zalo

LOL, I thought the same thing! I assumed that someone in that brain trust would have proof read the release prior to publication. I actually have tried to get all my affairs in order because I'm assuming Matt Brown will be announcing it's the Rapture!

I hope Nederlander does a better job than the GSO Coliseum staff has done with LJVM.

It's too bad there was apparently no way for Carroll to incorporate this building into his development, either as part of the hotel or apts. I hate when these buildings get taken out. It would have added uniqueness to the project, IMO. Monday and Tuesday were demolition days for The Dixie apartments. Demolition crews from D.H. Griffin Wrecking Co. Inc. early this week brought down the apartment building, which dated back to 1921 and was located at the corner of North Eugene and Bellemeade streets in downtown Greensboro. http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/06/downtown-greensboro-dixie-apartments-come-down.html

OK, so ticket surcharges were endorsed by Mr. Brown last year as being a part of the City's contribution toward construction costs of the PAC. No worries expressed about being passed over by promoters or the fact that it is difficult to get some promoters to even come to North Carolina. This year it appears to be a different story, after the fact. Coliseum Director Matt Brown told the council that he isn’t sure why the surcharge wasn’t enacted back in 1989, but it’s a bad idea now. “It will affect attendance and promoters will decide not to come to Greensboro,” Brown said. Brown said entertainment complexes in cities that have enacted such surcharges — including Charlotte and Roanoke, Va. — have been hurt by it. Brown said concert and event promoters often negotiate for half of whatever is made on a surcharge. If they can’t get it, they’ll raise already high ticket prices or decide to go elsewhere.Brown said it’s hard enough already to attract major promoters to North Carolina. Last year’s expansion of the sales tax to include concerts, sporting events and plays didn’t help, he said. “You can’t imagine the complaints we get from promoters who don’t want to come to North Carolina,” Brown said. “We have seen our margins shrink with the high cost of artist fees and the increasing cost of tickets. It has impacted our attendance.” http://www.news-record.com/news/article_b706f686-f616-11e3-abcc-001a4bcf6878.html

