INVEST IN DOWNTOWN WINSTON SALEM, NC REAL ESTATE

Thanks to local investment from downtown pioneers such as Bill Wilson of Magnolia Partners and David Shannon of JDL Castle, and leadership from downtown supporter such as now-Mayor Allen Joines and former Downtown Development Corp. head Jack Steelman, the city has persevered. Now downtown is seeing more investment than at any point in recent history.

More than $35 million in construction permits have been granted for downtown in the last two years, and that figure doesn’t even begin to fully quantify the value of the projects being built or planned.

“You learn in real estate business that the first deal down the pipeline for a particular property doesn’t mean it’s the best deal,” said Lou Baldwin, president of Baldwin Cos.
In Winston-Salem, who has brokered deals and supported downtown redevelopment for years. “We’ve had several cases where, at the end of the day, we ended up with a better deal than any of the previous false starts.”

Just a few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine downtown Winston-Salem in the midst of such a revival.

Between 1999 and 2003, it seemed that every big project discussed eventually collapsed, from developer John Elkington’s plans to turn Fourth Street into a retail and restaurant destination to the $60 million, Krispy Kreme-and-arts-centered Unity Place project at the corner of Fourth and Broad streets.

“Compared to five years ago, there’s just a significantly higher level of belief,” said Jack Steelman, now the broker at Meridian Reality Group in Winston-Salem and formerly the head of the city’s Downtown Development Corp.

“But in no way did anyone ever give up.” Steelman added. “The first time you get on a bicycle, you’re probably going to fall and scrape your knee. But you get back up and you try it again.”

Now, cranes are nearly as common on downtown streets as cars. First Presbyterian Church is building a huge addition north of Second Street and between Cherry and Marshall Streets. There’s a gaping hole in the ground where Kerry Avant and Thad Llewellyn’s One Park Vista luxury condo project will soon rise.

On Trade Street, construction of Trader’s Row, primarily an office building, is moving along. And the first two buildings that are part of West End Village are rising at the former Unity Place site at the corner of Fourth and Board streets.

And that’s not even considering the number of small residential and commercial construction projects taking place throughout the centre city.

“It’s not just pretty pictures anymore,” said Jason Thiel, president of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. “People are seeing cranes and bricks and mortar, and they’re seeing it on all ends of the city. That speaks volumes.”

Nissen was the key

Downtown supporters say there are several key project that have sparked the revival, but perhaps none was as important, or as good an example of the city’s “false starts,” as the Nissen building.

BB&T bought the building at the corner of Fourth and Cherry streets, and considering using it as office space. But when the One West Fourth building was built in 2000, Womble Carlyle moved into the new structure, freeing up BB&T’s headquarters building to house the bank’s expanding employee base.

That led to efforts to change the 18 story building into apartments. In August of 2000, Prime Residential LLC of Chicago was picked over Elkington’s Performa Entertainment group as the developer for the project. But Prime Residential backed out a month later, citing within the company.

In the spring of 2001, the city revived discussion about the building. And finally, in 2003, the extremely complex financing package began to come together for the project, and renovations began at the end of that year. Now, the building has more than 130 apartments and nearly all of them have been leased.

“There isn’t ever any one project that can be credited with turning downtown around, but I would say that the Nissen building was as much of a bellwether as anything,” Steelman said. “By comparison, it’s made some of the other projects since then appear relatively easy.”

Mayor Allen Joines agreed with Steelman that the Nissen building was a critical project. But it wasn’t the only one where the city overcame defeat to find victory. The former Unity Place, now West End Village, at the corner of Fourth and Board streets, is another example.

That project launched in January 2003 with a huge press conference at the Stevens Center downtown, and was to include Krispy Kreme’s new corporate headquarters, performing arts venues, offices and housing.

But financial problems at both Krispy Kreme and the N.C. School of the Arts, which was a partner in the deal, eventually killed the project. It wasn’t until the spring of 2005 that Charlotte-based Boulevard Centro said it would take the site. Now, the first two residential buildings are nearly complete and have sold quickly.

“Psychologically, (West End Village) was an absolute necessity,” Joines said. “That (Unity Place) project was viewed as a defeat for downtown. It’s given folks a lot of confidence.”

Creating Momentum

That confidence has shown itself in the number of projects under way or planned.
“Momentum creates momentum,” Joines Said. “It’s like a snowball rolling down the mountain, picking up speed. Now, there’s a sense of urgency for developers, who are saying, ‘Let’s get in while we still can.”

Aside from the huge projects, a series of other, smaller projects have added the restaurants and entertainment options that the centre city needed to attract resident.
Foothills Brewery now anchors the western part of Fourth Street, while the arts district has led the revitalization of Trade Street, now home to the popular Sweet potatoes restaurant, Sixth and Vine Wine bar and Irish pub Finnegan’s Wake, the newest of the bunch.

But city leader stress that, despite the change in attitude among the general public that downtown redevelopment is indeed taking hold, there’s no time to rest.

“The efforts that are under way in the Piedmont Triad Research Park, for the baseball stadium and with Civic Plaza are absolutely critical to this level of progress continuing,” Steelman said.

Many of those projects are requiring public support, and city government, through financing help, streetscape funds and the Restaurant Row program, has consistently played an important role in supporting downtown redevelopment, Baldwin said.
Still, downtown supporters say it’s a nice feeling to see what’s happening now and compare it to just a few years ago.

“In the ‘90s, we called it the ‘deal a year’ times,” Balden said. “Once a year there would be a really good deal that would be announced that would give you hope that downtown revitalization would work.

“Now, you’ve got pretty good deals being announced monthly. I think you can track from monthly. I think you can track from month to month to see how many people have changed from naysayers to being neutral to really believing in downtown revitalization and even investing in it.”