The Real Estate Report (April 2009)

Volume 4, Issue 4

April, 2009

	The Real Estate Report Local Government News Impacting the Real Estate Industry

New Development UNC Plans Hospital in Hillsborough UNC Health Care has filed for permission to build a 68-bed hospital in the Waterstone Economic Development District just south of Hillsbrough. UNC Hospitals main campus has 725 beds at its main facility and is running close to capacity. The move to Hillsborough would help alleviate some traffic congestion on campus and expand the hospital's capacity to serve its patients.The project is estimated at $227 million. While the purchase of land by UNC would remove some land from the property tax rolls, the hospital could draw in new medical related businesses to the Waterstone Economic Development District that has been stagnant for some time. For the full story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here. Plans for Hotel at Southern Village Dropped DR Bryan, developer of Southern Village in Chapel Hill, dropped plans for a 90-100 room hotel originally planned for the central business district of that neighborhood. It was hoped that the hotel would bring new shoppers and customers to the village businesses but the plan ran into opposition from the neighbors. Instead of building the hotel, Bryan plans to aggressively market village businesses this summer and help capture greater sales from visitors to nearby Southern Community Park. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Greenbridge Builders Propose Property Tax Freeze Developers of the Greenbridge project in downtown Chapel Hill are proposing a property tax freeze for the Northside neighborhood, immediately adjacent to the Greenbridge project. Residents of Northside have said the project will raise their property tax rates and force them to leave. In response, developers have looked at projects in Indiana and Washington, D.C. that keep property taxes at a fixed rate even when property values go up. County officials have not expressed optimism that the freeze could be implemented, and even if it could, it would need to be passed by the State Legislature. For the full story from the Daily Tar Heel, click here. Schools East Principal Retiring East Chapel Hill High School Principal Dave Thaden announced his retirement in mid-April. Thaden has served as principal for thirteen years and has worked in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School district for another 17 years in various positions. Thaden cited health issues as part of the reason for his decision to step down. For the full story from the Carrboro Citizen, click here. Schools Considering Major Cuts The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board is considering major cuts in the district's budget due to reductions in funds from Orange County and the State. Next year's budget incorporates $700,000 in budget cuts but according to Superintendent Neil Pedersen, it may need to be cut by $4 million. Cuts are targeted at arts, music, physical education, the world language program and teachers for the academically gifted. For the full story from 1360AM WCHL, click here. Orange County Transfer Tax Issue Resurfaces Almost one year after voters smashed the transfer tax at the ballots, Orange County Commissioners voted on a resolution stating, "support for the ability of all local governments to apply impact fees and/or taxes and to implement real estate transfer fees and/or taxes." Should the State Legislature approve new revenue options for the County, including a transfer tax increase, the Commissioners could enact the fee without local voter approval. Commissioner Steve Yuhasz was the lone opposition to including the transfer tax in the Board's legislative priorities list. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. Downtown Partnership Hires New Executive Director The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership has hired a new executive director to replace former director Liz Parham. Jim Norton, current president of Tulsa (OK) Downtown Unlimited, will start at the Partnership on June 1. Norton has served as president of Downtown Unlimited for nearly 20 years and chaired a statewide effort in Oklahoma to approve tax increment financing and advocated for residential development in the downtown. For the full story from the Daily Tar Heel, click here. Unemployment Down in County Orange County's March unemployment figures were down by 0.4 percent over February to 6.1 percent. The unemployment rate remains the lowest in the state. Overall, 84 counties saw a decline in unemployment rate in March, which is a great sign. Neighboring Durham County dropped from 8 percent to 7.7 and Chatham County moved from 8.6 to 7.9 percent during the same period. For more unemployment data from the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, click here. Chapel Hill Town Council Adopts Improved Parking Regulations At their meeting on Monday, March 16, the Chapel Hill Town Council adopted a number of important downtown parking policy changes including a "courtesy ticket" and improved parking signage. The changes were put forward by the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and were unanimously adopted by the Council in a 9-0 vote. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber President Aaron Nelson spoke in support of the recommendations at the meeting. The new "courtesy ticket" will give first-time parking offenders a free warning ticket that tells visitors and patrons of downtown they've parked illegally or overstayed at a meter instead of issuing a financial penalty. The move is aimed at welcoming and encouraging visitors to come downtown. Further, Town parking lots (Lots 2, 3, 4, 5) will be renamed to more geographic names giving people a better sense of their location and when combined with new, improved signage should make it easier to locate parking downtown. The Council also asked the Town Manager to review the impact of potentially making parking free in Town lots after 6pm and increasing on-street meter rates by $.25 per hour to offset the difference. Other changes include the following: developing a parking board to oversee policy and parking operations for the Town, move toward unified payment systems for all parking, evaluate event parking fees, work to add additional public parking using private lots, and begin planning for the future needs of parking. >From Chapel Hill eNews IFC and Carrboro Merchants Begin Dialogue The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service is looking at a location in downtown Carrboro to potentially house a full-service food operation. The change in location comes as IFC is working to relocate its Community House, currently on West Rosemary Street, to a former Duke Energy building in northern Chapel Hill. The food service operations, also currently housed in the West Rosemary building, will need to remain in a downtown according to IFC's Board of Directors. IFC is eyeing its property at 110 W. Main Street where the food pantry is currently located but the relocation has local businesses concerned that panhandling and loitering will come with the relocation. That concern has prompted IFC director Chris Moran to start a dialogue with business owners in Carrboro about where the best location for a soup kitchen might be. