It’s a gray rainy Saturday Oct 24 in Fuquay-Varina - a good day to sit inside and blog about what’s happening at the newly renovated Mitchell Building in Fuquay-Varina. 

On Wednesday, October 28th, from noon to 1:00 p.m., the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce will sponsor a ribbon-cutting event at The Mitchell Building.  Speeches will be given by chamber and Town officials and we are also honored to have Mr. Robert Leker / Renewable Energy Program Manager from the NC Department of Commerce attending to say a few words.  Mr. Leker is the NC point of contact with the Department of Energy and a liason for State and Federal energy programs.  Together we’ll all ‘flip on the switch’ to the solar panels on the roof.

Hors d’eouvres and beverages will also be served and the building will be opened up for all to see.  Bring your friends and business associates and help us to celebrate the completion of the Mitchell Building renovation.

Just a quick note to everyone that construction at The Mitchell Building in downtown Fuquay-Varina is now finished. Our first tenant, Cellar 101 Wine Shop, will be opening in days…watch for their opening and stop in for a glass of wine with owner Paul Katsirubus! Click here to see a brief video taken during the Taste of Fuquay-Varina where Cellar 101 was giving wine tastings inside My Back Porch.

Also want to thank Mike Ingram and Jim Sabino of Design Build Group, and Lawrence Hardee the superintendent on the job for a job well done on the building. They were extremely responsive and attentive to our needs. We were not always easy to deal with. Also Gotta mention Billy Adcock of Hillsborough Glass Company who installed the windows and grew up in Fuquay.   Click here to see their pictures on Flickr.

Your comments on the building are most welcome.  Now let’s lease some downtown property!

Our last blog discussed how the The Mitchell building was changing the look of the corner of Main and Academy Streets in downtown Fuquay-Varina. Since then, the building and it’s flexible-panel solar roof has been featured on WRAL news. Click here to see that video.

3,000 sf of the building is about to be occupied by a new tenant - Cellar 101 -  a wine shop and tasting room that should be open around October 1st. Click here to see progress in this unit. 

We are seeking to lease 3 other spaces. Two of these are on the ground floor.  Both are around 2,000 sf, are chock full of large (energy efficient) windows and 26 ft ceilings, making them cavernous, bright and airy. Click here to see the latest pics from the other two ground floor units.

The basement features 3,400 sf of leasable space that would make a great Rathskellar, piano bar, dance studio, teen center…so many possibilities. 

We hope that you will continue to follow our progress and watch for upcoming special events. Talk to you soon.

If you’ve driven by or stopped at the corner of Main and Academy Streets in the last two weeks you’ve seen some big changes and lot of activity outside.

The four big 8×8 ft steel frame windows along Academy Street have been removed. Three of them have been cut down to sidewalk level and will soon become storefronts.  The fourth (nearest the rear) will be a picture window. They are all boarded up for now, but wow will it look different come mid-August! In these spaces will be windows and storefronts that will retain the ‘look’ of the old steel window grids by incorporating simulated divided lites (SDL’s) into new dual pane, low-E windows and upper lites throughout the building.  This has always been a great feature of the building and are we are excited to retain it. Click to see recent pics of the how The Mitchell is changing the look of upper East Academy Street.

This past week a 17 ft deep hole was dug in the rear parking lot to access a sewer line that runs N-S behind the building. Tapping into this line will allow for bathrooms, kitchen or bar in the basement of the building without the use of lift stations. The hole has now been filled and all that is visible is a manhole and a brand new sewer cleanout. Click to see men working on the sewer behind The Mitchell Building.

Also in the rear, the solar inverters have been installed.  All we need now is permanent power to the building. Progress Energy has installed a power pole just off the rear corner of the building. Power will be run underground to a series of meter bases and disonnects…one which will be for solar net-metering. It won’t be long now before the solar panels are activited. Click to see pics of inverters and solar installation at The Mitchell.

We will give an update soon about what’s going on INSIDE - there’s lots to tell!  Cellar 101 is coming soon and there are still plenty of prime retail and restaurant spaces for lease at The Mitchell building in Fuquay-Varina.

