Events
Chatham County Development Briefing—March 10
With the real estate industry changing so rapidly, it is vital to have good up-to-date information about the local market. On Tuesday, March 10 from 7:30-9:30 a.m., the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Chatham Chambers of Commerce, Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors, and Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties will host the third annual Chatham County Development Briefing at the Governors Club. Attendees can expect to get the most-up-to-date information about the status of development projects in Chatham County, hear about the County’s new economic development plan, and recent policy changes that will affect future development. This is a must attend event for anyone interested in Chatham County real estate. The briefing is presented by Osprey Marketing and Advertising and sponsored by Governors Club, Newland Communities, the Greater Chapel Hill Association of REALTORS, and Carolina Meadows.
Seats are $25 for members, $35 for nonmembers and includes a full breakfast. Last year’s event sold out quickly so please register soon at
www.carolinachamber.org/members/register.html or call 919-967-7075.
New Development
Innovation Center Approved
The first building of Carolina North, the Innovation Center, was unanimously approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council. The Innovation Center will take University research ideas and turn them into businesses. University officials were pressed by Town elected officials to commit to energy efficiency standards beyond what is currently recognized by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Prior to the meeting, UNC committed to making the Innovation Center 20 percent more efficient than ASHRAE standards but eventually agreed to make it 25 percent more efficient. For the full story from the Herald Sun, click here.
Mixed Use Project Considered in Northern Chapel Hill
The Chapel Hill Town Council was presented with a potential development plan for a 13 acre parcel of land along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near the intersection with Weaver Dairy Road Extension. The Altemeuller development, as it is called, would call for medium to high density mixed use including a hotel, office and retail space, and 110 townhomes. Bill Christian, developer of the property, is looking to target people making 120 percent of the area median income or about $60,000. You can listen to part of his presentation here. Del Snow, head of the Northern Area taskforce, expressed concern over the project that you can listen to here. For more on this story from 1360AM WCHL, click here.
Glen Lennox Plans Starting from Scratch
On Sunday, February 8, developers from Grubb Properties met with Glen Lennox residents for a facilitated discussion about future development at Glen Lennox. Residents in the area are seeking to become Chapel Hill’s seventh neighborhood conservation district and protect the neighborhood’s walkability and tree-lined streets. Grubb Properties, owner of Glen Lennox, says it has scrapped original plans for the site and is taking citizen feedback and comment into consideration as they form new plans for redevelopment. For the full story from the Chapel Hill News, click here.
Council Getting Pushback over East 54
According to an article in the Chapel Hill News, the Chapel Hill Town Council is getting a number of complaints from citizens over the magnitude of the East 54 development, located along Highway 54. “Virtually all the reaction I get to East 54 is negative”, says Council member Matt Czajkowski. However, many of the council members who voted in support of the project still believe it was the right decision and critically important to a future rail line that is projected to stop behind the development. Regarding a regional rail system, Council member Bill Strom says, “In order to get federal and state support for these projects, you have to have density organized in a way that promotes ridership.” In order to come to some agreement in the community over future development, Mayor Kevin Foy plans to unveil a plan for collecting input and defining locations for desired density at an upcoming Council meeting. For the full story from the Chapel Hill News, click here.
Schools
School District Reports Lowest Dropout Rate in State
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have the lowest dropout rate in the state during 2007-2008. Fifty seven students, or 1.53 percent of students, dropped out of school last year, according to the District’s Web site. The rate is up slightly from 2006-2007 when only 41 students dropped for a rate of 1.12 percent. The most commonly cited reasons for leaving were attendance issues and a desire to attend a community college program. Recently, the District has made efforts to combat some of these problems by forming the Middle College program at Durham Tech. Middle College allows students to take high school and community college courses simultaneously. Drop outs were mostly even across the District’s three high schools and one middle school. For the full story from CHCCS, click here.
CHCCS Releases Reading Results
Students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools continue to outperform their counterparts across North Carolina in reading, despite a drop in reading test performance. This year, significant changes were made in the tests given to students in grades 3-8, including setting higher standards for attaining proficiency. As a result, 78.5 percent of CHCCS students posted proficiency in reading while in 2008, that number was 93.4 percent. The drop in scores in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district is approximately one-half of the decline seen statewide. “In raising standards, we may make students better readers in the end, but the presentation of the results the first year with new standards can be demoralizing to students and staff," said Executive Director for Testing and Program Evaluation Diane Villwock. For the full story, click here.