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. New LED Lights Installed in Downtown Chapel Hill A new pilot program between the Town of Chapel Hill and Duke Energy launched last week when Duke installed light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, along part of East Franklin Street. The project is a 12-month program that is testing the performance of the lights, which are supposed to use less energy, burn brighter and last longer than traditional high-pressure sodium lights. The LEDs came from RTP company Cree and cost about eight times more than traditional lights. Chapel Hill is the first town in North Carolina to try the lights and will use data and information from the pilot to decide whether to use LEDs more broadly. Residents are encouraged to submit comments about the lights here. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. County Economic Developer Working on Solar Cluster Brad Broadwell, Orange County Economic Development Director, is moving forward with the creation of a solar technology cluster that would expand the commercial tax base and bring new jobs to the county. A cluster is a geographic concentration of similar businesses and their suppliers and supporting businesses. Broadwell is working with existing solar companies like MegaWatt Solar and Solar Tech South to boost their image in the region and is looking to tap into stimulus funds. Broadwell has approached the developers of Buckhorn Village about potentially creating a solar technology park in place of the originally planned retail project. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. County Looking to Sell Surplus Buildings In an attempt to generate some revenue, Orange County Commissioners agreed to put four properties up for sale. The properties are the Clerk of Court Annex, 112 N. Churton St., Hillsborough; the Graham Building, 118 N. Churton St., Hillsborough; the Homestead Community Center, Homestead Road, Chapel Hill; and the old ABC store, N.C. 49, Cedar Grove. The County will get appraisals on three of the properties before selling them. The appraisals are part of the standard devestiture process the county uses to sell buldings. The tax value of all of the buildings except for the ABC store was $850,000. For the full story from the Carrboro Citizen, click here. Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force Receiving Applications The Town of Chapel Hill is now receiving applications for the recently created Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force. The Task Force is the idea of Mayor Kevin Foy and is charged with making recommendations to the Council "regarding the design, timing, scale and appropriate location of higher density, mixed use" and "sustainable development along major transportation corridors in Chapel Hill." The Task Force will consist of 11 members, five citizens-at-large and six members from various town boards and commissions. If you are interested in applying to be a part of this important task force, click here. The Triangle Chatham Gearing Up for Mixed Drink Referendum Supporters and opponents of mixed beverage sales in Chatham County are preparing for a show down at the ballot box on May 5. The vote will determine whether Chatham County will allow businesses to sell mix drinks, something supporters say would be an economic boon to the county. Supporters also point out that DWI arrests in dry communities such as Asheboro are higher than in Greensboro or High Point, which allow mixed drink sales. Opponents say the sale of mixed drinks will lead to more alcohol-related vehicular accidents. For the full story from the Herald Sun, click here. More Development Eyed at Southpoint WRS Realty Inc, a developer of Wal-Mart shopping centers, has made an offer of more than $20 million for a 55-acre plot of land near Southpoint Mall in Durham. The 55-acres are west of Fayetteville Road in the Kentington Heights neighborhood. While a deal has not yet been reached, Kentington residents have sought to sell their land for some time to a commercial developer. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Local Option Sales Tax Clears House The North Carolina House of Representatives approved House Bill 148, local option sales tax, on April 22. The bill would allow voters in all North Carolina counties to approve a sales tax increase for transit-projects. Specifically, it would allow voters in Forsyth, Guilford, Wake, Durham and Orange counties to approve a half cent sales tax increase and a $2 increase in car registration fees. Voters in the other 94 counties to approve a quarter cent sales tax increase. Mecklenburg County already won approval and used its half cent sales tax increase to fund an ambitious light rail project in its downtown. The next step for the bill is approval in the Senate. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. State and Nation New Commercial Tenants Leasing Smaller Spaces Robert Bach, Chief Economist with Grubb and Ellis, reported last month that real estate tenants nationwide are using less space per deal. Bach sites that the average industrial lease signed in the first quarter of 2009 was 22,974 sq ft, which is the lowest its been this decade. In the office category, the average lease signed was 12,808 sq ft which is 50 percent smaller than the quarterly average from 2000 to 2008. The report states three reasons for the reduction in square footage: 1) Tenants signing new leases may have recently laid off staff and are "right-sizing" their space, 2) Tenants may be less optimistic about future expansion plans and are less aggressive in the amount of space being leased, 3) Smaller companies are scooping up the good deals being offered by landlords while larger companies are waiting for the economy to improve. From Grubb and Ellis "Weekly Market Insight" The Real Estate Report is produced monthly by the Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors

