Construction at Chatham Park, Mosaic rolls on through pandemic

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PITTSBORO — In the long development careers of Kirk Bradley and Tim Smith, they say they’ve never encountered anything like COVID-19.

“The pandemic, never experienced anything like this,” said Smith, the co-owner of Preston Development Company, which is developing Chatham Park in Pittsboro. “We’ve never experienced being shut down by the government for 11 weeks. Who would have ever thought that would happen?”

Since construction — including “essential commercial and housing construction” — was an allowable and “essential” business under Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order No. 121, work on buildings and infrastructure at both Chatham Park and Mosaic at Chatham Park, a mixed-use development Bradley is overseeing, continued.

Bradley — the manager of Eco CP Partners and a part of the ownership group for the News + Record — said construction is under way or nearly complete on four of 19 available lots in Phase 1 of Mosaic. One of those buildings already has a full rendering — anchored by a People’s Coffee location on the corner and featuring a Chatham Park Info Center and Mosaic Sales & Leasing Center. Other tenants announced for the development include Town Hall Burger + Beer, UNC Urgent Care and EDGE Aveda Day Spa, and the Triangle Business Journal reported late last month that a Lowes Foods grocery store was slated for the development.

The development also announced its first residential offerings — Tessera at Mosaic, described as “upscale urban condos,” and The Guild at Mosaic, “amenity-rich apartments” — on May 29.

“We have several other buildings we’re working on and hope to have those started by the third quarter,” Bradley said.

Chatham Park, Smith said, has been “wide open” throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Road construction, water, sewer — we haven’t stopped one day since the shutdown started,” he said. “We’ve been going full steam on that side.”

Pre-sales on a new set of homes, designed by four custom builders and set for the second phase of the Vineyards residential neighborhood, began June 1, and the first examples of these houses will be shown during the Triangle Parade of Homes in September. The first Cottage homes, from the first phase of development at the Vineyards, will also be ready by Sept. 25.

“We’ve been talking about this, it seems like, 10 years,” Smith said. “Now it’s all coming to fruition.”

Bradley and Smith each said government restrictions have placed unique burdens on their work. Smith said Preston Development is still selling houses, but “about half of what we anticipated.” Commercial development has been a different story.

“Nobody’s got a zero-revenue model, and that’s in essence what the government restrictions did,” Bradley said. “Even in the great recession of ‘08-’09, which disproportionately impacted real estate, it happened over a long period of time. This thing, we went from one day everything was happening to the next day it was nothing.”

Bradley was among a handful of business leaders who sent letters to Cooper during the height of restrictions asking for some leniency to help “re-open” the economy. In the letter, which was published in late April, he praised the early work of state government, calling North Carolina “one of the best states in the country in protecting the public health of its citizens,” and called Cooper’s three-phase plan “very measured” and “thorough.”

Commercial leasing, Bradley said, slowed down significantly during the governor’s stay-at-home order, but has picked back up in the “last two or three weeks.” Some of the tenants the development has been seeking include outdoor outfitters, healthy living companies and clothing boutiques.

Both Bradley and Smith said the way they’ve operated on a normal business day — like many during the pandemic — has changed. Zoom meetings have been commonplace. Bradley said he’s been able to accomplish more in a day since he’s spent less time commuting.

“You can never duplicate in-person meetings, but these Zoom meetings have really taken off, saved a lot of time,” Smith said. “We still want a face-to-face meeting from time to time, but these Zoom meetings are one of the biggest things to save time and energy.”

Chatham Park Division of Water permit denied, application re-submitted

The N.C. Division of Water Resources denied Chatham Park’s application for a 401 Certification last week.

The certification would have given construction an Individual Water Quality Certification, which gives projects the ability to conduct activity that may result in a discharge to bodies of water. The specific application, submitted April 22, covered Chatham Park North Village and Chatham Park Way North.

Among the reasons for denial of the certification were unanswered questions and concerns that the application’s stated regional stormwater control measures “have the potential to cause indirect impacts to smaller tributaries and wetlands within the project by re-routing entire watersheds away from these features.”

The Haw River Assembly sent a newsletter on Friday celebrating the application’s denial.

“Thanks to everyone who sent comments in,” the newsletter said, “and a big thanks to the Chatham County Board of Commissioners for letting the state know their concerns about the permit and the inadequate public opportunity for commenting.”

In response to an inquiry from the News + Record about the application, Smith said “most of (the) information” requested by the state had been given “in previous meetings with the Corps of Engineers over the last three years.”

“Due to the CV-19 issues, it has been difficult to meet in person to share what information was previously provided and answer all questions,” Smith wrote in an email. “The questions have now been addressed and additional information provided. We will be resubmitting the Permit next week. We want to thank the Corps of Engineers for their help over the last three years and NC DEQ for their response in these difficult times.”

Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.