Winston-Salem announces 100-acre redevelopment plan

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — The City of Winston-Salem announced a multi-use development plan that will revitalize 100 acres of land.

City leaders are hoping to break ground on the first phase of the project by the end of the year.

The abandoned parking lots between the Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium and the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum will soon be turned into a mixed-use village.

“Where we’re standing is the heart of the retail village. This will really be the central core of the project where it will be in the middle of everything … It will be adjacent to the revitalized and beautified creek that will provide a greenway system that will run into this retail village,” President and Managing Partner at Front Street Capital Coleman Team said.

Phase 1 is expected to cost around $150 million, and the project is getting a boost from the state. $35 million in grant money will be put towards updating roads, walkways and the restoration of Silas Creek Parkway.

“The reason why we got the grant from the State of North Carolina is because they recognize this as a significant economic development opportunity,” Team said.

“We’ll be using most of our $35 million to redo the streets and roads in there,” Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said.

Joines says this is the revitalization this area needs.

“We will have people living there and working there … They will, hopefully, support the … restaurants and shops and retail stores. So it’ll be sort of self-perpetuating,” Joines said.

This project is expected to bring an additional 2,000 to 3,000 jobs to the area.

Team said when he went to Wake Forest University, the area was known as Baity Street. It’s a place well-known to many in the community.

“We feel a deep responsibility to revive that area. This will be a place people remember coming to … It’s wonderful to have 750,000 people a year come here already to all the events and all the things that happen here,” Team said.

The project will have something for everyone to enjoy.

“There will be a 100,000-square-foot office building. There will be 40,000 square feet of retail shops and entertainment space. There will be a 240-unit multifamily project, and in the heart of this, there is a lot of infrastructure work … We’re revitalizing a historic creek that will be there,” Team said.

Developers want this to be more than just a game day spot.

“The goal is to turn this into 365 days of activation,” Team said.

The groundbreaking for phase one is set to start before the end of the year. That will be only about eight acres of the 100-acre project.

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