By: Joel Bryant

The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a rezoning request that will enable the Harris Teeter to undergo a major expansion. Located at the corner of Rogers Road and Forestville Road, the Harris Teeter has been a staple of the Heritage community for over a decade.

A plan to demolish an eastern store and expand the Harris Teeter has been in the works since earlier this year.  The additions to the grocery store will raise the square footage to 56,360. The space containing the Heritage Station Shopping Center and Harris Teeter had always been zoned as a Neighborhood Business District. By rule, these districts are not allowed to contain buildings exceeding 50,000 square feet. This limitation held Harris Teeter to 49,727 square feet upon it’s 2004 opening and will hold the Publix to an even 49,000 square feet. However, under the new zoning of  Neighborhood Business Conditional District, owners of the Heritage Station Shopping Center will be able to move forward with their expansion plans.

There is a distinct possibility that the plan to improve the Harris Teeter was cooked up in response to the news that a Publix would occupy the land adjacent to that of Heritage Station. This has been a popular theory among Wake Forest residents and the fact that the Shoppes at Heritage Village (the future home of Publix) was invoked in the rezoning request would seem to confirm those suspicions.

While the approval is great news for the Harris Teeter, things aren’t going as well for the Publix. Heavy amounts of rain over the past few weeks appears to have slowed down the construction of the new shopping center. Additionally, the impending replacement of the Rogers Road bridge will probably hinder any chances of the project hitting it’s targeted opening of spring 2016.  According to Wake Forest Town Commissioner Brian Pate, the project will likely be delayed until the summer.

If you would like to learn more about the Harris Teeter expansion, read below.

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The Harris Teeter will expand 6,633 square feet. The extra space comes from two separate sources.

♦  The existing UPS store will be overtaken by the expansion. This adds 2,353 square feet.

♦  4,280 square feet will be added on behind the UPS store.

Here is the plan:

The new space will occupy a Starbucks and a pizza counter.