Real Estate Report (March 2009)

March, 2009

New Development Carrboro Aldermen Approve Claremont The Carrboro Board of Aldermen approved the fourth and fifth stages of the Claremont development in Carrboro. The project is located along Homestead Road and will include 27 townhomes and 69 single-family homes once built. The central issue in the approval of the project's final stages was the connection of the new development with the neighboring Wexford development. Wexford neighbors were deeply concerned about a road connection between the neighborhoods and the amount of new traffic it would create. The Carrboro Aldermen reached a compromise over the connection issue by requiring the Claremont developer to build a bike and pedestrian connection with a roadway sufficient enough for a firetruck. The roadway would be blocked by bollards and only used in case of emergency. For the full story from the Carrboro Citizen, click here. Council Denies Aydan Court Project At a Chapel Hill Town Council meeting last week, the Council voted unanimously against extending the R-SS-C development zone beyond downtown setting up a furious hearing with Aydan Court developer Carol Ann Zinn. The Aydan Court project followed the R-SS-C zoning discussion and needed the zone to be approved in order for the condominium and townhouse project to potentially be approved. Zinn aleged the Council was unfair in its process saying, "I think what you have done is outrageous. I think it's a discredit to the trust that we as citizens put in you for a fair process with integrity and transparency." Click here to hear Mayor Kevin Foy's response to Zinn on WCHL 1360AM. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. Carolina North Fiscal Impact Study Finalized Economic planning consultant TischlerBise released the fiscal impact study of the first (15-year) phase of development at Carolina North. The report shows that sales and property tax revenues would offset the costs incurred by local governments. The Town of Chapel Hill is the one jurisdiction that stands to lose somewhat in the project as the report shows a $12 million loss over 15 years, largely coming from a fire station that would need to be built in year 9. "This [report] says it shouldn't be terribly difficult to make this fiscally neutral," said Jack Evans, the Carolina North project's executive director. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Schools Schools Looking for Ways to Trim Budget The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District is facing a budget shortfall of $875,000 for fiscal year 2009 and is looking at ways to close the gap. Superintendent Neil Pedersen submitted potential action steps that include reductions in non-personnel expenses in the central office and the loss of a reading teacher at East and Chapel Hill High. Other potential cuts include reductions in after school programs and media center specialists. Click here to hear a sound clip from School Board Chair Lisa Stuckey and for more information about this story from 1360AM WCHL. 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 Chapel Hill Town Council Adopts Improved Parking Regulations At their meeting on Monday, March 16, the Chapel Hill Town Council adopted a number of important downtown parking policy changes including a "courtesy ticket" and improved parking signage. The changes were put forward by the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and were unanimously adopted by the Council in a 9-0 vote. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber President Aaron Nelson spoke in support of the recommendations at the meeting. The new "courtesy ticket" will give first-time parking offenders a free warning ticket that tells visitors and patrons of downtown they've parked illegally or overstayed at a meter instead of issuing a financial penalty. The move is aimed at welcoming and encouraging visitors to come downtown. Further, Town parking lots (Lots 2, 3, 4, 5) will be renamed to more geographic names giving people a better sense of their location and when combined with new, improved signage should make it easier to locate parking downtown. The Council also asked the Town Manager to review the impact of potentially making parking free in Town lots after 6pm and increasing on-street meter rates by $.25 per hour to offset the difference. Other changes include the following: developing a parking board to oversee policy and parking operations for the Town, move toward unified payment systems for all parking, evaluate event parking fees, work to add additional public parking using private lots, and begin planning for the future needs of parking. From Chapel Hill eNews Orange County Manager Resigns County Manager Laura Blackmon, the first female manager in Orange County, sent a letter to County employees on March 9 announcing her resignation. In the letter, Blackmon announced she and her husband are leaving to go to Tennessee and she will be resigning in June. Blackmon will have been manager for about two and a half years by that point and did not give specifics for her resignation in the letter. The resignation comes amidst an $8.7 million budget shortfall and citizen uprising over recent property revaluations. