Silverspot Cinema. That phase of the project is adding 253 apartments, 9,514 square feet of retail space, a pool, and a 422-space parking deck.
The apartment building, 900 Willow, will include both market-rate and affordable apartments, and upStart, a retail incubator for eight small businesses on the ground floor. Leasing will start in late 2024, Ram officials said.
Future phases will follow over the next several years, creating a total of 350,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 60,000 square feet of office space, and 253 apartments. Up to 150 hotel rooms also are possible, along with multiple parking decks.
The town’s Community Design Commission worked with Ram officials to create design standards to guide the redevelopment, and the CDC also has the final review over building exteriors and landscaped spaces.
The redevelopment presents an exciting opportunity to live, work and play without leaving town, and is creating changes that haven’t been seen in that area for decades, Hemminger said.
The town is grateful for Ram’s investment in its economy, housing and tax base, she added.
“COVID and climate action have taught us that we want more walkable, bikeable, transit and outside experiences for everyone to participate in,” Hemminger said. “We don’t want people to have to get in their cars to go all these places. This is answering that need.”
Future construction plans
In a news release, Ram officials said they are talking with several local and national retailers and restaurants, and could announce some new tenants this summer.
“We have a lot of leasing interest from local concepts as well as national brands that would be new to Chapel Hill,” said Rick Gnann, Ram’s director of asset management. “We are thoughtfully curating a mix of businesses that will create a vibrant place to be 18 hours a day.”
The Southern Season end of the mall will be landscaped to create a central park space, with small retail buildings anchoring each end and surrounded by a new, one-way “main street.” The park will have space to hang out, listen to music and attend events, Kurtz said.
The Chapel Hill Farmer’s Market also could move there, he said. The market, after being relocated to the eastern side of the late last year, was back Saturday in its longtime location along Estes Drive.
The public green is still seen as the best opportunity “to create a little bit of a fair kind of atmosphere” for the market, Kurtz said. That would also benefit tenants at University Place by providing more potential shoppers and diners, he said.
Two office buildings, a parking deck, and five retailers in two more buildings are also planned for the eastern end, south of the existing right-in, right-out Fordham Boulevard driveway. A Chick-fil-A is planned north of the driveway, next to Binkley Baptist Church.
Binkley’s congregation has objected to the Chick-fil-A plan, worried drive-through lanes running along the church playground will expose children in the church’s daycare to automobile emissions and create traffic congestion around the church. Negotiations with Ram Realty did not produce significant changes.
While Ram’s approved master plan allows for another 247 apartments, there are no plans to build those at this point. The project also is allowed to have six drive-throughs, including at Chick-fil-A and the bank.
No plans have been made yet to remove the building at the northern end of the site, which houses Harris Teeter and Chapel Hill Tire. Fifth Third Bank is renovating a vacant bank building at the corner of Estes and Willow drives.
The project also will make a significant investment in the streetscapes surrounding the mall property, Ram officials said, including over $4 million in new street lights, crosswalks and pedestrian signals, a new multi-use pedestrian and bike path on Fordham Boulevard and Estes Drive, and a bike lane and traffic improvements on Willow Drive.
About 140 new trees will be added to the site, and stormwater improvements also are planned, Hemminger said.
