Elliot Road lot purchased for $1.65M

The purchase of a vacant lot on Elliott Road has sparked renewed interest in a site that has sat empty for almost a decade.

Ginn & Company, the owner of the Village Plaza shopping center, bought the lot next to Whole Foods, where a theater used to stand, on Dec. 14 for $1.65 million.

Owner Steve Ginn has no specific plans for the lot but hopes to work with the town to decide how to proceed.

“I’m looking forward to taking the town’s input and putting the best thing that can go there economically and fit in with Chapel Hill,” he said.

The property is part of the larger Ephesus Church Road and Fordham Boulevard area that the town is studying in an effort to encourage development. Transportation, traffic and access to the shopping centers are all being considered.

Chapel Hill’s Economic Development Officer Dwight Bassett said he had discussed a mix of uses for the space with Ginn, including residential.

Ginn said he is not in a hurry to develop the site, and is willing to wait for the town’s input.

Bassett said interest in the site had also renewed attention to a plan proposed about a decade ago to make a wetlands with elevated walkways and possibly an amphitheater in the floodplain space between Village Plaza and Eastgate shopping centers.

“We need to find some way to make that a positive addition, and find a way to connect the shopping centers,” Bassett said.

EFC Village Plaza Development asked $1.75 million for the property, said John Morris, the agent who represented the deal.

Several other companies looked at the site, including a mixed-use developer from Charlotte and a restaurant.

The other companies made offers on the lot, Morris said, but their plans were going to require about a year-and-a-half long approval process.

“The seller didn’t want to wait that long,” Morris said.

“The other people that wanted to develop it, I didn’t feel would be very appropriate for what the town would like,” he said.

J.B. Culpepper, director of planning for the town, said the lot has potential as an opportunity for in-field development.

“The ultimate goal is to encourage reinvestment in the properties,” she said.

Ginn said he is cautious about overbuilding the lot, and he has been contacted by several people interested in his plans for developing it.

“There’s a lot of activity—people want to see something there,” he said.

“We’ll just take our time. We’re going to fix it up, make it look good and then start talking.”

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