South Hills mall redevelopment shifts to arts, shopping and gathering spaces

South Hills, Cary’s first shopping mall, is moving toward a new identity after voters rejected the public sports-and-community-center plan that once sat at the center of the redevelopment. What is now on the table is a private mixed-use project built around housing, offices, retail and arts space, with Cary already having approved the rezoning needed to keep it alive.

The rezoning covers 11 properties totaling 44 acres along Buck Jones Road near Walnut Street, north of US Hwy 1 and west of I-40. Cary Town Council unanimously approved the rezoning on Oct. 22, 2024, after a virtual neighborhood meeting on June 7, 2023, a public hearing on April 25, 2024, and review by the Cary Planning and Zoning Board on Sept. 23, 2024. The town says the approval included options with and without a community center, so the larger South Hills project can still move forward even though the community center portion will not.

That public piece fell apart when Cary voters rejected the town’s parks and recreation bond on Nov. 5, 2024. The $560 million package included $300 million for a sports and recreation community center in the South Hills District, a project officials said was supposed to anchor surrounding commercial redevelopment and generate about $30 million a year for the local economy. Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said the sports complex would not move forward because there was no funding.

Now the focus has shifted to Starline South Hills, a partnership between Carolina Ballet and Loden Development that the ballet says is planned to open in 2028. One planned building would be about 70,000 square feet, with Carolina Ballet taking about half for studios, administrative offices, storage, costume rooms and a flexible black-box theater. The other half is expected to be retail, including cafes and shops, turning the project into a blend of arts and commerce rather than the entertainment-heavy concept voters were shown earlier.

The broader redevelopment has already been described as potentially adding as many as 1,775 apartment units, along with residential, office and retail space. Earlier plans called for a pedestrian-focused district with a downtown feel and a new gateway to Cary. For longtime merchants at South Hills Mall & Plaza, the uncertainty has been just as significant as the design changes, with construction timelines shifting over the years and businesses waiting to see which leases, tenants and uses survive the next phase. The mall that began as Southland Center in 1963 is not disappearing, but its replacement is now looking much less like a public sports hub and much more like a private mixed-use district built around who can still fit on the land.