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Planning Board to Bring New Petition Before Council The Chapel Hill planning board submitted a new petition to the Town Council at the March 23 meeting regarding a Land Use Management Ordinance text amendment. Citizens and developers spoke against a past petition by the planning board saying it would force more commercial projects through the Special Use Permitting (SUP) process and add unnecessary delays to projects. The planning board responded by delaying the issue and and instead submitted a new petition that would allow redevelopment and renovation projects greater than 20,000 square feet in the downtown to be exempt from the SUP process so long as there are no exterior building changes or additions in square footage. From Staff notes Commissioners Say "Too Late" To Rescind Revaluations In a work session last week, Orange County commissioners agreed it was too late to rescind the property revaluations that have alarmed thousands of property owners in the county. County Attorney Geoff Gledhill advised the commissioners that state law does not allow counties to rescind revaluations. Were the revaluation rescinded, commissioners pointed out that it could double the current $8.7 million budget shortfall and exacerbate major budget cuts. Regarding the impact of the increases, tax assessor John Smith said the majority of taxpayers would see a tax increase. Data from the county show that more than 250 households saw an increase of more than 100 percent in their home value. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, 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. New LED Lights Installed in Downtown Chapel Hill A new pilot program between the Town of Chapel Hill and Duke Energy launched last week when Duke installed light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, along part of East Franklin Street. The project is a 12-month program that is testing the performance of the lights, which are supposed to use less energy, burn brighter and last longer than traditional high-pressure sodium lights. The LEDs came from RTP company Cree and cost about eight times more than traditional lights. Chapel Hill is the first town in North Carolina to try the lights and will use data and information from the pilot to decide whether to use LEDs more broadly. Residents are encouraged to submit comments about the lights here. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. 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. Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force Created The Chapel Hill Town Council approved the creation of the Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force at a recent Council meeting. The Task Force is the idea of Mayor Kevin Foy and would be charged with making recommendations to the Council "regarding the design, timing, scale and appropriate location of higher density, mixed use" and "sustainable development along major transportation corridors in Chapel Hill." The Task Force will consist of 11 members, five citizens-at-large and six members from various town boards and commissions. At the Council meeting, members modified the committee somewhat agreeing that at least one spot be reserved for a businessperson. For the full story from the Chapel Hill Herald, click here. County Facing Major Budget Shortfall Orange County Government is facing an $8.7 million budget shortfall this year, which amounts to 5 percent of this years $183 million budget. The shortfall is equal to 6.2 cents on the county's property tax rate. County Manager Laura Blackmon has listed various ways to make up the shortfall including service reductions and school district funding. For the full story from the Chapel Hill News, click here. The Triangle Durham Sales Tax Figures Bring Relief Durham Commissioners got a Christmas present in March as December sales tax figures came in 12 percent higher than 2007 figures. The increase was surprising given the November 2008 numbers were off by 20 percent compared to 2007. County Manager Mike Ruffin was pleased with the figures but cautioned that "one month does not make a trend." For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. More Development Eyed at Southpoint WRS Realty Inc, a developer of Wal-Mart shopping centers, has made an offer of more than $20 million for a 55-acre plot of land near Southpoint Mall in Durham. The 55-acres are west of Fayetteville Road in the Kentington Heights neighborhood. While a deal has not yet been reached, Kentington residents have sought to sell their land for some time to a commercial developer. