Monday night, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously said yes to Wegmans.
“I’m excited about this prospect,” said Mayor Pam Hemminger at the end of an hour-long public hearing, right before the Council voted 9-0 to approve a $4 million incentives package to bring Wegmans Supermarket to Chapel Hill. “It benefits the county as a whole, (and) it benefits us.”
Technically what the Council approved on Monday was an agreement not with Wegmans, but with Orange County. The county would give Wegmans $4 million over five years; Chapel Hill has agreed to reimburse the county for half of that incentive, $2 million.
The incentive is also tied to performance: Orange County would only pay Wegmans if the store meets target goals for new jobs and new property and sales tax revenue – and the incentive funds would come out of that revenue.
Wegmans is a high-end supermarket chain based out of Rochester, New York; Consumer Reports consistently ranks it as “America’s Best Supermarket.” It’s hoping to take over a space that’s already about to be vacated – Performance Auto Mall’s location on 15/501. (Performance is moving to Durham next year.) The chain makes it a point to support local farmers; it’s planning to add at least 185 new full-time jobs (plus about 300 more part-time employees, for a total of 350 “full-time equivalent” positions); and Hemminger says it has the potential to be the largest sales tax generator in all of Orange County.
In a joint presentation, town manager Roger Stancil and economic development director Dwight Bassett argued that Chapel Hill would come out ahead with Wegmans, particularly in sales tax revenue: the county doesn’t collect much of the sales tax from Performance’s auto sales, Bassett said, and that would change with a supermarket on the site.
For all those reasons, Council members like George Cianciolo were excited.
“For years we’ve watched as Durham built up on the other side of I-40,” he said. “This is an opportunity to allow not only Chapel Hill, but (also) Orange County, to benefit from what is well recognized as one of the best employers in the United States.”
But as Cianciolo conceded, the plan is not without risk. Several Council members worried about the traffic impact on an already busy street; others worried that some of the “additional” revenue generated by Wegmans might actually come at the expense of other nearby supermarkets.
And not everyone was eager about the idea of an incentives package. Historically, Chapel Hill has avoided that strategy, and some residents, like Kathy Trout, were not convinced this was the time to start.
“It’s a million-dollar corporation – why do we need to pay them?” she said during the public comment period.
And as resident Terry Vance pointed out, Wegmans is also opening a store in Cary – and Cary is providing no incentive at all.
That led Mayor Hemminger to question Dan Aken, Wegmans’ site development manager.
“Do you normally get incentive packages from places where you go?” she asked.
“We’ve had very mixed luck,” he replied. “Usually no.”
Following that exchange, Council members who had been excited about approving Wegmans suddenly found themselves less enthused. Under additional questioning from Jessica Anderson, Aken said Wegmans went ahead with the store in Cary because there was no alternative location – whereas there were two alternatives to the Chapel Hill site, and both of them were in Durham.
“It’s just (that) we have less leverage, because you have another option?” she asked.
“Correct,” Aken answered.
After that explanation, Council members were willing to go ahead with the vote – but they weren’t all thrilled about it.
“I don’t mind if that’s what we need to do, but I feel like that wasn’t made clear in our conversations,” said Donna Bell. “I feel like I was pushed into a corner this evening, and it’s not comfortable.”
Nevertheless, the vote in the end was unanimous. Now the onus shifts to the Board of County Commissioners, which meets on Tuesday. If commissioners approve the $4 million incentives package, then Wegmans will begin the development approval process.
Considering the store’s national reputation – and the potential economic upside – that’s a prospect that Mayor Hemminger says she welcomes.
“This is a real opportunity that Chapel Hill has not been able to bring to the table before,” she said Monday.
But don’t make your shopping list just yet. Performance Auto Mall isn’t moving until next summer – and even if everything gets approved, Wegmans likely wouldn’t open in Chapel Hill until around 2019.
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