For Dotan Zuckerman, construction of the first phase of Fenton in North Carolina ran into several hurdles, including an ongoing global health crisis, major supply chain issues and the death of one of the mixed-use development's visionaries.
But Zuckerman, a principal and vice president of leasing at Columbia Development, and Hines have now officially opened Fenton in Cary, just outside of the state capital of Raleigh.
It took seven years to get to this point, Zuckerman said.
"I always say one day I'll write a book about the whole Fenton story and how we got open," he said in an interview. "But we had the pandemic, we had supply chain issues, we had delays. But now we're in great shape."
The retail space at Fenton, where the development team held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, is more than 95% leased, Zuckerman said. Tenants include Pottery Barn, Athleta, Free People, Lululemon, Arhaus, Nike and Paragon Theaters.
Columbia Development, based in the South Carolina capital, and partner Hines kicked off construction in late 2020 on Fenton, a 2.5 million-square-foot, retail-heavy project in the affluent Raleigh suburb. In addition to 345,000 square feet of retail, the first phase has apartments and office space.
With the first phase open, Columbia has its sights set on adding some higher-end retailers, Zuckerman said.
"Our second phase will have another 100,000 square feet of retail. We are just now starting the design and thinking about what that becomes," he said.
Surprisingly, a true luxury retail market doesn't exist in the area, so Columbia sees an opportunity to create one, Zuckerman said. "We're going to talk about the market and how it's evolved over the years, and if we have good feedback, we may go in that direction."
On Friday, Columbia plans to honor one of its own, the late Ron Pfohl, who played an instrumental role in the creation and development of Fenton. Pfohl, well known in the Southeast for his role in the Forum and Avalon near Atlanta and other retail-centric projects, died unexpectedly last year at age 59.
"We're having an honorarium for Ron Pfohl, who is a legend in the industry, and he was one of the visionaries for this project and really helped put the partnership together," Zuckerman said.
On Saturday, a grand opening is scheduled for anyone who would like to attend.