Raleigh Chapter September Meeting!
- Lee-Moore Capital’s Kirk Bradley introduced Brian Fork, CEO of Hurricanes Holdings, overseeing business operations for the Carolina Hurricanes, the Lenovo Center and surrounding real estate and entertainment developments.
- Hurricanes CEO Brian Fork shared the Hurricanes history. Raleigh City Council and Wake County Commissioners had this idea in the early 90s, and Jim Valvano wanted a basketball arena. NHL franchise opportunity came in 1995, which was faced with some criticism.
- NC State, City of Raleigh, Wake County, Peter Karmanos, Jr., and the State of North Carolina partnered to make it happen. Legislature created Centennial Authority, the landlord of the arena; the arena would serve as a sports and economic driver for the entire region.
- Tom Dundon bought the team in 2018: he pays the salary cap to players with the purpose of owning a winning team. Hurricanes are successful because they are the most analytics-forward NHK team and the head coach’s aggressive playing style. The team reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs for eight consecutive seasons and made three Eastern Conference Final appearances over a four-season span. They’ve had 168 consecutive sellouts.
- Dundon encouraged more concerts in the arena, which now has over 60 ticketed concert-type events per year. Concerts bring more out-of-town guests.
- In 2024, the City, County NC State and Hurricanes committed to a 20-year a lease and development agreement with the Authority. The agreement provides the right for a mixed-use development on the 80 acres with restrictions; it included a $300M investment in renovating the arena to offer more modern fan amenities and to operate competitively. This use of the land will generate a tax revenue for the City and County, which reduces their obligation for capital expenses.
- The economic impact of visitor spending during the playoffs was $48.1M. The larger impact is the public notoriety and “2-month commercial” for the City of Raleigh. The playoffs were one of the highest viewed sporting events in the past 5 years.
- The mixed-use development, a multi-phased project with a minimum capital investment of $800M, includes 150K SF office, 100K SF retail, 150-key hotel, 200 residential units (10% affordable) and a 350-seat indoor venue. Project starts in Spring 2027, with announcements coming soon.
- The State provided $35M for transportation, funding a frontage road along Wade Ave, which will become main ingress/egress for events. This will help activate the site every day.
- Phase I of arena renovations is completed; they will start Phase II, including adding escalators and an indoor/outdoor beer hall, enlarging the team store and updating the Arena Club.
- Taylor Emory of Wyrick Robbins has 3-4 acquisitions and 1 sale/lease back in medical office and is working on retail, office and MOB leasing.
- Rob Futrell of Wyrick Robbins has worked in the commercial finance group for 28 years. He reports work is busy; he had a period of amendments, but that is evening out.
- Sarah Hall of NC State’s Institute of Emerging Issues presented the 2027 Emerging Issues Forum: Future Forward Housing, hosted Feb. 17, 2027 at the McKimmon Center. The Strategic Workforce Leadership Initiative is going to Asheville to focus on building critical infrastructure workforce.
- Lee-Moore Capital’s Kirk Bradley said the General Assembly passed statutes to help municipal governments understand real property rights. Kirk received two offers on an industrial shell building in Sanford; both companies are in the transformer industry.
- Kevin Scanlon of Lee-Moore Capital sees strong demand for retail. At MOSAIC at Chatham Park in Pittsboro, N.C., they started a new 7500 SF building. Multifamily has a 70% renewal rate but is slow.
- Investors Title Company’s Jeff Benson said commercial volume is up 10% for transactions. Small (under $10M) and large deals ($15M – $100M) are up, but $10-$25M deals are off.
- Beth Harrelson of First Horizon said the 10-year treasury in February was under 4% and today it is 88%, which is almost 100 basis points in less than a year. This impacts fixed rates.
- David Koehler of Wells Fargo notes there’s a 50+% chance of federal rate increase next week and a 100% chance of a Q4 rate increase. This impacts real estate projects but does not slow down cap-ex spending in operating companies.
- Marlene Spritzer of Lee & Associates sees an uptick in R&D looking for lab space; Life Sciences vacancies have decreased but still at 30% due to overbuilding.
- Lee & Associates’ Hunter Stewart says retail and small flex space are active; he’s seeing fuel wars arise. Industrial vacancy has varied, but he reports under 20K SF and over 100-200K SF is active.
- CoStar’s Nick Leverett reports vacancies in multi-family in Raleigh, N.C., dropped below 9% for first time since 2022; rent growth is positive (.5%) for first time since 2023.
- RPN Guest Dan Tracey of BryantCorp noted his team is working on a hotel next to the new single-A stadium in Wilson, NC.
- RPN Guest Daniel Kauffman is the CEO of Enpira, a small software firm focusing on energy and utility analytics.
- RPN Guest Jake Smith is the owner of Armor Consulting, a commercial construction owners-representative firm, working mostly in Wake County, plus Chatham, Johnson and Lee Counties.
- RPN Guest Mark Schmidt is Interim Vice Chancellor, EAPED at NC State University; he works with RPN Member Tom White.
- RPN Guest Dr. Paul Cohen is a retired faculty member and department head of Industrial and Systems Engineering, who continues to work in economic development.
- RPN Guest Mollie Garrett works as a development accountant at Davis Moore Investment Management.
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