Women's Clothing Boutique Near Me Holly Springs, NC

Apex and neighboring Holly Springs, just a 10-minute drive south of downtown Raleigh, recently got dubbed a “superstar region” that is primed for more out-of-state investment dollars as its local economy surges.

A quick look at their development pipeline underscores this point. Over the last few years, developers have lined up to construct new buildings and offices as Apex’s population swells to over 62,000. In Holly Springs, it’s closer to 44,000.

“I’m excited about the future of possibilities at this moment,” Apex Mayor Jacques K. Gilbert recently told The N&O.

Here’s a look at some of those projects:

Description: The long-awaited Veridea development is moving ahead. New York developer RXR recently purchased multiple parcels, roughly 1,100 acres in total, sandwiched between U.S. Highway 1 and N.C. 540, along N.C. 55, for $91 million.

Details: The project is a public-private partnership that is expected to cost around $3 billion over 10 years. It will include:

Developers plan to break ground early next year. The first residents for multifamily units should be able to move in by late 2025.

Description: New York-based global private equity firm Apollo Global Management and its development partner GeneSuites announced plans for Catalyst BioCampus in January. It promises “up to 446,000 square feet” of biomanufacturing, lab and office space in Holly Spring’s Oakview Innovation Park.

Details: The campus covers 25 acres at the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway and Holly Springs New Hill Road.

It includes the first phase of Charlotte developer Crescent Communities’ recently completed biomanufacturing complex, formerly called The Yield, purchased for $40.5 million in January. It includes two shell-ready buildings – each 105,000 square feet – and a seven-acre parcel for future development.

The project’s second phase entails building out mezzanines and installing primary mechanical, electrical and building infrastructure. It’s scheduled to be delivered this spring.

Plans also call for a third building for process development, lab and office space that will be up to 140,000 square feet and five stories.

Description: California-based Amgen broke ground last March on a new 350,000-square-foot multi-product drug substance manufacturing plant in Holly Springs.

Details: Amgen said it plans to invest $550 million in the project. It’s expected to employ more than 355 people. The jobs will pay an average wage of $119,510.

Amgen received local incentives worth more than $35 million for the expansion, which is scheduled to open by 2025.

“This area — and North Carolina in general — attracted us due to the access to great and diverse talent,” said Amgen CEO Bob Kenyon. “We intend to take advantage of that.”

Description: Japanese contract drug manufacturer Fujifilm Diosynth is building a $1.5 billion manufacturing plant, announced in 2021, in Holly Springs’ Oakview Innovation Park.

Details: The 1 million-square-foot plant will be built on 150 acres off State Road 1152, near the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway. It’s about 1.5 miles west of Holly Springs Towne Center on N.C. 55.

It’s expected to bring up to 725 jobs to the area over five years. The jobs would pay an average annual wage of $99,848.

Fujifilm Diosynth received local incentives worth more than $90 million for the expansion.

The facility is expected to be operational by 2025.

Description: DHIC Inc., a local affordable housing developer, has begun work on Broadstone Walk, a 164-unit affordable housing complex on a 14-acre parcel along South Hughes Street in Apex.

Details: DHIC said the total cost of the project is $47 million.

The complex will include eight buildings providing one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for households making 40% to 70% of the area’s median income — roughly $34,000 to $62,300, based on Wake County’s household median income of $88,471.

DHIC received close to $7 million in financing from Wake County and the town of Apex. It also received equity from the sale of roughly $14 million in low-income housing tax credits.

It’s expected to be complete by May 2024.

Wegmans announced that a new location would open in Charlotte by the third quarter of 2026.

Award-winning grocery store chain Wegmans announced in a news release Monday, April 15 that it would open its next North Carolina location in the next two years. Dan Aken, vice president of real estate and store planning, spoke about the new store in the release.

“Four years after opening our first store in North Carolina, we’re excited to announce that Wegmans is coming to Charlotte,” said Aken. “We’ve received hundreds of requests from locals asking for a store in their area, and we’ve spent years looking for exactly the right location. We’re thrilled to bring the Wegmans experience to this community.”

The new store will be the latest addition to the chain's 110 total locations and will be the fifth Wegmans location in N.C.

More:Where will Wegmans expand next? For clues, see how its store sites have changed over time

Wegmans North Carolina locations

North Carolina is one of only nine states with Wegmans store locations. Currently, the state has four. The Charlotte location, opening in 2026, will make the fifth. Currently, the N.C. cities that have Wegmans locations are:

More:Can we talk Wegmans? Why it's time for a 'chat checkout' lane at grocery stores.

