Story Highlights
- Beacon Partners purchased 24 acres for Apex Gateway development.
- Next phase will be two industrial buildings totaling nearly 400,000 square feet.
- Apex Gateway to have more than 1 million square feet of space when complete.
One of the biggest projects in Chatham County is pressing ahead as the developer acquires more land and embarks on a new phase of work.
Charlotte real estate firm Beacon Partners purchased more than 24 acres off N.C. 751 in western Apex for more than $6.7 million this month, according to Chatham County deed records — the price is about $280,000 an acre. The property is adjacent to land Beacon Partners has acquired over the years and will be part of Apex Gateway, a 380-acre commercial and industrial development.
Walker Gorham, managing partner for Beacon Partners, told Triangle Business Journal, "We are in the process of delivering our sixth building on-site, and now have over 1 million square feet of life science and distribution space leased at the project."
The next phase of development will be along Highway 751 and features two "class A+ light industrial facilities totaling 398,000 square feet," Gorham said. "We’re looking forward to building on the established momentum at the park."
Apex Gateway has been in the works for over three years. Triangle Business Journal reported in April 2022 that Beacon Partners filed plans for a mixed-use development on the Wake-Chatham County border in eastern Chatham County. In January 2023, the development group submitted new materials, with an initial site plan indicating plans to develop five new buildings totaling over 1.2 million square feet of space.
One of those buildings is occupied by the former Durham Coca-Cola Bottling Company (now called Rand Coca-Cola Bottling Company), which has consolidated its Durham and Sanford operations to its new headquarters in Chatham. An LLC tied to Florida-based New Market Strategies purchased the Sanford facility in May 2024 for $3.85 million. The Durham site has been flagged for redevelopment.
Beacon Partners is also planning to have more than 50,000 square feet of retail space at Apex Gateway.
Apex, with a population just shy of 76,000, is poised to explode in the coming years as more large-scale development takes shape. The growth of Cary and Apex has been moving west, spilling into Chatham County.
On top of Apex Gateway, on the Wake County side of Apex, a $3 billion master-planned community is in the works. A New York-based development firm is leading the development, called Veridea, with plans calling for 8,000 residential units, 3.5 million square feet of retail, hospitality and civic space and 12 million square feet of commercial space.