Orange County
Downtown Partnership Recommends Parking Tweaks
On February 11, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership Board developed a series of recommendations for the Town Council regarding parking downtown. The recommendations were based on a study by Rich & Associates and include initiating “courtesy tickets” for first-time offenders in the downtown and a 50 percent increase in on-street parking rates to 25 cents per 10 minutes. The increased rate is designed to encourage the use of parking decks which cost $1.30 per hour and would also boost revenues from $250,000 to $375,000. The courtesy ticket would mean a decrease in revenues for the town but would improve visitor perceptions about parking in the community. The recommendations will be presented at the Council meeting this evening. For the full story from the Herald Sun, click here.
Alderman Identify Priorities
The Carrboro Board of Aldermen brainstormed priorities for the coming year at its retreat early this month. The Board talked about increasing aid to nonprofits and controlling taxes, among other things. In terms of the budget, Mayor Mark Chilton said sales tax revenues in Carrboro were flat, which was a bright sign in this economy. The Mayor also said the Town would adjust its property tax rate down to ensure a revenue neutral rate after the latest property revaluation. Board members will review the priorities and ideas at a work session on March 10. For the full story from the Carrboro Citizen, click here.
Carrboro Merchants Launch WalkCarrboro.com
Jesse Kalisher, president of the Carrboro Merchants Association, has led a new effort to draw residents and tourists to 22 Carrboro businesses through a Web site called www.walkcarrboro.com. The Web site lists various Carrboro businesses and also includes a map helping people navigate the town and parking. Beyond the site, Kalisher printed 10,000 copies of the map, which was designed by Carrboro artist Richard Clout. For the full story from the Chapel Hill News, click here.
Foy Pushes for Regional Transit Funding
Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy made a strong push for regional transit in his annual state of the town report on February 9. Mayor Foy said regional transit is needed “for our economic health in the future, for our environmental health in the future and, frankly, for our sanity in the future, because we can’t continue to get on Interstate 40 to get around.” The Mayor plugged the half cent sales tax and urged residents in the Triangle to get behind the tax in order to partially fund the system. The remaining funds would come from the Federal government. Mayor Foy also encouraged supporting local businesses and applauded the collaboration between Town and University officials during Halloween and the relocation of the homeless shelter. For the full story from the Carrboro Citizen, click here.
Planning Board Petitions Council over Site Plan Process
The Chapel Hill planning board brought a petition before the Town Council at a January 12 meeting regarding their concern over developers “subverting” the site plan approval process. Essentially, the planning board wants to tighten the requirements for developments that would be subject to the site plan approval process. Projects with a floor area of less than 20,000 square feet and that disturb less than 40,000 square feet of land are currently allowed to go through the site plan process and not be subject to Council approval. The planning board’s initial petition proposed cutting those figures in half, thus requiring more projects to go through the lengthier special use permitting process. The petition was referred to town staff for comment and the Chamber is working to set up a meeting with staff to provide input on what, if any, changes would occur.
From staff notes
Carrboro Seeking Feedback about Budget
Tomorrow night, the Town of Carrboro will hold a public hearing in which residents can voice items to include in the 2009-2010 budget. Town Manager Steve Stewart will present a draft budget on May 5 and the Town will again hold a public hearing on the budget on May 26. Residents can email comments to the Town Clerk at swilliamson@townofcarrboro.org and review budget materials at www.townofcarrboro.org/ms/budget.htm.
From the Carrboro Citizen
Water Partnership Inches Closer
Orange County Commissioners moved closer to joining the Jordan Lake Regional Water Supply Partnership, electing to place a draft memorandum of understanding for the Partnership on an upcoming agenda. The Partnership brings together the cities of Durham and Cary, Chatham County, Orange County and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority to jointly address water supply planning, future allocation requests, and a possible future intake facility. Commissioners expressed some reservation that the City of Durham would act as the lead agency in the effort and that no elected officials would be part of the partnership management team. The Commissioners will vote on the draft memorandum on Tuesday night. For the full story from the Herald Sun, click here.