Here's an WSJ article outlining the innovative re-purposing of one of the old Thomasville Furniture Factories in Downtown Winston-Salem. It is very gratifying to witness the enthusiasm that is contagious with people with all types of businesses that want to be apart of the Downtown's renassiance. Sorry, can't link to the article since the WSJ put up their paywall. A former Thomasville Furniture warehouse and distribution building wasn’t the first choice for the owners of Plyler Supply when they decided it was time to find a new home for their growing wholesale company. “We wanted a good location on and off (U.S.) 52. or (Interstate) 40, or something like that that was easy for shipping and receiving for customers, mainly,” said co-owner Scott Sechler. Plyler Supply, an exterior building supply distributor in Winston-Salem, had rented space for 23 years out of a 40,000 square-foot building on Idlewild Industrial Drive, just off Kapp Street. But the company’s owners — Tom Collins, Stokes Huff and Sechler — wanted a building of their own. When they initially looked at just the exterior of the 215,000 square-foot Thomasville Furniture building at 1245 Ivey Ave., Sechler said, “Nah. It’s three stories. It wouldn’t work for us.” But six months later, Plyler Supply’s owners had a different reaction, as they focused on the building’s seven dock doors and train shed. They also considered all the recent redevelopment of old buildings and warehouse space in downtown Winston-Salem. They were excited about having people going through a dock area to get to their showroom. “It gives us a different showroom than your basic building supply business,” Sechler said. We think that’s been a good thing. We like it.” The new space also gives the company a chance to expand Camel City Cabinetry, an independent company doing business under the Plyler Supply name. So S.T.C. Properties of Forsyth County, owned by Sechler and Collins, bought the property. Plyler Supply moved to the second floor of the building on Jan. 1, but Thomasville Furniture’s story in the building is far from ending. Plyler Supply’s owners just hired a historian in Greensboro to research and provide them with a detailed history of the building. In addition to using its new showroom to showcase its products and provide a nice place for its customers to use whenever they invite their own customers to the building, Plyler Supply is trying to keep the history of Thomasville Furniture alive. The company has kept an overhead chain conveyor system that runs throughout the building. A siding display on boards hangs from the system in the showroom. Plyler Supply has also retained other features from the building’s former use, including a furniture trolley that is now a snack bar shelf. Some heavy metal carts have been repurposed as desks for employees. S.T.C. Properties is considering different options for the building’s basement and top floors. Ideas include leasing some space, and putting a residential loft or business condo component on the top floor, which has windows throughout the ceiling, giving it an abundance of natural light. “All the windows face north so the temperature really does not build during the day,” Sechler said. “You get the natural light all day, but you do not get the heat build-up.” Keith Maness, senior estimator for Rehab Builders Inc. in downtown Winston-Salem, likes the idea of offering a residential component. “That top floor would make awesome apartments,” Maness said. He said that the glass windows in the ceiling are what makes the space so great for residential units. Rehab Builders has been doing business with Plyler Supply for about seven years, typically for exterior siding, windows and cabinets. “They supply and install,” Maness said. He called Plyler Supply a “standup company. He said that “everybody has hiccups,” but Rehab Builders continues to do business with Plyler Supply because the company is in tune with the service side of its business. “If anything needs to be done, they do it, and they do what they say they’re going to do,” Maness said. Plyler Supply was started in 1991 in Winston-Salem by Chris Plyler. The company opened a branch in Danville, Va., in 1995. Huff bought Chris Plyler’s interest in the company in 2002. At the time, Sechler was Plyler Supply’s president and Collins was the controller in accounting. Those early years were the company’s heyday, when it primarily sold vinyl siding and vinyl windows to major national builders. But when the economy tanked between 2007 and 2008, the company changed its business model, focusing more on hometown business and providing the best customer service to local builders, Sechler said. “I think the Lord watched out for us,” he said. “Also, we’re kind of a close-knit family. Our guys, as far as our sales force, really got out and beat the bushes, and tried to go the extra mile to take care of the customers.” Plyler Supply also started stocking more products to broaden its customer base. “We tried to add more specialty type products and then stock some of those products so they weren’t just special orders,” Sechler said. The company’s cabinetry side of the business started in 2009 as a result of the downturn in the economy. The company had one color — a standard brown that was marketed primarily to the apartment market. “If you liked my ‘tutti frutti’ color, I could sell you cabinets,” Sechler said. “If you wanted vanilla or chocolate or strawberry, I’d tell you, ‘No hard feelings, but I’ve only got this flavor.’” The company’s cabinetry business did well, and a year ago Camel City Cabinetry was born. Sechler joked that today Plyler Supply is more like a Baskin Robbins because of its increased cabinet color offerings. “I think we’ve got about 40,” he said. “We just added probably 15 of those in the last month.” Today, Plyler Supply keeps a variety of products in stock, including real wood siding, fiber cement siding, white pine and aluminum railings, exterior doors, and composite decking. Sechler said that some of its products come from out of state, but the company tries to buy products from family businesses based in North Carolina whenever possible. With the new location on Ivy Avenue, Plyler Supply is poised to move to its next phase. The company, which employs 27 people, has forecasted its sales to increase 25 percent this year compared with 2013. The company’s sales rose 15 percent last year over 2012, Sechler said. “In the near future, we want to develop a cabinet showroom that’s dedicated just to cabinetry,” he said.

Don't know, Don't care.

Add Brookstone to Winston's list. And Winston was first to get a Costco, Jason's Deli, Forever 21 (see, you're not the only one who can be petty.)

Well, boi, you stated you've only lived in a small city like GSO so I can understand where you're coming from when you think that F.C. is "high end" But I have to question the assessing abilities of anyone attempting to describe what high end retail is when you stated in an earlier post that you had never heard of Coach Leathers (a tenant of Hanes Mall). Seriously? So forgive me if I cast askance at your forecasting abilities to predict what store is coming to what Triad metropolis first. Actually, probably a better descriptor would be "upscale" when attempting to describe offerings of the local retail scene. I and several others on this site are of the opinion that upscale retailers is scattered across both cities and that when you attempt to proclaim Friendly Ctr. and Greensboro as the sole center of upscale retail in this area, others gentle protestations to the contrary should be meet with an open mind and not so much defensiveness. You bemuse me with your Trader Joe's reference above. The GSO TJ thread is filled with commentary from you excitedly proclaiming they're coming, they're coming!!! It's all there for anyone to read unless you pull your usual stunt and go back and do extensive forensic editing completely distorting your original thoughts. And Toast to give you a heads up, if you're needing a Ulta Cosmetics fix while traveling in the western Triad, you can go by their store on Hanes Mall Blvd. And why was RichardC's Pottery Barn reference mute? Just curious.