At Cellar 101 it will be possible to sample any of 100 wines on sale before buying them. But how you try the wine is what makes this store unique; Cellar 101 will utilize an automated system of vending or tasting machines and smartcards to sell one-ounce wine “testers.” Purchase a pre-paid smartcard worth $10, $20, $50 or $100 and step up to the stylish vending machines. Insert your card, hold your glass up to a spout and ‘voila’ a sampling of your choice pours out for sniffing, swirl, or sipping. Each “taste” ranges in price from $1 to $28 depending on the year and vineyard. While you might assume the wine bottles are pumped with Nitrogen, Cellar 101 actually uses Argon gas to preserve the wine in the bottles. Argon is an inert gas that does not interact with the wine.

Cellar 101, will open late summer of this year, and will emphasize wines from vineyards that are family-owned and stay true to small production. Each is hand picked by the owners, who have combined their passion for wine and entrepreneurism into this venture.

The large space will be modern yet warm, encouraging you to wander, sample, explore and chat with others about your selections. The shop will also serve as a gallery of sorts, featuring the work of emerging local photographers and artists. It will also be a place to find gifts for wine lovers or those just learning about wine. There will be an events space and a champagne and dessert wine bar for the chilled selections where you can try a mini-flight of four, one-ounce pours of champagne or sparkling wine. They will even have a private, temperature and humidity controlled cellar space for rent onsite. Helpful and knowledgeable staff will always be nearby to answer questions, though the wines are nicely labeled with plenty of detail.

At Cellar 101 we believe that tasting is the first step towards learning about wine. At the 12 tasting stations, wines are arranged by varietals and regions, allowing you to easily compare several wines at a time. Want to try that luxury white wine before spending over $200 on a bottle? This will be your place. Since the focus is on tasting, there are also spit buckets available at every station.

While the owners in the venture are passionate wine lovers, they also will have two top-notch wine experts on staff, who will lead classes and seminars onsite. Students will taste 6 wines during the 45-minute to 1 hour-long classes (around $40).  Class topics will include comparisons of Old World vs. New World wines, “Aromas and Flavors”, and “The Concept of Terrior: France vs. USA”. Students will taste 10 wines during the 1- to 1.5-hour-long class (around $75).

The new roof on The Mitchell building has been done for a couple of weeks now. But if you’ve been in downtown Fuquay-Varina lately, you have likely seen more activity up there. Baker Roofing is now installing solar panels!! These are not typical solar panels that you’ve seen mounted on racks, rather these are 1/4″ thick x 18″ wide x 72″ long flexible panels (manufactured by Uni-Solar) that adhere to the top of the roof.  They are called BIPV’s or Building Integrated Photovoltaics and are flexible laminates that adhere to the barrel shape of the roof. Eighty of these panels are being laid side by side and will combine to capture 15kwH annually. Here’s how they work.

(1) solar energy hits the BIPV laminates

(2) the solar energy is converted to AC power by an inverter

(3) this power can be utilized on-site (net meter) or distributed back to the grid (net grid).

The Mitchell is utilizing a net grid system.  See photos of The Mitchell solar installation and check back with us each day or week as the project progresses.

Tonight at 6 and 7 p.m. NBC17 aired an interview that includes The Mitchell project as well as Four Oaks Bank.  The film centers on two themes; the renewable energy aspect of the project which includes Mary and I discussing the solar panels, tax credits and expected return, and Max Ashworth of Four Oaks Bank indicating the fact that local banks are lending.

See the cake that Stick Boy Bread Bakery made for the Fuquay Varina Centennial Celebration on video.  It has a picture of “The Mitchell” building from the 1940’s.  The celebration was held in the new parking lot across the street.

Check us out on Twitter.  Tweet us at TheMitchellFV.

The Mitchell is going green !!  Over the next few weeks you will notice a lot of activity on the roof at 101 South Main Street in Fuquay-Varina.  Tomorrow Baker Roofing starts tearing off over 60 years of built-up roof-nearly 3″ of accumulated layers. Then on about March 23, they will begin adding a 10kW photovoltaic system on the southern side of the roof. This system will consist of about 72 flexible solar panels each 1/4″ thick and 18″x8 ft in dimension. This system will collect 1500 kW of energy from the sun each month and put it back  into the Progress Energy electricity grid. This type of system is called a net-grid system.  Some facts about solar energy:

• It takes only about 8 minutes for solar energy to travel from the sun to the earth.
• The amount of solar radiation striking the earth every 72 hours is equal to all of the energy stored in the planet’s coal, oil and natural gas reserves combined.
• Solar is the only renewable energy source that does not consume or pollute water.
• Solar energy is measured in kilowatt-hours. 1 killowat = 1000 watts.  1 kilowatt hour (kWh) = the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
• A 10 kW solar system could offset the emissions of more than 210 tons of dangerous pollutants such as Nitrogen Oxide, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Sulfur Dioxide annually. The reduced CO2 from this system is equal to:
• Emmissions from 21,624 gallons of gas consumed.
• Carbon sequestered by 4,885 tree seedlings grown over ten years.
• Carbon sequestered annually by 43.3 acres of pine or fir forest.