Wegmans Charlotte NC location: Ballantyne Wegmans to open 2026

The newest N.C. Wegmans will be located in Charlotte at North Community House Road on the east side of Ballantyne, a "mixed-use community featuring 4.5 million square feet of Class A office and medical space, four hotels and numerous parks."

According to the news release, the Charlotte Wegmans will be 110,000 square feet, and will feature the entire range of Wegmans departments.

The new store will also have a market café with indoor and outdoor seating for customers enjoying pre-prepared Wegmans dining options such as pizza, salad, sushi and more.

Why is Wegmans a big deal?

Wegmans is a fan favorite for more than just its over 100 years in business, more than 53,000 employees and $12 billion in annual sales.

Loyal customers cite excellent customer service, store design, quality of Wegmans brand products and more as reasons why Wegmans is so special. One popular reason that is evident from the website alone is the massive variety of products Wegmans offers.

A Buzzfeed article compared shopping at Wegmans to a "journey through a small, beautifully maintained, self-sustaining city." With 10 total departments – bakery, cheese, dairy, frozen, grocery, meat, produce & floral, prepared foods, seafood and wine, beer & spirits – and unique "village concept" store layouts, it's an understandable comparison.

Wegmans' prepared foods alone are as massively varied as they are convenient, Buzzfeed said. Their categories include Asian, chicken, pizza & wings, prepared meals, salads, soups, subs & sandwiches and sushi.

Holly Springs NC Wegmans location

Wegmans has a "Future Store Locations" webpage for customers who are eagerly awaiting possible openings near them. According to this locator, Holly Springs may be the next N.C. town to see a Wegmans open.

The Holly Springs Wegmans location is planned to be located at N.C. 55 and Ralph Stephens Road in Wake County. The supermarket chain has not released any information on the new location yet. Keep an eye on the Future Store Locations page for future info.

More:Waste not: Where Wegmans' fresh abundance goes when it's 'less than perfect'

Will there be a Wegmans in Asheville?

Currently, the closest Wegmans location to Asheville is roughly 200 miles away in Chapel Hill at 1810 Fordham Blvd. While the Charlotte location at Ballantyne will be closer, it's still around 100 miles away – not the ideal distance for a grocery run.

So, will there ever be a Wegmans in Asheville? So far, there's no plan listed under future NC store locations on the designated webpage. However, you can always make a request for a new store location in your area with its contact form under "request a new location," and of course, keep an eye on its dedicated planning page just in case.

Iris Seaton is the trending news reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at iseaton@citizentimes.com.

A biotech manufacturer that’s expanding its facility under construction in Holly Springs in southern Wake County, want to take advantage of the workforce in the area.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Fujifilm Corporation. The company, whose new expansion plans were announced by the governor’s office last week, helps develop and manufacture products including vaccines, cell and gene therapies and oncolytic viruses, according to the company’s press release.

Fujifilm’s existing facility in Holly Springs is still under construction, the company told Carolina Public Press in an email. In total, the completed facility will now be more than 1.3 million square feet.

With the new expansion, the facility will become one of the largest cell culture biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing, or CDMO, facilities in North America, the company said.

The site will make bulk drug substance for biopharmaceutical treatments and conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, the company told CPP.

The expansion will allow the company to add bioreactors for new projects, increasing its production capacity, according to the company’s press release. This will help meet biopharma customers’ needs as well as “provide supply chain resiliency,” a company press release said.

The expansion also aims to meet market demands, the company said, such as increasing demands for antibody drugs – the antibody drug market is expected to grow at a yearly rate of 8% through 2030.

The company plans to invest $1.2 billion in the project through 2028, and will bring 680 new jobs by 2031, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Positions include engineers, scientists, manufacturing personnel and other support staff, the governor’s office said. The average annual wage is expected to be $109,923, in comparison to Wake County’s average of $74,866.

The Fujifilm announcement came April 11, the same day Gov. Roy Cooper met with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and his wife Kishida Yuko at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after they attended a state dinner at the White House the previous day.

Japan is the largest source of foreign direct investment in North Carolina, according to the governor’s office, making up nearly half of all such investment in the state. Currently, more than 30,500 North Carolinians work at Japanese-owned companies, the governor’s office said.

The initial phase of construction will be operational by 2025, the company told CPP.

In 2021, Fujifilm announced a $2 billion investment and more than 700 new jobs on the same site, in addition to its RTP campus, the Town of Holly Spring’s press release said.