I will raise your May 12 TBJ article with my May 29 TBJ article. I think this will happen first. http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/05/lorillard-ceos-comments-lead-analyst-to-believe.html Then BAT comes into the picture. Everyone in Winston knows the 10 year deal. By the time it shakes out, the North American division of BAT will be based in the "Triad". (Throwing you a bone, boi. Don't drop it)

FC is upper moderate at best. I lived in Dallas TX & San Diego CA for years. Believe me I know what high-end, upper moderate & no moderate looks like. We will be well within the next Ice Age before the Triad would get a Neiman's. And a Nordstrom for that matter.

Eric Tomlinson of the Innovation Quarter announced that a food truck island will be a part of the new Bailey Park at East End which is currently under construction in the IQ. The plan is to include spaces for several trucks along with tables and seating areas. Plans are to increase the frequency of the food trucks at the park to five days a week, based upon demand . Currently food trucks are locating at Krankie's and other nearby spots.

Nice article on how the PMC/Kimpton deal came together. It's too bad Dennis Quaintance wasted a year trying to figure out how to solely do a hotel in such a large building. The companies are looking at approximately 50/50 split with the building. With 175 rooms/36 suites and around 130 apts. And to say they aren't wasting anytime is an understatement, he's indicating that both the hotel & apartments will be ready by late Summer/early Fall of 2015! Nice comments on our local market: Initial thoughts on the Winston-Salem market? We have really just been in sort of the major cities in the U.S., but we are going into smaller cities and hope to continue to do that. We thought Winston-Salem just had so many great overall dynamics — the diversity of the economy, the things that are going on downtown, and of course the strong base with the university. It’s kind of a progressive business community. http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/05/how-kimpton-hotels-chose-the-reynolds-building-in.html?page=all

A line item of $50,000 in the upcoming Winston-Salem municipal budget has brought out behind the scenes discussions looking into the possibility of moving SciWorks downtown from its long time home off US 52 on the northside of the City . Talk has centered on possibly locating it at the Bailey Power Plant in the Innovation Quarter. Another mention has been the Winston-Salem Journal offices on N. Marshall Street, as that property has recently been placed on the market.

Thanks for the heads up, Captain Redundant. Looks like Winston may be a little farther down the road since the company has already closed on the property.

It's official: The iconic Reynolds Building in downtown Winston-Salem will be redeveloped into a Kimpton boutique hotel, apartments and a restaurant. A partnership between PMC Property Group and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants jointly purchased the 22-story, 314,000-square-foot building for $7.8 million, Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) announced Thursday. “Our guests want to feel like they are part of a community when they stay with us and the Reynolds Building is full of the rich history and elegance that reflects the city of Winston-Salem,” said Mike Depatie, Kimpton’s chief executive officer. Ron Caplan, president and founder of PMC Property Group, said the developers have had their eye on downtown Winston-Salem for a number of years. “We are ecstatic that our first foray into the city is such an important landmark as the Reynolds Building,” Caplan said. “We are looking forward to bringing our upscale residential living experience to the area and introducing a dynamic, downtown destination with our partner, Kimpton Hotels.” http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/05/its-official-reynolds-building-to-become-kimpton.html?page=all http://www.news-record.com/news/article_323fa137-927a-5e6f-b79a-9bc6ac32d206.html

Per the TBJ: A top Wells Fargo analyst said Thursday a potential deal that would combine Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc. and Greensboro-based Lorillard Inc. is imminent and upped the likelihood of a deal to 90 percent from 80 percent earlier this month. Bonnie Herzog, senior analyst and managing director of beverage, tobacco and convenience store research at Wells Fargo Securities, says in a new analysis that she bases her views on news reports Thursday that indicate Reynolds (NYSE: RAI) is in “active discussions” to buy Lorillard (NYSE: LO). “We are reiterating our prior conviction that an RAI-LO combination remains highly likely - dare we say 90 percent probability?” she said in the analysis. “Given the current market environment where both targets and acquirers are being rewarded, we continue to believe this will be a value creating transaction for both RAI and LO shareholders.” She also said that British American Tobacco, Reynolds' largest shareholder, could acquire or form a strategic partnership with the combined entity. "We believe BAT will contribute capital to help finance the deal and maintain its existing 42 percent stake in RAI in the combined entity," she said. She also said that the return of Susan Cameron as CEO is "a positive catalyst for the stock as she leads the company into its next generation of growth."

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said he expects Reynolds American Inc. to make an announcement sometime today regarding the development of its iconic tower in downtown Winston-Salem. As the Triad Business Journal exclusively reported earlier this month, a boutique hotel and apartments are planned for the 22-story building, which was used as a model for the Empire State Building in New York City. Sources told the Business Journal that a partnership between Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC of San Francisco and PMC Property Group of Philadelphia intends to purchase the 314,000-square-foot building for redevelopment. Joines spoke at a NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association luncheon as part of a mayors forum with High Point Mayor Bernita Sims and Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan. Reynolds spokesperson David Howard did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) is also planning to make an economic development announcement in Tobaccoville this Friday, where Gov. Pat McCrory and newly elected Reynolds American President and CEO Susan M. Cameron are expected to speak. Speculation on that announcement has centered on the expansion of e-cigarette manufacturing there. Per TBJ.

The TBJ reports: CN Hotels Inc. earlier this month bought a .54-acre tract at the corner of North Cherry and West Third streets in downtown Winston-Salem and is likely planning a new hotel on the property. CN Hotels purchased 235 Cherry St. using an entity named Winston-Salem Hotel, Inc. The property includes a 14,898-square-foot office building, which is home to the Piedmont Opera, as well as a street-level parking lot. The Winston-Salem property adds to the project docket for CN Hotels, which is also planning to develop a Hampton Inn & Suites at the corner of Greene and McGee streets in downtown Greensboro, as the Triad Business Journal exclusively reported last week. “We have purchased an office building at 235 N. Cherry St. in Winston-Salem,” said Mitul Patel, a partner with CN Hotels, who declined to comment on their plans for the property. Rich Geiger, president of Visit Winston-Salem, said he’s heard a lot of interest for a hotel on that particular property. One source with direct knowledge of the matter indicated CN Hotels is “interested in building a hotel in downtown Winston on that corner.” CN Hotels recently opened a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in downtown Wilmington. It also operates a 121-room Holiday Inn Express on 110 Miller St. in Winston-Salem, which is located just west of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “They’ve been in development mode for some time,” saidDavid Pope, a principal with Greensboro appraisal and consulting firm Hotel & Club Associates. Pope said stronger occupancy levels and room rates are generating new development in the Triad as well as in Charlotte and the Triangle. “The new hotel supply has, up until this point, been fairly constrained coming out of the recession,” Pope said. “Now capital is available for new development, both on the debt and equity side, so developers are looking for opportunities.” CN Hotels bought 235 Cherry St. tract from ACF Enterprises Inc., which is managed by three Kernersville men: Chris Frantz, president of Allied Commercial Realty, and Mark Chandler and Robert Alexander of Alexander & Chandler P.A. Frantz declined to comment, and Anderson and Chandler did not return a message seeking comment. The existing 14,898-square-foot office building was built in 1964, remodeled in 1982 and is currently home to the Piedmont Opera. Frank Dickerson, executive director of the opera, did not return several messages seeking comment. Downtown Winston-Salem hosts a 146-room Embassy Suites, a 315-room Marriott, the 80-room Brookstown Inn, and the 155-room Hawthorne Inn and Conference Center, Geiger said. The hotel occupancy rate for all of Winston-Salem improved from 51 percent occupancy to 55.5 percent occupancy from 2011 to 2013, while the average daily rate has risen from $74 in 2011 to $80 in 2013, Geiger said, citing data from Smith Travel Research. “Occupancy is up over the last few years in Winston-Salem,” Geiger said. “Average rate is up in Winston-Salem.”

The North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association has named Winston-Salem’s Fourth Street among the 2014 N.C. Great Places in the Professionals’ category for Great Main Streets, along with Hendersonville’s Main Street and Apex’s North Salem Street.

News Release courtesy of WFIQ: Clinical Ink, a provider of data-capturing technology for clinical research, will move its headquarters to Wake Forest Innovation Quarter this summer. Clinical Link has signed a lease for 7,676 square feet of space on the first floor of the 525@Vine building, a former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco facility that has been renovated and revitalized by its owner, Wexford Science & Technology, a BioMed Realty company. Clinical Ink expects to complete the move from its current offices on North Cherry Street in downtown Winston-Salem in July. Between 25 and 30 employees will be based at the Innovation Quarter site. “The Innovation Quarter is an ideal location for us,” said Doug Pierce, Clinical Ink’s president and co-founder. “We’re looking forward to being surrounded by like-minded, innovative companies in the area that’s helping to transform Winston-Salem.” Clinical Ink’s lead product is SureSource, a proprietary electronic platform that provides users with a paperless system for the fast and accurate recording of data, comments, explanations and other information required in clinical trials. The company, founded in Winston-Salem in 2007, also has an office in Horsham, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb. “We’re very pleased to welcome Clinical Ink to 525@Vine,” said Eric Tomlinson, D.Sc., Ph.D., president of Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. “Its pioneering work at the crossroads of information technology and clinical research fits perfectly into the community of discovery and development that’s evolving here.” By the end of 2014, Clinical Ink will be sharing 525@Vine with Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Division of Public Health Sciences and Physician Assistant Program, Forsyth Technical Community College’s Center for Emerging Technologies, the Innovation Quarter branch of the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina and Flywheel, a co-working innovations space.

STOP THE PRESSES http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/05/hampton-inn-planned-for-downtown-greensboro.html

The Winston Factory Lofts & The Gallery Lofts (old B&W Bldg.) are right next to the RR tracks in downtown Winston and they constantly have a waiting list to get in .It appears there's a market consisting of urban dwellers who are looking for that true "authentic" urban experience. However, all three buildings are original factory bldgs. and not new construction like the Smothers.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded nearly $2.5 million in the third quarter of its 2013-2014 fiscal year, released in a recent news report. Wake Forest University Health Sciences received an Institutional Development Grant in the amount of $195,764 to establish a molecular imaging, manipulation and force measurement core resource at Biotech Place in the downtown Innovation Quarter research park in Winston-Salem. Researchers throughout the region will use the facility for nanometer-scale imaging, probing and measurement, the Biotech Center said.

Looks like local foundations will need to pony up some $$$ to get this thing going. As reported in the Rhino Times. Why is it that the N&R, the paper of record for Greensboro does not choose to report on such details as outlined in this article? The National Folk Festival, which announced on Thursday, May 1 that it has picked Greensboro to host the festival from 2015 through 2017, has a recently troubled financial history. The National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), which runs the festival, lost $100,000 on its 2011 festival in Nashville, canceled its 2012 festival, held only a skeleton, one-day event in 2013 and does not plan to hold a festival this year. The festival costs between $1.2 million and $1.4 million to put on. The NCTA provides $230,000 in technical assistance, including technical expertise and a tractor-trailer full of sound equipment that Olin called a “festival in a box.” But that $230,000 is off-budget, meaning the funding for each festival comes from donations from local business groups and individuals and in-kind services provided by host cities. The NCTA was cited in the Nashville daily paper, The Tennessean, as suggesting after the 2011 festival that the festival would not return to Nashville unless the local business community got its act together. At the Carolina Theatre, speakers said the festival in the past has drawn 80,000 people in its first year in a city and up to 150,000 by its third year. The plan is to hold the three-day festival in downtown Greensboro at unannounced dates in the fall of each year. Philion said the NCTA plans to hold the festival in the fall because the weather in Greensboro is more predictable then. The Nashville business community must not have produced the donations the NCTA wanted, because the NCTA canceled the 2012 festival. In 2013, the NCTA held a daylong “74th National Folk Festival Showcase” in St. Louis – not the National Folk Festival, but one part of Fair Saint Louis, the city’s annual Independence Day festival. http://www.rhinotimes.com/national-folk-festival-finances-uncertain.html

Here's an announcement on a new to the Triad concept. Three Winston-Salem companies have made plans to open a co-working space they’ve dubbed Flywheel in the new 525@Vine building in the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. Flywheel has signed a lease for 11,585 square feet of space in the building with plans to open in June. Flywheel will offer independent contractors, entrepreneurs and others flexible short-term and long-term memberships, allowing access to both open and enclosed work spaces and support services 24 hours per day, seven days a week. “Co-working is a national trend that’s taking hold, especially in urban markets,” said Peter Marsh, vice president of Workplace Strategies Inc., a Flywheel partner firm along with Storr Office Environments Inc. and Wildfire LLC. “We are excited to bring this concept to life in Winston-Salem. We are creating a knowledge-sharing environment driven by innovation, not just a place for people to work.” Part of the space is a one-quarter-scale basketball court that can be converted into an auditorium seating 100 people for events that will be open to the community. Members will pay for various levels of access to the space and its services, from as little as $20 for a day pass up to $1,500 per month for an enclosed office space with room for multiple people. Memberships will come with certain levels of access to amenities such as copier use and video conferencing. The space isn’t set up for laboratory-based businesses, but Bennett said Flywheel should appeal to a wide variety of entrepreneurs, from software developers to interior designers — anyone who could thrive from a collaborative, community-oriented space, he said. “Ultimately, the success will come from having helped a person with a single great idea grow to the point that they need office space for six or eight, and then 30 and then 75 and 100,” Bennett said. “We want to get these folks started, and then out into bigger space.” http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2014/04/08/co-working-space-for-entrepreneurs-planned-for.html?page=all