Pittsboro’s “SoCo” is a development which is taking place in 2021 at the southwest corner of the courthouse in Pittsboro. The name came from Tommy Edwards in Pittsboro. – http://pittsborosoco.com/ – https://www.ericandrewsrealtor.com/soco/ The anchor tenant will be in the old Justice Motors building, which was most recently Pittsboro Roadhouse. The Second Boom building will be torn down to produce a 1.5 acre outdoor seating area. The Republican Party Headquarters will be torn down and a 2 story restaurant / bar building will be built. SOCO will help revitalize Downtown Pittsboro and keep it competitive with Chatham Park. SOCO is selectively waiting for a good tenant which will hopefully remain in place for quite some time. Possible tenants include a brewery or a distiller.
Speaker 1: So tell us about SoCo.
Speaker 2: Well, SoCo is a development we’re doing on the Southwest corner of the courthouse circle in Pittsboro. It was named by Pittsboro legend, Tommy Edwards, who was talking about how the SoCo people think they’re better than the NoCo people.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So the name stuck and it’s four buildings. It’s the Roadhouse, the Second Bloom, the Mod and the current Republican party headquarters. As everyone knows, the Roadhouse has moved and that’s the old Justice Motors building. That’s going to be kind of the anchor tenant for the whole thing. We’re going to tear down the Second Bloom building and put in about a 0.15 acre outdoor seating area, and then tear down the Republican party headquarters and put in a two story rooftop bar building that’ll be restaurant bar space as well.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: That’s pretty much it. We’re just trying to make an attractive downtown in Pittsboro so that we can compete with Chatham Park and be in a position to have something to draw people in and hopefully make the rest of downtown expand.
Speaker 1: Can you comment on any of the new tenants?
Speaker 2: Tenant wise, we’re kind of looking for people who can compete in that kind of environment because Chatham park is going to be a serious problem for downtown business for a while. It’s also a blessing, I think, in the long run, but in the short run, there’s going to be tons and tons of office retail restaurant space. It’s going to take a while for the population to catch up. So we’re looking for something that Pittsboro doesn’t have very much of and also people with pockets deep enough to survive what I think the next year, year and a half are going to be pretty tough.
We have been speaking with a number of breweries about moving into the Justice building and to a distillery that is a distillery/oyster bar about moving into where the Republican party headquarters are. We have said, “No” to a number of tenants because we didn’t think they had the wherewithal to handle a building of the Justice building size. So I don’t know how long it’s going to take to fill them, but we are willing to say no and we are willing to wait. If it takes 12 months, so be it.
Speaker 1: Would they be moving in after construction or during?
Speaker 2: I think that’s an open question.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Obviously, you can’t move into the Republican party headquarters, for it will be no more, but you can move in the old Justice building. If you do, you’re in a position where you have to just endure construction.
Speaker 1: How long do you think this whole project will take?
Speaker 2: If all the stars align, we could be done by September of 2021. We have to see what we get in the way of sewage allocation, what we get in the way of the circle project that the department of transportation is putting on. If they lag, we want to coordinate with them so we don’t build a patio that they immediately tear up and then have to replace or vice versa. So nine months to 18 months at the outside, and I think we’ll be finished.
