RXR Enters NC Market with $3B Project

NYC-based RXR Realty has taken its strategy of investing in “superstar regions”—areas that support growth across residential, logistics and life sciences—to North Carolina’s Research Triangle, where it plans to enter the market in NC in a big way: with a $3B, 16M SF mixed-use development.

RXR announced this week that it has completed a $91M acquisition of a 1,000K development site in in Apex, NC, known as Veridea from Trinity Apex Investments—the NYC firm’s first development project in the Tar Heel State.

RXR will share the site with Wake Technical Community College, which plans to locate a new campus in Apex,

Zoning of the site allows for up to 8,000 residential units and about 12M SF of commercial space, including life sciences and industrial uses and 3.5M SF for retail and hospitality.

In the first phase of the project, RXR plans to build more than 1,000 multifamily units and will partner with home builder Lennar Corp. to build 1,100 single-family and townhomes. The first phase also will involve more than 750K SF of life science, logistics, research and educational space.

RXR says the joint investment with Lennar and Wake Technical Community College will total $3B.

“[Apex] has strong education and health-care systems that are magnets for the knowledge worker, and strong leadership that continues to invest in the region’s infrastructure and quality of life,” Scott Rechler, RXR CEO, said in a statement.

“As knowledge workers increasingly seek these live, work, play communities when choosing where they want to settle, it is towns like Apex, North Carolina, that will thrive,” Rechler said.

The new Wake Technical Community College campus is planning to enroll 3,000 students. Plans include the construction of an elementary school.

As part of its strategy, RXR has previously developed several mixed-use mega-projects at sites including New Rochelle, NY, and Glen Cove, Long Island. The firm also has been acquiring multifamily campuses in transactions that totaled $1.3B last year.

The developer also is reassessing its NYC office portfolio. Last month, Rechler disclosed to Financial Times that the firm is preparing to halt debt payments on several older Manhattan office properties and “give the keys back to the bank.”

After what the company described as an “exhaustive” review of its office portfolio, RXR has concluded that an unspecified number of these assets no longer make economic sense in a post-pandemic office market driven by a flight to quality in new Class A buildings.

Rechler declined to specify how many office buildings owned by RXR the company’s review had deemed obsolete, but he estimated that as much of 10% of RXR’s office portfolio may be heading in that direction.