by William Needham Finley IV™

Development Beat: EXCLUSIVE Poyner YMCA Tour, Mecca Sold, Bakery Coming to Five Points

in Development by

Brought to you by York Properties.


Week of May 28, 2018

Super exclusive Poyner YMCA sneak preview

Mecca restaurant bought by Empire Eats

Flake & Crumb Bakery coming near Five Points

PLUS Dueling Piano Bar coming to Glenwood

Vault Craft Beer to open on South Street

IKEA no longer coming to Cary

Brewery planned for motorcycle shop on Atlantic

Contact wnfiv@itbinsider.com with news or to be featured in the Development Beat.


Advertisement

It’s Fun To Tour the Poyner YMCA

The James M. Poyner YMCA is almost ready to open its doors. William Needham Finley IV got an exclusive sneak preview of downtown Raleigh’s newest wellness center a few weeks ago.

Located at 227 Fayetteville Street, the 26,000 square foot Poyner Y will feature group fitness classes, small group training opportunities, and state-of-the-art equipment. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on June 21st, but we have photos and highlights from the exclusive tour for media empires (and the other people that the Y invited):

There’s plenty of room for speciality classes

Including hot yoga and Zumba®

hot yoga studio

Their dedicated cycle studio is actually the first true bike share in Raleigh

Group training space

Regional Associate Branch Director Matt Lilley, after bench pressing 900 pounds.

Coffee and snack bar operated by Benelux Coffee

They also have locker rooms with saunas, a meeting room on the first floor for 15-20 people, and much more. Here’s more info on memberships.

Hours of operation:
5:30 AM – 8:00 PM Monday – Friday
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM Saturday
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM Sunday

As you can see, the space looks great and offers some new features and programming that you won’t find at other YMCA locations. The Rock was invited to join the Poyner Y, but has yet to complete his member registration.

We’ll also check in on the construction progress of the Southeast Raleigh YMCA, a 35,000 square foot facility that is expected to create 190+ part-time and full-time jobs.


Advertisement

Mecca Bought By Empire Eats

Paul and Floye Dombalis

Our city’s oldest restaurant has been sold. The News & Observer reported that the Dombalis family announced the sale of downtown’s Mecca to Greg Hatem and Empire Eats. The Dombalis family had owned the restaurant for over 90 years. Hatem plans to keep the same name, menu, and staff, in order to prevent massive protests from Raleigh residents.


Advertisement

Bakery Coming to Gavin Street In Five Points

A mysterious new bakery by the name of Flake & Crumb will soon open on Gavin Street, not far from Neuse River Brewing Company and Nickelpoint Brewing Company.

Few details are available at this point, but permits valued at $26,000 were issued last week for the upfit of a space at 1515 Gavin St. that described the future tenant as “Flake & Crumb Bakery.”

Our working theory is that the man behind Flake & Crumb is the same person behind Larry’s Coffee, which is also located on Gavin Street. County records indicate the property at 1515 is owned by Larry Larson. Larson just happens to be the Larry behind Larry’s Coffee. We can reasonably infer that Larson is behind this new bakery. If you’d like to nominate us for a  Pulitzer, you can do so here.


Advertisement

PLUS Dueling Piano Bar Coming to Glenwood

PLUS Dueling Piano Bar is coming to Glenwood South. They’ll take over the spot that was once home to Hi-Five and a bunch of other businesses we can’t remember. Located at 510 Glenwood Avenue, they plan to open later this summer in August. Thomas Hester (York Properties, Broughton) represented PLUS in the transaction.



Vaulting Over the Beer Competition

Raleigh’s newest craft beer spot will take over a building formerly used as a bank at 518 W. South Street. Property owners Greg and Laura Kelly acquired the land for just over a half-million dollars a few years ago. The building was constructed in the late 1950s and was designed by architect Fred Carter Williams. According to Vault’s website, this was one of the first drive-thru banks in the area.

Although approvals are still required from the City, the website notes they hope to open in the fall, when “10 of our 18 taps will be dedicated to the craft beers of North Carolina.” The remaining 8 taps are a mystery for now.


IKEA Cary Falls Apart

What we assume the Cary IKEA would have looked like

Cary’s dreams of welcoming the region’s first IKEA crumbled faster than a piece of particleboard furniture left out in the rain. Citizens mourned last week’s announcement that the Swedish furniture store would not be coming to the Cary Towne Center mall.

Shock spread from the feeds of Facebook to the tunnels of Twitter after the announcement was made. We are now referring to the event as “Blue Wednesday.” The hardest hit by the news had to be the owners of Cary Towne Center, who pretty much based an entire redevelopment plan of the center around the IKEA anchor.

IKEA claimed to be “re-evaluating current expansion plans” and indicated they were shifting away from suburban locations to thriving downtowns. We’re pretty sure IKEA got wind of Cary’s strict ordinances that would require their iconic blue facade to be painted beige.

We’re not sure what will happen to Cary Towne Center at this point. If they can’t land a big name tenant (think Circuit City, the Limited, Journeys Shoes, etc.), they may soon make an appearance in Dan Bell’s YouTube series on the topic of abandoned malls.



Brewery Planned For Former Motorcycle Shop

One of our loyal readers posed an interesting question: Now that the beloved Twin Specialties motorcycle shop off Atlantic Avenue has closed, was it true that a brewery would be opening in its place?

Given that Twin Specialties shared a building with the popular bar/restaurant Scooters, adding a brewery to the space seemed to make sense. We did some journalism and used a telephone to get in contact with Joe G., the former head technician at Twin Specialities. He confirmed that Twin Specialties owner Joe S., who decided to retire and close shop, had leased the space to a brewery. No further details were available.

Joe G. announced he would be opening a brand-new shop, All In Motorcycles, at 3208 Wellington Court.

Development Beat: Cantina Coming to Five Points, Chipotle Coming to North Hills, Trophy Expansion

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

4 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Latest from Development

Go to Top