Fuquay-Varina’s building boom: Two projects, 1,000-plus homes coming to Wake County
Built on tobacco and farming, once-sleepy Fuquay-Varina is seeing a massive construction boom, just 16 miles southwest of Raleigh.
In recent months, the town board has approved two multi-million-dollar projects, paving the way for the town with the hard-to-pronounce-name (FEW-kway vuh-REE-nuh) to transform its downtown with retail and restaurants and bring 1,000-plus homes to this corner of Wake County.
“The town has worked diligently to create an opportunity to leverage private-sector investment,” Mayor Blake Massengill said in a release.
The first deal, approved at a Nov. 19 board meeting, involves selling 2.5 acres of town-owned land along North Main Street and East Academy to HMP Holdings, LLC, culminating a year-long search for a private-sector developer.
The price tag: $3.4 million.
The Raleigh-based developer plans to build a $70 million, mixed-use complex featuring 244 apartments, 20,000-square-feet of ground-floor retail space and a parking deck with 420 spaces.
The project will “help address the town’s need for downtown living and create more retail and restaurant opportunities,” Massengill said.
The town selected HMP, he added, partly because of their ability to include an adjacent 3.65 acres, privately owned by High House Capital, next to the town’s property.
In return, the firm is eligible to receive up to $3.3 million in economic development funding assistance, he said.
The Triangle Business Journal first reported the agreement.
HMP Holdings is behind several high-end residential projects in the Triangle, including Edison Skyhouse, a 23-story residential tower with 320 residential units, and 400H, a 20-story, 242-apartment-unit project with 16,000 square feet of retail and a 645-space parking deck.
“Fuquay-Varina is a wonderful community with an exciting future,” said Gregg Sandreuter, HMP Holdings’ managing partner. “I look forward to this public-private partnership.”
More housing, retail
In a separate development agreement, the town has partnered with Texas-based D.R. Horton to rezone and develop Vaughan Park along North Judd Parkway.
Set on roughly 88 acres, it will feature 742 residential units — a mix of apartments, townhouses cottages, rowhouses — and 336.000 square feet of commercial space, the application says.
As part of the rezoning, the developer agreed to prioritize commercial uses. It also will make a “payment-in-lieu” for improvements to complete Burton Street.
“Fuquay-Varina’s residential population continues to expand rapidly, as does the demand for quality commercial retail services and amenities,” according to the staff’s comments. “Commercial retail destinations contribute to the local economy by creating jobs, expanding the property tax base, and increasing sales tax spending.”
North Judd Parkway will run up the middle, slicing the development into two halves. To the east, D.R. Horton will construct three commercial buildings, 150 cottages, 22 townhouses and 18 rowhouses.
To the west, it includes 25 townhouses, 19 single-family houses, six commercial buildings, six mixed-use buildings (397 upper-floor apartments) and two multi-family buildings (88 apartments).
Fuquay-Varina’s rise
Settled in the early 1800s and first known as “Piney woods,” Fuquay-Varina started out as two side-by-side towns: Fuquay Springs (along Main Street) and Varina (around Broad Street station).
In the early 1900s, tobacco farmers began migrating. Eventually, in 1963, the towns merged and combined their names, according to the town’s site.
Today it’s one of the fastest-growing towns in North Carolina. Its population grew nearly 27%, to 43,817, from 2020 to 2023, census data found.
In October, the median home sale price (where half cost less and half cost more) was $443,442 according to the latest data from Redfin. That’s down 6.8% year over year, but still significantly higher than pre-pandemic prices.
The market is “somewhat competitive.” On average, homes sell after 31 days on the market compared to 42 days last year. There were 80 homes sold in October this year, up from 78 last year.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Fuquay-Varina’s building boom: Two projects, 1,000-plus homes coming to Wake County."
