By Dale Cline

Harrisburg Town Center: The developer estimates commercial/retail is about 50-percent built out.

The retail side of Town Center in Harrisburg hasn’t boomed liked developers and residents hoped it would, but town leaders assert they are pleased with the progress of  the unique multi-use development.
And developers say they are close to unveiling the next major retail building in the complex.
The project was born from the vision of Bob Burkett and Joe Murphy, principals in J&B Development, which began the project by purchasing some 97 acres of prime real estate with frontage on N.C. Hwy. 49 and Roberta Road.
The residential component, condominiums and town homes, sold quickly, but eight-plus years into the project, retail and commercial development have lagged expectations, Burkett said.
“Obviously we would have liked for things to have moved forward faster, but with the stall getting traffic in and out during three years of construction on Hwy. 49, it really stymied our ability to attract tenants,” Burkett said.
“…It has not gone forward as we wished for, but we really didn’t have a timeframe for build out. We were fortunate enough to buy the property with cash, so there was no strict emphasis on how fast we would make things happen.”
Town leaders remain optimistic and supportive.
“It was a good idea, a whole development out there where it was going to be pretty well self-contained,” said Carl Parmer, who as a town board member, mayor and town administrator spent 18 years with the town government.
“People would live in the town homes and walk to dinner and shop in the stores. But Bob’s original plan never really blossomed.”
“You still can’t buy clothes, a pair of shoes, or anything else in Harrisburg that you can’t get at the grocery store,” Parmer said.
Parmer said Burkett’s efforts to bring upscale restaurants to the development included taking the leadership role in a successful ABC referendum, bringing mixed drinks, beer and wine sales to Harrisburg after two similar referendums had failed.
But that didn’t bring the boom of upscale chain restaurants to Harrisburg like it did when Concord passed a similar referendum in 1994.
“I really don’t know of any development that’s come in because of it,” Parmer said.
Burkett agrees, but said the mixed drinks aspect continues to be a key ingredient as J&B courts upscale restaurants and some retailers. “Absolutely,” he said. “I don’t believe Lowe’s Foods would have moved in across the street if we didn’t have beer and wine sales.”

Veteran Town Councilman Bill Williams: He was there at the beginning, when alcohol sales were not allowed

Town board remains supportive
The project had strong support from the town board from the conceptual stage. That hasn’t disappeared in a political climate that has brought new members to the town board and a new philosophy about limiting commercial and residential development.
“We are still upbeat about it,” said long-time town board member Bill Williams. “The town homes built out and are doing well. The neighborhoods are looking nice and the residents have a good sense of community.
“The businesses that we direly need are coming more slowly. … We hate to see buildings sitting empty, but Bob Burkett and his people are working on that.”
Williams supports the new Harrisburg development regulations that limit retail buildings to 80,000 square feet. So does 10-year board member Phil Cowherd and most of the newcomers elected to the board during the past two municipal elections.
That and other limitations to commercial and residential development led to Parmer stepping down as town administrator. Parmer said the new standards choke commercial development in the small town.
Williams and Cowherd disagree, saying they will lead to better quality development. The past two elections and a survey of Harrisburg residents made it clear that’s what the town supports, they said.
The survey also showed a strong feeling that Harrisburg needs more retail stores.
“People complained about that in the survey,” Cowherd said. “(Retail) was one of the items; that (Town Center) isn’t being built out fast enough.”
But filling the development with stores is beyond the developers’ or the town’s control, Cowherd said.
“You’ve got to get people in there; you’ve got to get them to agree to a lease,” he said. “Some businesses said they didn’t make it because of the rent. That’s not Bob’s fault. They need to have that built into their business model.”
Parmer said Burkett has become less visible around Harrisburg as progress came slowly on Town Center and he shifted his focus to projects elsewhere, such as Moss Creek on N.C. Hwy. 73.
“I feel like he felt his time would be better spent on other projects, rather than trying to pull this one along.”