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Durham Crime Dropping in 2009 Crime figures for the first two months of 2009 were down considerably compared to that period of 2008. Violent crime, which includes murder, rape, robbery, and agravated assault, was down 36 percent. Property crime was down 1 percent. According to Police Chief Jose Lopez, police have worked hard to identify suspects in multiple robberies which likely has reduced the violent crime rate. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. Poll Shows Initial Support for Transit Sales Tax A new poll released by the Regional Transportation Alliance, a Triangle business leadership group, cites some support for a regional transit system funded through a sales tax. The poll interviewed residents of Orange, Durham and Wake Counties and found that 53 percent of respondents would vote in favor of a half-cent sales tax increase for new and/or expanded public transportation. The same poll shows that 57 percent of residents would not support a property tax increase for public transportation. Interestingly, only 9 percent of those surveyed said regional transit should be a top priority for elected officials. Twenty-nine percent of residents said attracting more jobs to the area should be elected officials' top goal. For the full story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here. Census Shows Raleigh Area is Fastest Growing Census figures released last week show the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area is the fastest growing area in the country. The Raleigh-Cary area includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties and grew by 4.3 percent from July 2007 to July 2008. The closest area in terms of growth is Austin, Texas which grew at a rate of 3.8 percent during the same period. The figures for Raleigh-Cary do mark a slowdown for the area from the previous two years when it great at a rate of 4.7 percent. The Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area did not crack the top ten but still grew at a steady rate of 2.5 percent. Durham, Orange, Chatham and Person counties make up that area. For the full story from the News and Observer, click here. State and Nation New Commercial Tenants Leasing Smaller Spaces Robert Bach, Chief Economist with Grubb and Ellis, reported last week that real estate tenants nationwide are using less space per deal. Bach sites that the average industrial lease signed in the first quarter of 2009 was 22,974 sq ft, which is the lowest its been this decade. In the office category, the average lease signed was 12,808 sq ft which is 50 percent smaller than the quarterly average from 2000 to 2008. The report states three reasons for the reduction in square footage: 1) Tenants signing new leases may have recently laid off staff and are "right-sizing" their space, 2) Tenants may be less optimistic about future expansion plans and are less aggressive in the amount of space being leased, 3) Smaller companies are scooping up the good deals being offered by landlords while larger companies are waiting for the economy to improve. From Grubb and Ellis "Weekly Market Insight" MBA Estimates Major Increase in Originations The Mortgage Bankers Association upped its expectations for 2009 saying the low interest rates and new federal programs will spur significant refinancing. MBA's original national estimate for 2009 originations was just shy of $2 trillion; its revised figure is $2.78 trillion. Should the numbers this year actually pan out, it would make 2009 the fourth-biggest mortgage year in history. For the full story from the Triangle Business Journal, click here. Federal Action Helping Local Real Estate Market Local real estate agents say they are seeing some positive signs after the Federal Reserve's purchase of more than $1 trillion in troubled mortgage debt and treasuries. Sammy Martin, one of the owners of Franklin Street Realty, says he's seen rates around 4.75 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and that there are 275 homes for sale in Chapel Hill that are less than $350,000. Martin says sales were really slow during January and February but that March figures are triple the amount seen in the previous two months. For the full story from 1360 WCHL, click here.

Real Estate Report (February 2009)

Volume 4, Issue 2

February, 2009

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