Epic Games Scores Cary Towne Center in $95 Million Deal
Cary, NC — Developers have toyed with turning the Cary Towne Center mall site into an IKEA, a Top Golf and most recently, a 87-acre mixed-use development, Carolina Yards.
Now, the everchanging site has been purchased for a new purpose — global headquarters for Epic Games.
Though days away from their target groundbreaking, the companies behind Carolina Yards, Turnbridge Equities and Denali Properties, finalized the $95 million sale to Epic Games on Thursday, December 31, 2020.
The selling companies certainly turned a profit as they originally purchased the 980,000-square-foot site for $31.5 million in February 2019. The official announcement from Epic Games surfaced yesterday, detailing a goal to have their HQ campus up and running by 2024.
Development Starting 2021, Public Use Still on Table
The progress already made by Denali and Turnbridge, including the successful rezoning of the property, has paved a quick route to starting the transformation yet this year. In the meantime, the current headquarters of Epic Games will remain at its current location in Cary, at Crossroads Boulevard.
In the Sunday press release, Epic Games also affirmed that, “the facilities will include both office buildings and recreational spaces, allowing Epic the flexibility to create a campus customized from the ground up to accommodate its long-term growth.”
While plans are not fully-formed, Epic Games confirmed they are working alongside the Town of Cary, looking at how to create community uses onsite. Namely, this includes plans for the Cary Community Recreation and Sports Center, a $193 million project previously slated to be developed on the site.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely and collaboratively with the Epic team as they conceptualize their new campus, and we’re honored to partner with them on this exciting new development,” said Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht.
Epic Games Continues 20+ Years in Cary
Epic Games has had their headquarters in Cary, NC for more than 20 years and this move, company officials say, secures its future in Cary for decades to come.
The American company now valued at $17.3 billion was initially founded in Potomac, Maryland in CEO Tim Sweeney’s parents’ house with the name, “Potomac Computer Systems.” Epic Games now has more than 50 offices worldwide.
Known widely for the creation of one of the world’s largest games, Fortnight, Epic Games is also a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology.
Story and Cary Towne Center photos by Ashley Kairis.
All the Cary news for the informed Cary citizen. Subscribe by email.
Some discussion:
https://www.city-data.com/forum/raleigh-durham-chapel-hill-cary/3231712-epic-games-buys-cary-towne-center.html
Well, this is certainly an epic fail. First, Cary leadership promises IKEA and a better mall. Then it transformed into a 21st Century mixed use urban center. Now it’s a 20th Century suburban office campus with a regionally-oriented sports complex.
As a neighbor, I was excited to have opportunities for dining and other experiences nearby. Now all I have to look forward to is commuter and special event traffic.
Epic Games, if you really care about the people around you, design part of your “campus” as what people actually wanted to see and experience – a mixed use urban center. Just an office campus is a major step backwards. Otherwise I’d rather you left Cary instead of eroding this area’s quality of life – not to mention making Cary High students walk through commuter traffic.
“As a neighbor, I was excited to have opportunities for dining and other experiences nearby. ”
Now you’ll have to go all the way across the street, to Fenton, for that sort of thing.
It’s not like there’s going to be a sudden dearth of retail availability in that immediate area, with the entirely new development going in across Cary Towne Boulevard…