Town Council Nixes Branch Library Expansion
At the February 9 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, Council members voted 8-1 to continue with a $16 million expansion of the library on Estes Drive. Town Manager Roger Stancil asked the Council at the meeting whether it wanted to reconsider alternatives to the expansion but Council members felt now was not the time to consider a new library. The Chamber spoke in support of reconsidering a library in the downtown as it would bring more people into the downtown business district. For the full story form the News and Observer, click here.
The Triangle
Durham County School Funding Cut
Durham County Manager Mike Ruffin and School Superintendant Carl Harris reached an agreement at the end of January to cut $3 million in funding for Durham schools. The $3 million total is a three percent cut for the schools and is consistent with a three percent reduction in funding for noncounty agencies. The cuts at schools will not affect classrooms; the schools are expecting to use $2.7 million from uncommitted state lottery funds and another $400,000 earmarked for capital projects. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here.
Durham Transit Center Set to Open
After celebrating the opening of the Durham Performing Arts Center at the end of 2008, Durham is ready to celebrate the opening of its new Transit Center on Sunday. The station, a two-story, 10,000 square foot building, is a $17.6 million investment. City officials are working with Duke University to link buses between campus and the station. This summer, a new Amtrak station will open a few blocks from the transit station. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here.
Raleigh Home Prices Down
New data from real estate company Zillow show that Raleigh home prices dipped by 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter. Since a high of $209,204 in first quarter of 2008, median home values have dropped to $199,365 in the last quarter. Ten percent of all transactions in Raleigh were on foreclosed homes, compared to 20 percent nationwide. About 62 percent of homes in Raleigh have lost value this year according to Zillow. For the full story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here.
Office Market Report Released By Grubb and Ellis
The Triangle office market is behaving very differently according to a fourth quarter report by Grubb and Ellis. The report cites office vacancy at their highest levels since mid-2005, Class A rents flat, and 400,000 square feet of new space delivered with just 25 percent preleased. A bright spot in the report is the Chapel Hill submarket which saw vacancy decrease to 15.6 percent after UNC Dermatology leased 14,000 square feet in Southern Village. The outlook for 2009, on the whole, is not overly optimist with vacancy expected to increase. Grubb and Ellis seems optimistic that the vacancies will present opportunities for new entrepreneurs and relocating businesses lured by relatively low cost space.
From Grubb and Ellis Research 4Q 2008
State
Obama Outlines Home Foreclosure Plans
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama outlined his plans to stem the foreclosure of up to nine million homes. North Carolina has fared well compared to the rest of the nation and the Southeast in terms of foreclosures, though some 54,000 foreclosure proceedings were started in 2008. Obama’s $75 billion plan provides incentives to lenders to reduce interest rates on troubled home loans, according to Mark Pearce, North Carolina's deputy banking commissioner. Under the plan, the federal government will provide lenders with half of the interest income lost, as a result of lower interest rates. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here.
Retail Sales Up in January
After six consecutive months of decline, national retail sales increased by one percent in January. The Commerce Department reported that sales excluding automobiles rose 0.9 percent from December. It is too early to tell but the one percent rise could be signs of resilience among consumers; economists predicted a 0.8 percent decline in January. However, compared to January 2008, sales were still off by 9.7 percent. According to Julia Coronado, an economist with Barclays Bank, “Consumers had cut back so sharply over the previous quarter that there was some pent-up demand on the sidelines.” For the full story from the New York Times, click here.
State Incentives Program May be Revamped
State lawmakers recently authorized drafting legislation that would radically transform a longstanding business tax credit program and lower the corporate income tax. The William S. Lee tax credit program has been in existence for 13 years and a study published by UNC shows that during 2001-2006 companies receiving major incentives from the program disappointingly added jobs at the same or slower rate than the statewide average. A Joint House/Senate Incentives Committee has been examining the report and is now creating a new bill that would gut the program and pump more money into the Jobs Development Industrial Grant (JDIG) program which rewards employers based on the number of jobs they create. For the story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here.
The Real Estate Report is produced monthly by the Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors
No comments:
Post a Comment