Front Street Capital, Carter move toward vertical construction on The Grounds
Construction teams installing stairs that will connect to the walkway from Creekside at The Grounds and the one-mile multipurpose trail to the rest of the development. The stairs have a divet in the middle intended for visitors to walk their bikes up to the retail village.
Developers Front Street Capital and Carter are nearing completion on Creekside at The Grounds and starting work on the rest of $250 million first phase of the mixed-use development. Developers say the project will revitalize the area near Wake Forest's sporting venues, capitalize on exiting tourism and economic development success and drive customers to the area as an attraction of its own.
The Grounds will include retail, dining, office and residential uses, as well as multi-use trails and public gathering spaces. The developers are expecting to complete the project's first phase in August 2027. The 100-acre development is bounded by Wake Forest, Whitaker Park and the Boston-Thurmond neighborhood, near the LJVM Coliseum, Allegacy Stadium, David F. Couch Ballpark, Wake Forest Tennis Center and the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds.
Coleman Team, president and managing partner of Front Street Capital, said the development team has already completed the realignment of Deacon Boulevard, the remediation of Silas Creek and a one-mile multipurpose trail loop. Team said the developers are still finishing the landscaping along Silas Creek as well as the intersection of University Parkway and Cherry Street, which will be completed this summer.
Team said the developers have been lucky to have help from the city, county and state which has laid the foundation for the development. He said the power lines have been moved underground and new sewer has been installed, which the development team could not have done without the public-private partnerships. Team added that the developers have had monthly meetings with the Winston-Salem and Forsyth County planning departments which is why the project has been able to stay on track.
"Winston-Salem has been phenomenal throughout this whole process," he said.
The developers are nearing completion of the 229-unit student housing complex Creekside at The Grounds in April, with applications open for fall 2027. Team said Creekside is designed with students in mind, including offering leases per bedroom and not unit. Team said the developers are currently installing bricks and cabinets.
The developers also recently completed the steel frame for the project's 130,000-square-foot, five-story office building, which Wake Forest will lease to house nonacademic departments.
The team is also preparing to begin vertical construction on the 42,000-square-foot retail village at the end of June, which Team said will have 12 retail units across five buildings. He said the buildings will be spaced out to differentiate the retail village from a traditional strip-mall shopping center. The buildings will range from one to four stories, with the three and four story buildings having 22 for-sale condo units above he retail.
Team said the retail village is already about 65% leased. He said the idea is not to take business from elsewhere in the city but instead to bring new concepts to Winston-Salem that are not already in the city, focusing on both local and regional retailers. While Team said he was unable to disclose the retailers that have already signed onto the development, he said the retail village will include a range curated options including larger 7,000-square-foot to 8,000-square-foot restaurants, sports bars, higher-end concepts and coffee shops.
The retail village will tie-into the multi-use trail by making The Grounds a place where families can come and spend a whole day, Team said. He said The Grounds will also host daily and weekly programming at different times such as outdoor yoga classes and movies on a 52-foot LED screen.
"How do you create an experience and make people want to stay?" Team said.
The area near The Grounds is already a tourism attraction in itself with the events held at Wake Forest University's sporting venues and the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds, Team said. He said the project will enhance the sports tourism in the region and be a destination in and of itself.
"This is really an economic development project — we're taking thousands of parking spaces and making them part of the city's tax base and giving somebody a fun place to go," Team said.
By Elizabeth 'Lilly' Egan – Reporter, Triad Business Journal