The East Rosemary Street development is just a few weeks away from initial construction – with demolition expected to begin in June.

At a public information meeting Monday night, the Town of Chapel Hill gave an overview of the project design and outlined when residents can expect to see some changes downtown.

The project includes demolition of the existing 309-space Wallace parking deck and construction of approximately 250,000 square feet of office and lab space. Project plans also include the demolition of the existing “CVS” parking deck to construct a new, seven-story parking deck with roughly 1,100 parking spots. 100 of those parking spaces will be sold to UNC to support a new, undergraduate admissions building on East Franklin Street.

Layout of East Rosemary Street development projects (Photo via Town of Chapel Hill)

Derrick Jones of Perkins + Will, one of project architects, said the new and improved deck will add between 200 and 300 spaces to downtown Chapel Hill.

“You can also see bike racks – there are 40 bike racks in and around the deck on various sides,” Jones said. “We are also including electric vehicle charging stations as well as handicap parking.”

In February, the town blocked off the lower half of the Rosemary-Columbia parking lot to begin work on the CVS Plaza building.

Now, with state and local permits under review, construction is set to begin in June of this year – a few months behind the anticipated April or May start date. Jones said as the existing deck comes down, prep work for the new deck will begin in August. Project completion is expected in fall of 2022.

Artist rendition of East Rosemary Street development (Photo via Town of Chapel Hill)

Adam Fouse is the project executive for Samet Construction. He said, during the building process, the plan is to use the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard corridor as the primary route to and from the construction site to avoid any cut-throughs through downtown or residential neighborhoods.

“Workers on the project will be required to carpool to minimize the traffic in and out of the town,” Fouse said.

Existing materials such as concrete and steel from the CVS deck demolition will be recycled. Fouse said the project will adhere to the town’s noise ordinance requirements and large deliveries will be made using North Columbia Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to and from I-40 to minimize traffic.

Kumar Neppalli is the traffic engineer for the Town of Chapel Hill. He said they are working on adding a traffic signal at the North Street and the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard intersection.

“We’ll be taking some cones before the parking deck is open on North Street and Henderson Street to see what kind of traffic-calming we can implement before the deck is open – such as speed tables,” Neppalli said.

Artist rendition of East Rosemary Street development (Photo via Town of Chapel Hill)

Laura Selmer works in Chapel Hill’s economic development office. She said in order to support the downtown business community during construction, the town is working on a grant program to assist with marketing efforts and to offset the potential impacts of construction.

“We’re still finalizing what that program looks like but as soon as we have applications open, we’ll share that information out publicly and with our downtown partnership to help push messaging out to our business community,” Selmer said.

Selmer said they are also working on replacement parking while existing decks are demolished. Right now, the town has secured 60 spaces around the corner at 205 North Columbia Street.

“It’s still walking distance from where the existing deck is, so it’s still relatively close,” Selmer said. “We will continue to monitor need for additional parking and will look to expand if demand indicates that we need to secure additional parking spaces during construction.”

A live stream camera will be set up on the town’s website ahead of construction so residents can see project progress in real-time.

Learn more about what was discussed at the Town of Chapel Hill’s public information meeting here.

(Lead photo via Town of Chapel Hill)


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