Fenton: Six-Story Apartment Plans
Cary, NC — Last week, developers of the 69-acre mixed-use development known as “Fenton” released plans and renderings for what the multifamily apartment area will look like once constructed.
Sneak Peek at the Apartments
Rendering of the lobby area for the Canopy at Fenton.
This multifamily community is named, “the Canopy at Fenton,” and is expected to come to fruition in 2022. It will include 357 luxury apartment units located above a mix of shopping, dining and entertainment-driven businesses.
The six-story development will feature a variety of one, two and three-bedroom floorplans and four loft-style units on the ground floor. Of the total 357, 47 units will provide private terraces.
In the news release, developers said, “The Canopy at Fenton will be among the first new developments in Cary to vertically integrate multifamily above retail and dining, creating a dense, urban street environment.”
Rendering of the fitness center at the Canopy at Fenton.
Residents of the apartments will have access to a multistory fitness center, a co-working lounge, club room, elevated pool deck and five common terraces. According to the release, the Canopy at Fenton name was chosen for the high amount of outdoor patios overlooking the rest of Fenton’s shops and restaurants.
Paul Zarian, director of the real estate investment firm Hines, said Fenton, “will introduce a walkable, cosmopolitan living experience to the heart of the Triangle.”
Leasing at The Canopy at Fenton is expected to begin in the spring of 2022.
Rendering of the Club Room at the Canopy at Fenton.
Phase 1: Beyond the Apartments
This aerial rendering from the preliminary development plan shows the general layout of the different uses of Fenton.
Outside of this news on the Canopy, the master plan aims at being pedestrian-focused with artistic walkways, dining patis, varied options for shopping and programmed events throughout the year. Tenants coming to Fenton include:
- Chef Scott Crawford’s Crawford Brothers Steakhouse
- Steve Palmer’s Italian restaurant Colletta
- Ford Fry’s tex-mex concept Superica
- Michael Lee’s M Sushi
- Wegmans
- CMX CinéBistro
- Honeysuckle Gelato
- Sephora
- Free People
- Bailey’s Fine Jewelry
- Blo Salon
The grounds that will one day be home to Fenton look a bit different than renderings at the moment with many months of construction ahead. Located at the interchange of I-40 along Cary Towne Boulevard, the site’s work is underway with vertical construction set to begin within the year.
The first phase will bring the Canopy at Fenton along with 345,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment, 170,000 square feet of office and a 175-key boutique hotel.
Story by Ashley Kairis. Renderings and press release courtesy of the Wilbert Group. Read more on Fenton in the Archives.
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I hate to say it, but the buildig facades in that first picture look like a jumbled mess. And the lights strung across the courtyard don’t make it look any better.
I like the looks of it. I can’t wait for Fenton to open.
Anyone else get the sarcasm in calling the apartments the Canopy after clearcutting 67 acres?
I thought the same thing! Great minds.
Also, I can’t see any solar panels in this rendering and I hope that this property has plans to include renewable energy as well as loads of electric vehicle chargers for residents and customers.
I HATE that they are naming it that. This development is LITERALLY in my backyard about 80ft. Beyond my fenceline. In fact, our house is drawn into the city plan. Uggh! Those were my 100 acre woods and I spent EVERY afternoon walking and exploring. We had Fern Valley and The Well.l,The treehouse that our sons built. I would find old buckets and have them on my yard as very rustic planter. Pretty far back, theree was the most beautiful tree that had fallen over and became completely covered in moss. And of course there was an ocassion when I was cornered by a coyote!!!! It was scary at the time but a good memory non the less. I took pictures of all of this beauty. I’m thankful to God that I have them. Those woods helped to heal me after 15 yrs in an abusive marriage. It sickens me to listen to all this distruction everyday, in the name of $$$$. You cannot put a price on what those woods did to help me!
The Cina bistro and Wegmans will be our new neighbors but my heart will never forget what that land means to me. Maybe I should sell my “real canopy” photos to the The Canopy @ Fentonso they can remember what REAL beauty looks like???