On Friday, March 6 Fuquay-Varina will be 100 years old. To celebrate this milestone, many activities have been planned for this date as well as throughout 2009.  Local churches will be tolling their bells 20 times each in fifteen-minute intervals beginning at 11:00 a.m.  Since Piney Grove Baptist Church is the oldest church in the area, their bells will toll first, followed by Wake Chapel Christian Church, First United Methodist  and Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Church. The final bell tolls will be led by the Fuquay-Varina Presbyterian Church but rung simultaneously by all of the above churches including St. Bernadette’s Cattholic Church. School children and local citizens with hand bells will chine in for the last bell ringing at noon - you should hear bells ringing all over Fuquay-Varina! Town officials will meet for a ceremony at noon at Centennial Square, the new parking lot and park located at the corner of Main and Academy Streets. Everyone is invited to attend. Businesses in the historic downtown areas on and around Main and Broad Streets will have historic displays in their windows, stores and lobbies and serve birthday cake. Residents are invited and encouraged to stop in and see a bit of their Town’s history.

Banners will be hung from ‘The Mitchell’ promoting this green renovation project. Our doors will be open from 11 to 3 and we will serve birthday cake.  I spent yesterday cleaning interior windows…drove the car inside and turned on the stereo while I worked. -Eric

Thank you for your interest and for joining us. The vintage photo on our home page was taken in 1948 in downtown Fuquay.  It pictures businessman Joseph ‘Mack’  Mitchell strutting across Main Street with his Mitchell Chevrolet building in the the background. Before we get too far into the renovation of this awesome building into new retail space available in downtown Fuquay-Varina, I would like to take pause and dedicate this first blog entry (my first ever) to 1948 and to ‘Mack’ Mitchell and his family.

I’m not sure what it is about this town, but I am enraptured by the details of it’s history. As I write this, the Fuquay Springs Teacherage also comes to mind. That building was purchased and converted  from the Charles Strickland residence to a Teacherage by Wake County Schools around 1945 (only a year before ‘Mack’  began construction on his building) and remained so until 1968. It now serves as small office space for lease in Fuquay-Varina. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places, has been designated a Wake County Landmark and is a 2006 winner of the Anthemion Award for commitment to excellence in historic preservation in Wake County. While Mary and I are immensely proud of that project, there are so many facts about it not captured and recorded that can add to the essence of that building in that place during that time.

World War II had ended and the mood of our country and of our Town must have been absolutely electric. Many readers experienced it (born in 1958 I did not).  Buat around that same time, Joseph ‘Mack’ Mitchell began building the Mitchell Chevrolet dealership - the first one in southern Wake County. We’re talking headline news here! One of our goals in this blog is to capture - as much as possible - the essence of that building, in that place, during that time. What are some details about the building or it prescence in Fuquay-Varina that you can share. Did you, or your Daddy or Grandaddy buy a Mitchell Chevrolet? Did you know someone who worked there? What was going on in your life at that time? Let’s share.

Our hope is also that this blog will branch out and reach those with a variety of other interests. What are your thoughts on this project and how it relates to downtown Fuquay-Varina revitalization? This will be the first-ever bujilding to incorporate renewable energy in downtown Fuquay-Varina. Tell us about your interest in or experience with green or renewable energy projects. Personally, I feel that it is projects like this that wioll help to lift us out of our current economic problems. If President Obama want to hold up an example of projects on Main Street across America, he can visit the old Mitchell Chevrolet building in downtown Fuquay-Varina. What do you think?

In this blog we will keep you posted on the progress of changes that ’The Mitchell’ building is about to undergo. Butg along the way we hope that you and others who follow the project can chime in with your own commentary. Let’s talk.