When people move to Holly Springs, there’s a question often asked: “Where’s downtown”? If you’ve lived here for a little while, you know where downtown is. It’s where Town Hall is. Why does it seem to be hard for newcomers to find?
The truth is, Holly Springs doesn’t have what many transplants consider to be a proper downtown. To many, downtown is the place where the store on the corner used to be the soda shop and 5&10, before that it was a drug store, and maybe the post office before that.
To understand why we don’t have that type of downtown, you have to understand that Holly Springs is unique. I don’t know how many towns have grown by 35x over the past 25 years, but I can only assume that we are part of a small group. Although the history of Holly Springs is a rich one, it doesn’t include a main street that was once lined with shops and a bustling shopping district. Salem Street in Apex has been a business center since the turn of the century (the one that was 117 years ago). Both Fuquay and Varina followed similar paths.
Holly Springs will never be Salem St. in Apex, or even downtown Fuquay or Varina. We do have some exciting news though. Although it’s been in the works for some time, the new project to build a “proper” downtown in Holly Springs has just been approved. There are advantages to having a present-day downtown. Although it won’t have the “old downtown” feel, it will be better planned than our neighboring downtowns. Parking is being planned ahead of time. The project is a huge undertaking. The plans include two buildings and a 2-story parking deck.
The building proposed for the corner of South Main Street and Balentine Street will extend from the corner (next to Town Hall) to a new road which will be the extension of Rogers Street to Avent Ferry Rd.
That building is a 2-story rectangular building and is planned for 45k square feet. The parking deck will be built behind it. The plan is for the bottom of the building to be retail space with office space upstairs. This building will also house the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce.
The second building will be on the other side of Rogers Street and facing Main Street as well. That building is slated to have 48k square feet and three stories. The plan is to have retail space and possibly two restaurants and a coffee shop on the first floor, 20k square feet of available office space on the second floor, and it will be the new location for the Coworking Station and Lighthouse Recruiting. There’s plans for a rooftop bar on the third floor.
The parking deck and additional parking will add roughly 350 parking spots to downtown. The hope is to have both buildings open by the time the Christmas parade comes through town in 2018.
If you’re interested in being one of the tenants for the 48k square foot building, you can contact
Jon Harol at (919) 890-3087 or email jon@coworkingstation.com.
