The COVID pandemic hit this area as the Glen Lennox redevelopment project was well under way. Grubb Properties, the Charlotte company contracted to refurbish and rebuild Chapel Hill’s most iconic neighborhood, faced the question of whether to retrench until life got back to normal or forge ahead.
The Link Apartments Linden at the corner of 15-501 South and Brandon Road already had a number of one- and two-bedroom units under lease, so that project continued uninterrupted. And it has become among the most popular multi-family housing in the glut of apartments being built in Chapel Hill.
The big question was the Gwendolyn office building, which was coming up but still had flexibility on which kind of commercial space would be inside the walls. Clay Grubb, president of Grubb Properties, decided to leave the floors open and upfit according to what commercial companies were looking for.
“We elected to move forward as a company with that building,” says Grubb Commercial Executive Vice President Joe Dye. “We started it at the very end of 2019. Who the heck knew the world was going to turn inside out in a matter of months? The world was trying to figure out what was going on and how long would it last.
“I wouldn’t say we were past a point of no return, but we’d already bought the steel for the building, it was mostly erected at that time. So the cost of stopping would be more than finishing the building and we decided to finish it.”
The Gwendolyn was completed in May of 2021. Coco, a local coffee shop, lunch cafe and bistro, opened on the ground floor and has been successful, with its welcoming patio seating. New Image Md, a medical aesthetics practice, has also recently opened next to Coco on the first floor.
“Obviously, we’re still not in a great environment for office leasing,” Dye said. “We’ve had a lot of good news with folks like Apple announcing they’re coming here in a big way and they own land at RTP that doesn’t lease up the Gwendolyn, but broadly for our market, that’s a huge stamp of validation and approval. Regionally and nationally to say someone of Apple’s caliber comes here, they recognize the wonderful living environment. We have the quality of intellectual talent coming out of our universities; this is a great market for them to be in and then similarly Google announced in Durham. Again, that doesn’t lease the Gwendolyn, but those are huge announcements for our market and then all the life science biotech that’s focusing on our area as a whole. I think we are the No. 4 pharma market in the country. And the pipeline for that is tremendous, so I think that that all bodes well for Chapel Hill over time.”
Dye and Grubb have some very good news that does affect the Chapel Hill community.
“Last summer, we signed the lease with a company called Industrious for the entire third floor of the Gwendolyn,” Dye said. “They’re a big co-working operator. They promote smaller businesses and working with folks who want more temporary or flexible office space, so they need to be out in the market all day, every day, doing what they do, and that particular business has done very well during COVID. So those are ready made office suites with nice common area on that floor, common meeting space and lounge and break areas that feel really nice.
“And communal, if you build out your conference space inside your office, it’s already on your floor. Your folks have somewhere to go to take a phone call or eat their lunch, or just get out of the office on their floor. That’s a comfortable environment, even the furniture and the spacing and so forth. We thought about it in a COVID environment, are people comfortable at whatever level? We thought about those things as we built that space out.”
I
Industrious, a national brand with locations in Durham and Raleigh, will open this fall occupying 27,000 of square feet. It has 101 private offices and suites of varied sizes, nine small-medium-large conference rooms, and café/lounge and plenty of open space where monthly or longer renters can do their work in semi-privacy with daylight filling the room from large glass windows.
There have been some near misses that Dye and Grubb has had to endure, such as Gilead, a research-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and commercialization of innovative ideas that seemed like a perfect fit for Chapel Hill and UNC’s ever-emerging work in that discipline.
“Gilead got a big economic package from Wake County and the North Carolina economic development partnership,” Dye said. “And that was really hard to compete with. And it’s unfortunate because they have a very strong relationship with UNC. But we have a great partnership with the town and the university and we’re working real hard with them to make sure those opportunities come to Chapel hill, or certainly they’re at least looking at Chapel Hill and strongly considering whether it’s the Gwendolyn or a property downtown or whatever.
“There are a lot of great things about Chapel Hill, which has a role to play in the broader market; Chapel Hill has a natural affinity for the university or those businesses that recognize if you are coming to the Triangle, you cannot beat the quality of life, the quality of the schools, the community, and so forth. So we have somewhere perfect. We have the perfect home for you here, where you can ride your bike or literally walk to work. You can live that close.
“Some may go to Durham or Raleigh or somewhere else, but Chapel Hill will get a fair share.”
(featured image via Grubb Properties)
“Glen Lennox Stories” is a series on Chapelboro sponsored by Grubb Properties
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines