Epic Games leaves Cary waiting and wondering on new HQ at old Cary Towne Center
“The current status of the mall cannot be described as anything other than blight.”
That is how Epic Games described the recently shuttered Cary Towne Center in May 2021, as the video game developer sought to rezone the vacant retail space for its new Triangle headquarters.
Almost three years later, it still fits.
Sandbags today weigh down chain-link fences around the mostly demolished mall. Grass has sprouted in the parking lot cracks. Cary Town Council member Lori Bush called it “a moonscape” at the eastern edge of an otherwise bustling community.
“It is frustrating for me as well to see a sea of dirt,” she said. “It’s frustrating for all the people who live so close to it.”
Cary Towne Center was once a traditional U.S. indoor mall. Built as the Cary Village Mall in 1979, it was expanded (and renamed) in the early 1990s. At its peak, the mall offered over 1 million square feet of retail near downtown Cary and about 10 miles west of central Raleigh.
But the 2010s were a rough decade for large malls across the country, and Cary Towne Center withered as anchors JCPenney, Dillard’s, Macy’s and Sears left. Efforts to bring in an IKEA and Top Golf also fell through.
In 2017, the Cary Town Council approved a rezoning request for the mall’s then-owner, CBL & Associates Properties, to convert the site into a mixed-use hub with retail, housing, restaurants and offices. Before that plan went forward however, CBL sold the 87-acre mall to New York City-based Turnbridge Equities and Dallas-based Denali Properties in February 2019 for $31.5 million.
Like the previous owner, Turnbridge and Denali had mixed-use visions. They proposed a 4.5 million-square-foot revitalized development called Carolina Yards which would contain a hotel, housing, office and retail, along with 10 acres of walkable space. Cary approved the Carolina Yards rezoning in December 2019.
Yet this plan also didn’t materialize, and on the last day of 2020, Epic Games purchased the property for $95 million — more than three times what Turnbridge and Denali had paid. A month later, Cary Towne Center officially closed.
Founded in 1991, Epic is best known for hit titles Gears of War and Fortnite, as well as its Unreal Engine visualization tool, which recently earned the company a shoutout at the Oscars. Despite an ebbing valuation, it remains one of the world’s most valuable private companies.
The game developer has been based in Cary since 1999, with its current headquarters by the intersection of Crossroads Boulevard and Jones Franklin Road. Like other major employers, Epic is cagey about its specific local headcount. In December 2022, the company told The News & Observer that more than 1,000 employees reported to its Triangle office.
After it bought Cary Towne Center, Epic said the additional space would “accommodate its long-term growth.” It also said at the time that it planned to establish its new campus by 2024.
Cary council on initial Epic plan: ‘There is so much missing’
In May 2021, Epic asked the town for permission to build 3.5 million square feet of office space along with a 200-room hotel and retail options. Building heights would range from one to 12 stories. This was more office space than the existing land-use ordinance, passed for Carolina Yards, permitted. A rezoning would be needed.
“The current development on the property is emblematic of the outdated indoor mall concept which, well before the pandemic, lost favor with both people and businesses,” Epic wrote in its application.
That December, the company presented its preliminary plans to the Cary Town Council, refined to include up to 2.7 million square feet of office space, a motion-capture studio and a central utility plant, plus 75,000 square feet of retail and the hotel. The company also referenced a private road that would encircle its offices and berms around the property perimeter for security.
At the meeting, council members denounced the plan for lacking clarity on parking, the construction timeline, and how the buildings and landscape would look. Several were turned off by Epic’s designs to ensure privacy.
“We find this rezoning request unacceptable,” council member Jennifer Robinson said. “It’s fascinating to me that you guys want a lot of vague opportunities because you don’t know what’s going to go there and yet you have some specificity around not having trees in your parking lot.”
Robinson added: “We recognize you are an excellent gaming company. We ask that you be an excellent corporate citizen.”
Council member Jack Smith was even blunter.
“There is so much missing,” he said, adding, “This is like Attica prison with a little bit of shrubbery around it.” He called Epic’s proposal to plant 240 trees so low that he thought it was a typo.
Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht commended Epic for being a positive presence in the community but said he was also worried about the campus’s aesthetics. He noted developers behind the nearby Fenton mixed-use project had to “jump through hoops” for several years to match the town’s wishes before that construction commenced in 2020.
Epic’s silence continues
After that vocal December 2021 meeting, the ball was back in Epic’s court.
Cary officials said the applicant next needed to request a hearing before the town’s planning and zoning board. Epic still has not done this. And local leaders aren’t sure when it might.
“Nothing has happened,” Bush said. “We’ve reached out to (Epic) and have not heard back, and that’s where it is.”
Bush emphasized Cary is enthusiastic about partnering with the company on the campus, but she acknowledged the long delay was uncommon.
Epic spokesperson Elka Looks told The N&O this week the game developer had no update on its new headquarters. In 2022, Looks told The N&O her company aimed to open its new campus in either 2024 or 2025. Asked if this was the current timeline, she repeated Epic had no update.
Like all businesses, Epic faces a different economy today than it did four years ago. It reached an all-time high valuation of $31.5 billion in April 2022. Yet while 2017’s Fortnite remains insanely popular — exceeding more than 100 million players in November alone — Epic has faced new hurdles in the past few years.
In December 2022, the company agreed to pay a record $520 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission over complaints Fortnite violated children’s privacy law and induced unintended purchases through deceptive designs.
Then in the fall of 2023, Epic laid off more than 800 employees, roughly 16% of its staff, including 170 local workers. In explaining the cuts, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney said the company was spending more than it was making investing in a metaverse platform.
Earlier this year, Disney took a $1.5 billion equity stake in Epic which reportedly valued the Cary game developer at $22.5 billion according to the outlet The Information.
The game developer does own several active retail buildings on the edge of the Cary Towne Center campus, through the entity CTCL Holdings, including a Dave & Busters and a Jared jewelry store. Inside the chain-link fence however, the only standing structure is the one that once housed Belk. Epic Games razed the rest of the mall beginning in early 2022.
Will Epic use the erstwhile Belk as the launching point for a new campus? Will it ever resume the rezoning process? Has Sweeney not acted because of the macro economy? Or perhaps due to local dissatisfaction with the Cary Town Council?
All the public has is questions.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Epic Games leaves Cary waiting and wondering on new HQ at old Cary Towne Center."