J&B: Joe Murphy, left, had the money and Bob Burkett had the experience to build Harrisburg Town Center

Meeting expectations?
Beyond the disappointment at the pace of retail development in Town Center, opinions and expectations vary.
“Oh I think all of us, including the developer, expected six to eight years to build out,” Parmer said.
Early challenges included access to Hwy. 49 as it was being widened to four lanes through Harrisburg, Parmer said. That dragged on for two early years, critical to the development, and scared off a number of prospective tenants who were uncomfortable with access only on Roberta Road, he said.
That included some “nice chain restaurants” and the Lowe’s grocery store that chose instead to locate across Hwy. 49 in the development that replaced the old elementary school.
Cowherd said the development has been good for the town on a number of levels, including a swap with Burkett that led to the new Town Hall located in Town Center.
In that arrangement, the town swapped its old Town Hall on Hwy. 49—about 1,200 square feet—for a new town hall in the center that’s probably 10 times the size of the original, Cowherd said.
“What we got was a clean trade; it was a good deal for the town,” he said.
The residential component gave Harrisburg some rare affordable housing, he said. “We knew he would do well there,” he said. “We knew the retail would come more slowly. The rate of growth there is fine with me.”
Williams said he would have expected the center to have been built out more quickly.
“The business end of it is progressing slowly,” Williams said. “… I hate to see the buildings sitting empty, but Bob Burkett and his people are working on that.
“… I would rather it develop so that businesses can come in, make a profit, and stay with us.”
Growth vs. Growth
Opinions also differ on whether the new, stricter building standards will hamper growth at Town Center moving forward, or on whether it’s an issue if it does.
“Any time you get bureaucracies involved in a development, that isn’t going to help your cash flow,” Burkett said.
“… But being practical in this business, you have to take things as they come and be prepared for the downside as well as the upside. I think that the town board and the mayor and certainly Carl (Parmer) when he was the town manger have certainly worked well with us, supported us and supported the tenants out there.”
Parmer said the new standards will limit the type of retail that can locate in Town Center and is also “choking” the residential development needed to bring the rooftops and people that would enable businesses there to flourish.
Cowherd disagrees, saying limiting retail stores to 80,000 square feet only eliminates “big box” stores—such as Wal-Mart and Lowe’s—and big box stores were never part of the plan Burkett had for Town Center.
The same is true of new commercial regulations that require brick facades and specific size and design for windows. “Those are things they are doing anyway (in Town Center),” he said.
Williams offers a third opinion. He agrees it makes the challenge of building out Town Center greater. But also said the new standards reflect what town residents have said they want.
“It will hinder it—we admit that—that’s part of what we have to live with,” Williams said. “But we feel like, on the flip side, there is more advantage to limiting that, to keep Harrisburg the quaint town residents have told us they want.
“… It’s just a philosophy that we started with. You can’t unbuild once it gets built.”
Burkett said the project is basically grandfathered in as a planned unit development with a zoning ordinance that is unique to Town Center.
“We did set a strict ordinance for ourselves with the brick facades and glass and that sort of thing, but with some flexibility for the type of tenants we might bring in the type of buildings they might require.”
The next step
Burkett said major buildings have been built at Town Center at the rate of one a year most years since 2003, including the Harrisburg Town Hall.
Next on the drawing board is another 85,000 square feet of retail space on the Roberta Road side of Town Center with some larger anchor tenants.
Once again, there’s no specific timetable. “We would like to have at least 50 percent of that space pre-leased,” Burkett said. “We are working through that with a variety of prospective tenants.”
Being a debt-free company is an asset in setting rents for prospective tenants, he said.
“We don’t have to face a banker with interest payments or the prospect of refinancing,” he said. “… That gives us more flexibility in dealing with prospective tenants.
“… We’re talking with some people about starting with some lesser rents and working to increase it over time to attract tenants.”
More rooftops will help any commercial or retail development, and Burkett said the new stricter residential standards in Harrisburg may slow that some.
“I think the town has positioned itself for solid growth,” he said. “Some of the proposed lot restrictions will slow residential growth down some, but that’s something the politicians will have to wrestle with.”