The company told CPP that proximity to the Research Triangle region was important because of the “strong pool of technical talent and close location to Universities.”

The facility is in Holly Springs Business Park, where other members include CSL Seqirus, a flu vaccine provider, according to Irena Krstanovic, Holly Springs Economic Development Director.

The facility also aims for carbon net zero operations by offsetting its energy needs through renewable landfill gas, onsite solar and annual sustainable solar energy from a virtual power purchase agreement, the company said.

Fujifilm considered other locations in Singapore, Denmark and Ventura County, California, according to the N.C. Commerce Department.

The company has been communicating with North Carolina public officials about new expansion since the beginning of the year, the company said.

Holly Springs was ideal because of investments in water, sewer and road infrastructure, as well as sustainable energy resources and a “strong pool of diverse and highly-skilled talent,” Lars Petersen, president and chief executive officer of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, said in company press release.

The N.C. Commerce Department said at an April 11 economic investment committee meeting that the company also factored in “operational synergies, proximity to patients, local incentives, workforce capabilities and market access.”

The state approved a Job Development Investment Grant that would use new tax revenue to potentially reimburse the company up to $14.9 million over 12 years from new tax revenue, as well as an additional $3 million in incentives from the community college system and the Division of Workforce Services.

That’s contingent on the company meeting incremental job creation and investment targets.

Because the total award is higher than the grant statute’s general maximum ratio of withholdings in the first five years, the state economic investment committee approved a special finding to pass the grant in its meeting.

The Town of Holly Springs also offered the company a grant of 50% of property taxes paid over six years up to $20,236,800 million. The incentive kicks in after the company generates at least $20 million in property tax revenue to the town first, Krstanovic said.

Wake County also offered $30.6 million as an incentive, according to the state commerce department.

The town informed neighborhoods adjacent to the industrial park of their plans to recruit companies to the business park, and residents are “generally” supportive and understanding of the positive economic impact, Krstanovic said over email.

There aren’t any housing plans specific to the project, but the community has diverse housing options, Krstanovic said. The town is also managing its growth, including the challenge of additional traffic, she said.

“The town already has plans underway to ease congestion, by adding or widening roadways,” Krstanovic told CPP in an email.

Wake County and its municipalities are focused on the challenges of building adequate infrastructure for new businesses and residents as well as housing affordability, said Michael Haley, Executive Director of Wake County Economic Development, in an email to CPP.

Another biotech company recently announced plans for a manufacturing facility in Wilson, in March. SCHOTT Pharma USA’s facility will be the first in the U.S. for a type of syringe used in deep-cold storage and transportation of mRNA medications.

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Grace Vitaglione

Grace Vitaglione is a reporter for Carolina Public Press. Send an email to gvitaglione@carolinapublicpress.org to contact her.

In 2021, FUJIFILM announced it would expand operations in Holly Springs, a $2 billion project that is the largest life sciences investment in state history.

HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. (WTVD) -- FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies held a celebration for employees as it marked progress on its new Holly Springs facility.

The ceremony, which included key company representatives including CEO Lars Petersen, comes on the same day it announced the first outside company to utilize space in the site. Janssen Supply Group, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, will utilize "a large-scale manufacturing suite."

In 2021, FUJIFILM announced it would expand operations in Holly Springs, a $2 billion project which is the largest life sciences investment in state history.

"There is a community, education institutions, (people) are more prepared, more trained. We can collaborate together. (The) demography of people are changing rapidly. So how are we actually utilizing that in this area? Alone, we have about 75,000 trained employees for our industry. That mattered a lot when we had to position a facility and decide where to go," said Petersen.

Ultimately, FUJIFILM will employ more than 700 people on the site, with plans to open in 2025.

"We can for double the size of the entire manufacturing footprint," said Petersen, of possible future expansions on the site. "The critical mass that we would need to grow life sciences has already existed in this area. Just with Research Triangle Park, with our three Tier one universities, a close-by international airport. The land that was available and ready to go, we were just poised for the success that we are seeing today," said Irena Krstanovic, the Economic Development Director for the Town of Holly Springs.

FUJIFILM currently operates out of Research Triangle Park, with Petersen noting the Holly Springs facility will serve a different purpose.

"It's really medicine of a bigger scale. So for many patients, it could in the future be Alzheimer's medicine, medicine, but it likely will be in the beginning oncology medicine or autoimmune diseases," said Petersen.