Yuck!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same
I’d rest (and breathe) much easier if a Cary legislative or administrative official would assure us – with specificity – that this development won’t result in a similar environmental and aesthetic trainwreck like Morrisville built at Cary Parkway and Chapel Hill Road.
https://www.carytreearchive.org/images/trainwreck.png
I understand that increasing the tax base is important, but creating yet another heat island with no drawdown capability at the expense of 67 acres of clear-cut trees seems a gross overpayment, especially in light of the new record set in May of this year for carbon-dioxide in the air: 417.16 parts per million.
The ultimate irony. Clear cut almost 70 acres of trees and name the urban jungle after the fallen forest. Is this the response to the EAB tree canopy recommendations? For the trees, this adds insult to injury. There will never be an urban forest in Cary as high rise apartments seem to be the TOC canopy goal.
Really?!!!! The “Canopy” at Fenton. What an insult to Cary citizens! Can the Town Council at least get them to change the name? Regardless of its beauty to its designers, a six story building is NOT a canopy. This is just one example of the ongoing development that ignores and degrades the future of Cary.
Please, please, please stop approving clear cutting of trees. The areas with trees in Cary are the highest value properties in town. I mourn, truly, that there may never be another beautiful forested neighborhood like mine (Farmington Woods) in Cary.
Only the Town Council can change this current destruction of our town. There are ordinances and legislation that can help to regulate tree destruction. Please enforce those ordinances, and even strengthen and improve them. Please summon the courage to do so.
An election is coming up. Let’s see which candidates commit to reversing tree loss in Cary. And which candidates might commit to appointing a Community Appearance Commission (authorized by state legislation) to support and advise the Town Council in protecting the beauty and economic vitality of Cary.
Should have specified in my previous comment, that a Cary Town Council election is in a couple of years, not this year. But we can start now to support candidates that will care about trees.
“Please, please, please stop approving clear cutting of trees.”
You’re complaining about the wrong governmental group here…
The NC General Assembly has, over the last 10 years or so, severely curtailed the local regulatory tools that municipalities used to have at their disposal, to actually set requirements of developers.
Right now, per NC laws that supersede anything a municipality may have passed, if you own a property, you can pretty much develop it however you like. One of the last tools towns had, quasi-judicial hearings, changed last year to such a degree that they’re almost pointless now – only qualified professionals may present at these hearings any more, and since most citizen groups don’t have professional architects, hygrologists, traffic engineers, etc, then there’s not anyone to speak for those groups any more.
@Mark Neill – Respectfully disagree with your statement that “The NC General Assembly has, over the last 10 years or so, severely curtailed the local regulatory tools that municipalities used to have at their disposal, to actually set requirements of developers,” insofar as it pertains to the clear-cutting of trees, to which practice Mrs. Nixon and others strongly object.
The Charter of the Town of Cary, Appendix 2.5 (Ordinances regulating trees and shrubs generally), provides “In order to preserve and enhance one of the most valuable natural resources of the community and to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens, the Town of Cary may adopt ordinances to regulate the planting, removal, and preservation of trees and shrubs on public and private property within the Town.”
My strong sense is that this beautiful section of the Charter, our local Constitution, has not been in any way overruled or weakened by State statute. Do you know of a specific State statute that overrules or weakens it?
Yes trees needed to be cleared. But I think some are missing the big picture. 400 apartments next to almost all the services you might need seems to offer a greener, less wasteful, and more energy-efficient way of life. Would you rather 400 homes in the suburbs?
@Gerhard – To suggest that Lois Nixon, who has been an environmental activist for a long time and has even stood in front of bulldozers, is “missing the big picture” is as ironic as naming an apartment complex The Canopy because of the “high amount [number] of outdoor patios overlooking the rest of Fenton’s shops and restaurants”
“stood in front of bulldozers”? I’d love to hear that story!
I’m sure he knows that 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned EVERY DAY for beef, soy, palm oil and wood products. That’s the big picture.
As to your second point, the environment really doesn’t care what you name your building.
There is no peer-reviewed science that cutting 67 acres of trees to build homes meaningfully contributes to global warming. To claim so is pseudo-science mumbo jumbo. The NIMBY equivalent of anti-vax. This is the kind of live/work/play development on a proposed primary mass transit route that environmentalists in the 90’s begged for. Very short sighted to bemoan this development. The Triangle has a housing crisis. To prioritize the aesthetics of trees over follow citizen’s need for homes is myopic.
