[FONT=Verdana]I have heard from many that said it was a hot demolition market in Raleigh and the surrounding areas, I guess this just proves it.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]A series of sirens, some rat-tat-tat explosions, kaboom -- the 12-story hotel buckled, casting a plume of wind-whipped dust. The tower that loomed over Glenwood Avenue and Creedmoor Road succumbed to a wrecking crew to clear the way for a 43-story tower with luxury condominiums and a hotel. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]The implosion last month was the latest tremor in the Triangle deconstruction boom. Developers are increasingly turning to the wrecking ball, knocking down obsolete buildings to accommodate demand for homes and offices near the cores of the region's biggest cities. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]There were 326 demolition permits issued in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill last year, according to city and town inspectors. That's 15.7 percent above the four-year average. The 170 issued through May 15 are on pace to break last year's total. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]The average size of buildings being demolished is growing, indicating that property values in parts of the Triangle have jumped to a level that makes it feasible to tear down buildings for more ambitious projects. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]About 15 percent of the 114 demolition permits issued in Raleigh through May 15 were for buildings 5,000 square feet or larger, up from about 5 percent in 2002. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"It's a healthy sign that the city's growing -- and not just out," said Mitchell J. Silver, Raleigh's planning director. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Commercial buildings are typically demolished after they have run their course -- when they are too run-down to fetch high rents or when the land under them is so coveted that it can generate more cash with a bigger building on it. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Raleigh[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] developer Gordon Grubb bought the Koger Center in 1999 with plans to redevelop much of the aging Raleigh office park, which is near Interstate 440 on Glenwood Avenue. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]But the office market tanked. Average annual rental rates fell to $18.29 per square foot by the end of 2003. Grubb's project required rents of nearly $25 a square foot to cover demolition and construction costs. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]So he waited. With the market tightening and rental rates rising, Grubb decided in February to knock down 40,000 square feet of offices to build a 112,000-square-foot office building. Already, about half of it is pre-leased. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]The rental rate of about $26.50 per square foot is about $10 more than space in the demolished buildings fetched. "Everything is getting hot closer in," Grubb said. "People want to be in those locations, and they're willing to pay a premium to be there." [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Traffic has a lot to do with it. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]People looking to trade drive time for family time are jacking up demand for homes close to offices and shops. That has raised the value of land in tighter pockets of the Triangle with varying results -- but it usually produces signs of transformation. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]In Chapel Hill, developers want to replace student apartments with condominiums for empty-nesters and young professionals. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]The demolition of public-housing apartments east of downtown Durham has made way for mixed-income townhouses. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]In Raleigh, dozens of inside-the-Beltline ranch houses are making way for multistory homes. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Meanwhile, as undeveloped lots become more scarce in downtowns, developers set their sights on commercial property. Some are candidates for conversion, but that can be too costly. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]"In many cases, it just becomes cheaper to just tear it down and start over again," said Durham Planning Director Frank Duke. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]Just think of 222 Glenwood, the condo project that will fill the hole left by Warren Distributing, whose Glenwood Avenue warehouse was demolished a few months ago. Or 712 Tucker, the apartments that will replace the Raleigh Office Supply warehouse a few blocks northwest. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana]The phenomenon is fine by David Griffin Jr., vice president of Greensboro-based D.H. Griffin Cos., which demolished of the Raleigh hotel. "Our business has increased about 35 percent over the past two years," he said. "It's as good as I've ever seen it."[/FONT]