Wake Forest Goes Long With Mixed-Use Project

GROUNDS WELL: The Grounds, shown in a rendering, is a mixed-use development project encompasses 100 acres of land owned by Wake Forest University. (Courtesy Wake Forest)

The distance between sports and entertainment is a yard line

Taking a page from the big-league playbook, Wake Forest University, the city of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and the state of North Carolina are making an investment in The Grounds, a potential $1 billion mixed-use development project on 100 acres of land owned by the university.

The development includes residential, retail, office space, dining, pedestrian walkways and greenways on vacant land surrounding the ACC school’s athletic facilities, which include the 31,500-capacity Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium, David F. Couch Ballpark, Wake Forest Tennis Center and the ASM Global-operated Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum alongside the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds & Arena.

“It is going to have not only a major positive impact on not only that area of our community, but on our city in general,” said Allen Joines, mayor of Winston Salem since 2001. “We pride ourselves on being a very user-friendly and visitor-oriented city. The tourism industry is a big part of our local economy so this will go a long way toward supporting that industry.”

“All that land is central to the Winston-Salem economy and is part of our sports and entertainment district,” added John Currie, vice president and director of athletics for Wake Forest University. “It’s really about the community of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County more than it is about Wake Forest, and that is one of the key elements of the whole program.”

Wake Forest, the city and ASM Global operate the state’s largest sports and entertainment facilities west of Greensboro and north of Charlotte. The area, which is three miles north of the city center, attracts more than 750,000 patrons each year with an average of 260 event days including Wake Forest and ACC sports, the Carolina Classic Fair, Winston-Salem Thunderbirds hockey, the ATP Winston-Salem Open and concerts, including upcoming appearances by Brantley Gilbert (Sept. 26) and comedian Jo Koy (Oct. 18).

Then known as Truist Field, the football stadium hosted the only North Carolina stop on Paul McCartney’s 13-date “Got Back” tour on May 21, 2022, with 40,000 fans from across the country and widely-reported issues with traffic congestion. The gridlock led to the creation of a major events task force.

In collaboration with local and state transportation departments, the university and city embarked on a major events traffic engineering study, expected to improve access and traffic flow for all major events. Last year, the state awarded the city a $35 million appropriation to support economic development that will be used to improve roads and walkways for The Grounds.

“You have to be able to get people into and out of the area easily, and conveniently and safely,” Joines said. “The state grant will allow us to get that done for the most part.This first step sets the table for the rest of the development to come on.”

In partnership with Atlanta-based Carter and Winston-Salem’s Front Street Capital, construction on The Grounds begins at the end of Demon Deacon football season in late December. The first round of improvements will cost an estimated $150 million-plus.

“As we’ve experienced with similar large-scale developments, we know that private investment follows public investment,” said Adam Parker, vice president at Carter. “The state’s $35 million grant to fund crucial infrastructure for this project will serve as a catalyst not only for a thoughtful, connected environment, but also for additional investment in the area.”

Carter and Front Street Capital were selected after a national search and bring a nationally recognized track record of building mixed-use projects both locally and across the U.S.

Front Street Capital’s development of Bailey South in Winston-Salem and Carter’s projects Summerhill in Atlanta and The Banks in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they developed the land between Great American Ball Park Paycor Stadium, respective homes of the Reds and Bengals.

“No. 1 is collaboration,” said Parker. “Projects of this scale can’t happen with just a private developer. In Cincinnati, Atlanta and Winston-Salem, all these properties have intense collaborations with different partners and stakeholders at the table.”

Carter and Front Street Capital selected Nelson Worldwide to serve as project architect based on the company’s success leading similar large-scale, mixed-use projects including the master development of The Battery, next to Truist Park in Atlanta, where the Braves play, and the nation’s first master-planned, mixed-use development anchored by a professional sports stadium.

“What a great opportunity to attract investment to this community and build what I think could be the premier destination in the Carolinas,” said Wake Forest Athletic Director John Currie. “This is not intended to be a development that is for game day only. This is intended to be an area that people have a reason to come to every day.”

Scheduled to roll out in stages, the first phase, valued at $150 million, includes a retail village with a central lawn next to a new Deacon Walk, which will serve as a gateway to Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. The village is expected to exceed 40,000 square feet and include chef-driven restaurants, boutiques and outdoor gathering spots.

Adding population density and activity to the plan, loft-style residential units will be situated above retail buildings along with a 240-unit residential community. An on-site 100,000-square-foot office building will be leased by the university.

“I was attracted to it because it was multidimensional,” Joines said. “With residential, retail and commercial with office space, it becomes self-perpetuating in a way. You are creating your own market for the retail that’s there. You have people living there and working there that are supporting the retail daily — and that is only enhanced when there is a ballgame or a concert.”

Parker said, “It makes the school more attractive to potential students and makes the school more attractive to potential folks who may work at the school and it also makes the school more attractive to the community. This is a public project; you don’t have to be affiliated with Wake Forest to go to it.”

Infrastructure improvements using the state grant include road improvements, restoration of Silas Creek and the construction of a paved, landscaped walking trail that will provide pedestrian connectivity throughout The Grounds. The grading and site improvements of Baity Street and Deacon Boulevard will create new parking spaces so the net parking capacity will not be affected during construction. Street upgrades should be completed by the 2025 football season.

The university bought much of the land in 2007 and 2008. The purchase coincided with major renovations to the stadium, which opened in 1968. Plans to further develop the area stalled with the Great Recession and the area, which has a rich entertainment history with restaurants and clubs lining Baity Street, declined.

“If you were in Winston-Salem, prior to 2005 you were talking about a very vibrant area,” said Currie, who recently found an old concert flier from the early 1990s that featured Widespread Panic, Hootie & the Blowfish and Spin Doctors performing along Baity Street over the span of a week.

“Bring all that back,” said Currie. “What we’ve heard since the unveiling of this is that people are extremely excited and in a lot of ways, this is long overdue. Restoring that vibrancy is important for the whole community.”