West-end development spikes land values
Commercial real estate in Waynesville appears poised this year to cross a major milestone: the million-dollar acre.
While some commercial properties have flirted with the million-dollar-per-acre mark for the past year, those have generally been smaller parcels in the historic core of the town.
But now, the impending development of Dayco into Waynesville Commons is heralding a new crop of million-dollar properties.
The property on which Big Mountain BBQ now sits, about an acre, is on the market at slightly less than $1 million.
Two adjacent properties are also commanding high prices. One tract, with .32 acres, is listed at $295,000. A second, at .28 acres, is also $295,00.
Nearby, 1870 S. Main St., a .9-acre property with a building, is listed for $1 million.
One of the first lots to approach the mark was a quarter-acre lot on downtown’s Depot Street owned by the town. Home to an old restaurant, the town offered to sell the land to the county for a bit under $250,000. Citing in part the price, the county declined the offer.
Around that same time, CVS bought a high-visibility one-acre tract on Russ Avenue for $1.4 million.
Other high-dollar properties currently for sale in Waynesville include: 608 N. Main St., a .34-acre parcel listed at $279,000; 96 Depot St., a .04-acre parcel for $112,000; and 2360 Russ Ave., where 2.35 acres is selling for $1.3 million.
A 50-acre parcel of undeveloped land, meanwhile, on the south side of Hyatt Creek Road adjacent to exit 98 on U.S. 23-74, is for sale for $5.5 million.
Everett Stiles, president and CEO of the proposed Oldtown Bank, recently hinted at how high prices were going.
Stiles said his firm was on the hunt for suitable property in west Waynesville and that he expected to have to pay $1 million an acre for buildable land with good frontage.
“We think that’s a fair price based on the market,” Styles said.
Mark Clasby, director of the Haywood County Economic Development Commission, said prices being asked for raw commercial land in west Waynesville seem high.
The idea of a $1 million acre, he said, “is incredible to me. I think that’s a bit on the high side. That’s wild, especially if someone is willing to pay for it.”
The recent high-dollar listings reflect excitement over the development of Dayco — excitement that was not nearly so obvious a few years ago.
The 35-acre former Dayco fan belt manufacturing site, owned by the Haywood Advancement Foundation, is under contract to sell to Ohio-based Cedarwood Development for $2.1 million. Cedarwood will likely spend an additional $2 million on demolition and $1.4 million on arterial road improvements, plus more for engineering, architecture and environmental work. With those costs figured in, Cedarwood would be paying less than $160,000 an acre for the parcel.
That figure in more in line with what shovel-ready land is selling for elsewhere in the county — generally, in the $40,000-an-acre range for flat land with reasonable access. Though the prices now being asked in west Waynesville seem high, it all comes down to location.
Roger Winge, who is marketing the three properties for sale on South Main centered on and adjacent to Big Mountain BBQ, said once Dayco develops into Waynesville Commons and sees the building of a Wal-Mart Super Center and a Home Depot, that formerly sleepy end of town will suddenly see thousands of visitors a day.
“This is only because of the proximity to the new development,” Winge said. “This does hail a new era because of what will happen to the traffic count.”
That new era, Winge said, centers around land prices — his three parcels, which are being clumped for the purposes of marketing to the right buyer, are likely the highest-priced single piece of commercial land for sale west of Asheville.
“We have had a lot of interest in the lots,” Winge said. “A lot of people are just curious, but there are others who are looking at a chance to make an investment.”
The west end’s stagnation is likely to be a thing of the past in a few short years, Winge reckoned.
“Suddenly you are going to have people coming from miles away to west Waynesville to shop at these stores,” he said. “That puts these lots in a great location.”
Could prices go even higher? Possibly, Winge said. While home prices have seen a mild slowdown from the hot pace of the past two years, commercial property in general seems more insulated to market whims.
Winge and his wife, Judy, came to Waynesville from a suburb of Atlanta, where they were also commercial real estate brokers, and saw there a rise in land values that sent properties in the space of a few years from expensive to outrageous. He’s not ruling out a similar scenario in Haywood County.
“There is a limit, obviously, into how high it can go,” he said. “But if you are asking me, Is this property overpriced? I would have to say, No, I don’t think so. It’s a matter of how much a property will generate.”
Clasby said the high prices reveal that buyers have high expectations for the future of the area. If traffic counts do indeed produce the number of shoppers that have been project, a million an acre might not be so out of proportion to what the land is capable of producing. Although Cedarwood is only paying a few million for the old Dayco property, Clasby said when everything is done they and the store owners will have sunk a projected $45 million into the development.
“It’s supply and demand,” he said. “You evaluate what the demand may be and decide what you are willing to pay for it.”
Gary O’Nesti, the developer for Cedarwood, declined to comment for this story, citing corporate policy.
Clasby said Waynesville Common’s Home Depot and Wal-Mart would act as retail anchors for the area and the area’s success could put development pressure on businesses and properties along both South Main and Hyatt Creek Road.
“One of the things I look at is that whole area has been depressed,” he said. “I hope this is going to be the catalyst for improving that corridor and making the appearance of that end of town much nicer.”
