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NEW RETAIL DEVELOPMENT RINGS THE TRIANGLE

Retail landlords in North Carolina’s Research Triangle are busy sprucing up their centers to draw new shoppers and fend off competition from newer retail developments.

Crabtree Valley Mall, near the center of Raleigh, N.C., is among the sprucers. The locally owned, 1.3 million-square-foot center, which opened in 1972, is following the Streets at Southpoint model by adding a Main Street component to serve as a focal point for shoppers.

Kane Realty Corp. is spending $200 million to convert Raleigh’s 40-year-old North Hills Mall into the North Hills Shopping Center mixed-use project. The 45-acre site will contain 930,000 square feet of retail-entertainment space, 60,000 square feet of specialty retail space, 300,000 square feet of offices, 300 condominiums and 150 hotel rooms. Target will anchor the new development, and a plaza lined with stores and offices will be its centerpiece.

Work is also under way on the $80 million Beaver Creek Crossings, begun last year in Apex, about ten miles southwest of Raleigh. Beachwood, Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty Corp. and Cary, N.C.-based First Carolina Properties are building a 12-screen, stadium-seated theater at the 700,000-square-foot regional power center. Beaver Creek Crossings is scheduled to open this spring next to Beaver Creek Commons, a 475,000-square-foot power center that Developers Diversified also owns. The Commons opened last year with a SuperTarget among its anchors.

One of the larger centers under development is Brier Creek Commons, developed by Charlotte, N.C.-based AAC Real Estate in one of the fastest-growing areas of Raleigh. Going up on nearly 200 acres bordered by Interstate 540, U.S. Highway 70 and Aviation Parkway in northwest Raleigh, Brier Creek will contain residential units and 800,000 square feet of retail.

Across the street from Brier Creek, Florida-based Inland Southeast Raleigh Alexander is building Alexander Place Promenade, which is in its first phase of construction. A Wal-Mart Supercenter will anchor its 500,000 square feet. Last fall Charlotte-based Faison Associates sold Alexander Place Promenade to Inland for about $26 million.

Other shopping centers are adding space as well as upgrading. Crosland’s Poyner Place, a 450,000-square-foot, SuperTarget-anchored, mixed-use center in northeast Raleigh, is set to get additional retail, apartment and office space this summer on an adjacent 46-acre site.

— SB