Wake Stone Nears Completion on 1M-Square-Foot Development
An industrial park’s high occupancy prompted the developers to increase the size of its final building.
Wake Stone Property Company, having just opened its sixth industrial building, has increased the size of its seventh and final building by 30 percent in its Hinton Oaks Industrial Park in Knightdale. Wake Stone Vice President Bose Bratton said its still seeing strong demand and that with the health of the industrial market, the company decided to get as much square footage as the site would allow.
Previously, Wake Stone planned a 164,000-square-foot building for the final phase. The park will have 1.173 million square feet of industrial space with buildings one through five fully leased up to tenants like 84 Lumber, Daltile, Chadwell, Spectrum Paint and Eaton.
Industrial space is still in high demand in the Triangle with a 7.62 vacancy rate in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to Triangle Business Journal’s Space data. Welcome Venture Park in Durham signed four tenants for its first phase, totaling more than 200,000 square feet. Johnson Brothers Mutual Distributing will occupy 420,000 square feet of a 625,000-square-foot building in Garner.
Sales of fully-leased industrial buildings go for big bucks. One in Apex sold for $43 million while a smaller building in Raleigh sold for $14 million.
At Hinton Oaks, site work will begin on the final building this summer allowing the developer to go vertical in early 2026. Delivery of the building is expected in early 2027. The industrial park has been in the works since 2013.
For the seventh building, there will be 36-foot clear heights, 7-inch reinforced concrete slabs and 35 trailer parking spaces.
Williams Realty & Building Company is the contractor while Piedmont Land Design is the civil engineer. Merriman Schmitt Architects of Charlotte is the architect.
No tenants have yet to sign on for the sixth building, but Bratton said there has been interest. While most of the park is light manufacturing and distribution tenants, the company is flexible to the type of users who take up space in the last two buildings.
First Citizens Bank (Nasdaq: FCNCA) provided the financing for the sixth building. No financing has been sought for the seventh building yet. Bratton declined to disclose the development cost of either building. TBJ previously reported that the last two buildings would cost $25 million and $23 million respectively.
Hinton Oaks is at 525 Hinton Oaks Blvd. north of the Interstate 540 interchange with U.S. 64. Bratton said the reason for wrapping up the industrial park is because the developer doesn’t have any more room at the property designated for industrial development. There are technically eight buildings at the site when including a smaller one constructed in the early stages of the project. Wake Stone refers to the final building as building seven.
Wake Stone is also working on a site plan for an 80,000-square-foot flex/industrial building near Moncure that recently had its rezoning approved. That building will be on Deep River Road off of Highway 1.