Gabe, I did not say don’t cut any trees. I said Please don’t clearcut every site. It is possible to develop land and leave trees among the builidings, or groups of trees as greenspace for the enjoyment and health of those who live there. Cary used to do that. You have lived in a wooded neighborhood–you must recognize this. And if every development site in Cary continues to be clearcut, it will indeed affect global warming in our corner of the world. It will also negatively affect air quality. I prefer to breathe clean air. And clearcutting definitely will provide lots of heat islands which will warm our community. Each of us has to do our small part for the big picture. And there is research on heat, air quality, as well as the health benefits of trees, ie: people who see trees outside their hospital window recover faster than those who see no greenspace. If you have research that says clearcutting trees has no impact on air quality and heat and is better for human health than leaving at least some mature trees, please cite it here. I have never seen anything to that effect.
And by the way, I contacted the NCGA Legislative Librarian last year, and she could find NO legislation that prohibits local municipalities from regulating tree cutting during development. In fact there is legislation that says the opposite. If you know of legislation that includes that prohibition, please cite it.
It’s not just this specific 67 acres. Since I came to Cary some 25 years ago over 25% of Cary’s tree canopy that existed then has gone to the bulldozers. And they aren’t being replaced at anywhere near the same rate. The clearcut for ‘Fenton’ is just adding to an existing problem.
Trees are not just aesthetic. They clean the air, and the larger the tree the more air it cleans as it grows. To minimize the health benefits of trees for those citizens who need homes and also need to breathe is myopic.
@Len Nieman – Well said! The economic engine driving development is unstoppable. The keys, in my opinion, are sensible planning of the inevitable development and sensible planting when the buildings and pavings are completed. One need only look with an objective eye at the arboreal tragedy wreaked on S. Academy St. during its renovation and the construction of Downtown Park Phase I.
If not convinced, pick ANY commercial parking lot in Cary to inspect for its improperly placed and improperly planted and nurtured trees. They are ugly and misshapen, and serve none of their myriad intended purposes of water retention, providing shade for the heat island, drawing down CO2, or pulling particulate pollution from the air.
If still not convinced, drive the boulevards of Cary, and wonder why a percentage of trees die each year, and are either not replaced or are replaced with one-generation, useless junk of no value to anyone. Wonder why, in the last 12 years, the tree population of the Town’s eponymous parkway has declined by over 50%!
Gabe is technically correct when he asserts that clear-cutting 67 acres has no meaningful effect on global warming. But it is indeed one of the thousand cuts. As Len points out, the accumulated effect on continued cutting with improper replacement amounts to 25% in 25 years.
The large tragedy of someone else cutting 200,000 acres per day elsewhere does not excuse the small tragedy of cutting 67 acres here. As far as the planet is concerned, THERE is HERE. While we here in Cary do not experience the wildfires, landslides, flooding, and sea-level rise felt elsewhere, we do have sicker old people with a greater [and rising] percentage heart and respiratory disease and children aged 0 to 14 with three times the chance of suffering bronchial disease that they had 30 years ago.
The air in Cary today [7/20/2020] is “moderately” polluted, with a concentration of 55 ppm of particulate pollution in the air. The CO2 count is down slightly from the May record of 415 ppm, but the human race is still breathing air it has never breathed before. And this in a Town with no heavy industry and reduced traffic due to the pandemic.
Cary’s human population increases by nine people per day, every day. The car population increases by six, every day. Cary loses about 1.4 acres of trees per day, every day. Does anyone but a madman believe that the air is going to become cleaner without a huge increase in the number and quality of the major purifiers of the air [trees]?
Mr. Frantz, at a recent Council meeting, lamented the slow pace at which government gets things done. I respectfully submit this is a matter of perspective, and that government can move fast when it has to. Note the instantaneous response times of Cary’s police and fire departments when emergencies arise, and the marshaling of Scott Hecht’s A-Team when snow threatens. I say our environment is itself in an emergency situation, and if Cary is the leader it so often proclaims itself to be, should now provide an example for other towns.
Hire a forester with brains, give him or her the tools, and let the work begin. Naming a development after Nature is ruinous, and frankly, embarrassing, and should not be our legacy to future generations.
“And the people bowed and prayed,
To the neon god they made.”
The lobby, fitness center, and Club Room of the development are too busy. Each needs a rug to tie the room together.