Krstanovic explained the town has long targeted the life sciences industry, pointing to CSL Seqirus and Amgen, the latter of which broke ground on a $550 million site in March of 2022, which will bring more than 350 jobs.

"I do believe that Holly Springs is already a biotech hub, with have CSL Seqirus, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, and Amgen in our community. Holly Springs is on the map, and we have worked really hard to bring more quality land, to establish more products in the business parks that (other companies) are already seeing and looking into our community and asking 'How can we be part of this success'," Krstanovic said.

The presence of multi-national companies has also provided a boost to other industries, with Krtanovic meeting with ABC 11 between interviews for a newly-created position within the Economic Development team solely focused on smaller businesses.

"The inquiries from small businesses have exploded in the last few years since the large announcements have been made. Our office every day is assisting small businesses to come," said Krstanovic. "When you're supporting the people who live here, that just creates a sense of community that everybody is looking for," said Lesli Doares, who lives in Holly Springs.

"Having those larger businesses come here, spending their money here, those people living here, knowing it's a community. Yes, it all rises together. Everybody works together. And I think that just what help makes Holly Springs what it is and it's really exciting," added Sarah Larson.

ABC 11 met with both Doares and Larson outside a polling location Tuesday, where the town's rapid growth was naturally a point of focus for many voters across town.

"When I first moved here (28 years ago), there was a single stoplight and pretty much nothing else," Doares recalled.

Back then, the population was under 10,00; today, it's topping 40,000. While Doares and Larson are both excited for the development, they want town leaders to ensure its keeping up with growth.

"I would like to see the next town council try to be more open with communication of what they are dealing with, because I know there are five-year plans, 10-year plans that maybe the public doesn't understand," said Larson.

"This is great, but do we have the roads to service it? What is that going to do? Do we have the schools to service it? Do we have doctors," said Doares, who noted the value of UNC's Rex Hospital, which opened in 2021.

Larson was hopeful the presence of the companies could play a role in preparing for potential infrastructure and road limitations.

"We should be having our taxpayer dollars stay in Holly Springs, and with Fujifilm and Amgen moving here that flips our tax base," said Larson.

HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. (WTVD) -- The quest to go solar left a Holly Springs couple with a year of frustrations.

The company installed the system but then ghosted the couple before getting the system up and running.

"Did all the work, put all the panels up and everything, and then that was it -- just stopped after," Greg Monteleone said.

He said no response or further work from the installation company Sustainable Energy and Light Solutions or the agent Daybreak Solar Company.

"When they finished the project, they were supposed to get the electrical approved and they never did," Monteleone said.

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To make it worse, since the installation was technically done, Monteleone had to start paying for his $47,000 system to the finance company.

"It's spending money for nothing, you know?"

Troubleshooter Diane Wilson tried to reach all the companies involved in Monteleone's job, but they're either now out of business or didn't respond.

Monteleone is not alone as ABC11 has showed you how hundreds of homeowners who contracted with Pink Engery and were left with non-working solar systems after the North Carolina-based company shut down and declared bankruptcy.

Most recently we investigated another company, Encor Solar, which is now under investigation by the North Carolina Attorney General's Office for closing up shop and leaving customers without working solar systems.

As for Monteleone, it took some time, but he's finally getting relief.

Kevin Bergeron from The Solar Gladiator in Holly Springs along with Brad Griffith, with Thompson and Son Energy Solutions heard about Monteleone's obstacles and wanted to help.

"We are hoping in a couple of weeks that we will have this system up and running," Kevin Bergeron said.

"We are very fortunate where we got relief from the lender," Brad Griffith said.

Griffith and Bergerson said typically the lenders for the systems have a program that can help homeowners if their solar companies close shop and stop working on the job.

After nearly a year of waiting, thanks to The Solar Gladiator and Thompson and Son Energy Solutions, all the work is finally done and Monteleone's solar system is up and running.

SEE ALSO | NC mom facing homelessness after losing money in rental scam gets help from stranger: 'I cried'

"This is a success story and I hope there are many more to come," Bergerson said.

Monteleone said it's been a long year of headaches and frustrations, but he and his wife are glad it's over and their system is finally working.

"I was very pleased, very pleased. I just want to thank these guys for helping out," Monteleone said.

The best advice if you are a homeowner and this happens to you, contact the lender right away to see if they have a program like Monteleone where there is financial help. Also, if you're thinking of going solar make sure you do your research. See what others are saying about the company, and take a look at where the company is based. Many of the companies that have closed shop with no notice are not based in the Triangle.