4 • Morrisvilte and Preston Progress, Thursday, March 27,1997
Pizzeria owner making dough, name at new restaurant
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By Mary Beth PhUlips
Michael Roselli doesn’t know
what to make of all the attention he
has received in the last few months.
First he was featured by Greg
Cox in the gourmet column in the
News & Observer in early Febru
ary, then Susan Dahlin appeared
and put him on Chaimel 5 the day
before Valentine’s Day.
He says he just wanted to come to
a quiet place and take it easy. "I
didn’t expect the growth in this
area," he said.
His restaurant, Michael’s Pizza,
in Cary Plaza at the comer of High
House and Old Apex roads, seats
about 45. He makes his own dough
in a dough machine, he cuts his
own cheese by hand, and puts to
gether his own pasta dishes in the
store’s kitchen.
Now, he finds himself in an un
comfortable situation. "I’d rather
take care of the customers myself,"
he said. "But 1 don’t like them to
have to wait."
So he is considering expanding
into a vacant store next door and
adding a sports bar with a satellite
system and lots of television sets.
"It would be a little, different - a
sports bar where you can eat quah-
ty pizza. Other sports bars have
hamburgers and fries," Roselli said.
"It would have the same family at-
TAKING CARE OF THE CUSTOMER-Michael
Roselli greets Bud Thornton of Boston and Pam
Wyatt and daughter, Bridget, of Cary. The three
mosphere, except you could He is still negotiating the lease
smoke." agreement for the deal.
were having lunch at Michael’s on a recent
afternoon.
Roselli opened his restaurant four
years ago ^ter moving to the Cary
area from South Florida. He
learned his pizza making skills on
Long Island, where he was bom
and raised. He followed his sister
and parents to Florida, where he
met his wife, Charla, who is from
Venezuela. They ran Nola’s Pizza
in South Florida for 11 years.
When he wanted to relocate. North
Carolina was as far north as his
wife was willing to go.
He spent a year cooking for a fra
ternity at N.C. Slate before opening
Michael’s.
"I liked that job, but I wanted to
go back into business for myself,"
he said.
He employs nine people, and gets
some help from his family. Charla
makes homemade desserts for the
restaurant, including cheesecakes,
cannoli, flan and special occasion
desserts like pumpkin cheesecake
at Halloween.
She also holds down a part-time
job at Cary Medical Center on Wal
nut Street.
His nine-year-old son, Michael,
helps wait tables for lunch in the
summer. "The customers like to see
that," Roselli said. His youngest
son, Carl, 5, will help out more as
he gets older. The boys attend A.B.
Combs Elementary in Raleigh.
Most of his business is repeat
business, and people who hear
about his pizza from friends. "My
best advertising is word of mouth,"
he said.
Bud Thornton of Boston, who
travels to the Cary area from Bos
ton about once a month never
misses a chance to eat at Michael’s.
"He has the best spaghetti and
meatballs I’ve ever had,” he said.
The restaurant sports a tiny sign
that says "Pizza" at the top of the
plaza. Roselli says it’s convenient
to downtown Cary, the Preston area
out to N.C. 55, and the Kildaire
Farms area. "I’m really centrally
located for these areas," he said.
If he opens the sports bar, he is
considering closing for lunch, at
least a few days a week, because he
will need to be open later at night.
He already works about 50 hours a
week, leaving the business in the
able hands of his night manager
Chris Uvino a few nights a week.
He likes to spend his spare time
with his children. "We go to the
movies and go bowling. We go see
the Ice Caps." They were dis
appointed when the National Hock
ey League franchise fell through.
Roselli is satisfied with his situa
tion. "I can continue to do this for
some time," he said.
Developers forecast more commercial buildings, most speculative
By Mary Beth Phillips
If development of commercial
fU'operties owned by Weeks/Lichtin
ccHitmues at its current pace, there
could be 40,000 more people in the
next 10 years showing up for work
in Morrisville.
Dave Lindner told membeis of
the Morrisville Chamber of Com
merce at the "Issues and Eggs"
breakfast at Sorrento’s Restaurant
that Morrisville is Harold Lichtin’s
"pond that he likes to play in," with
about 260 acres remaining in or
near the town that he will continue
to develop.
Dee Hallyburton of Carolantic
Really, developers of Southport
Business Park, also presented in
formation about her comj)any’s fu
ture expansion plans to about 45
chamber members at the breakfast
on Thursday, March 13.
Lindner, the vice president and
director of leasing for
Weeks/Lichtin, told the group that
in 1977, when Lichtin graduated
from N.C. State, he came to Mor
risville and bought about 500 acres
of land along Airport Boulevard.
"Everybody said he was crazy,
buying land way out there," he
said. Today, "everybody thinks
he’s brilliant."
On Jan. 1, Lichtin merged with
Weeks Corporation to become one
of the largest developers of office
and flex space in the area. It gave
him the abiUty to raise equity on
the New York Stock Exchange, in
stead of the bank, and also gave
him the ability to compete with
Highwoods, the area’s othCT large
office developer, Lindner said.
Lichtin plans on developing of
fice, distribution and flex buildings
at a rate of 500,000 square feet a
year, Lindner said.
He already owns about 2.2 mil-
bon square feet of office and flex
space, most of it in Morrisville.
Weeks/Lichtin’s most well-
known development. Perimeter
Park, is located on the east side of
Airport Boulevard near its intersec-
bon with Interstate-40.
It contains 474,000 square feet of
space, and its most well-known
client is Northern Telecom.
Perimeter Park West features 20
buildings and 414,000 square feet
of space. Pharmaceutical Product
Development, AT&T and Intersolv
are the most prominent tenants.
He is ako developing Enterprise
Center, along McCrimmon Park
way on the south side of Perimeter
Park West, which features two
huge U-shaped buildings, and a
third 71,000-square-foot building
which will open in July.
Construction will begin on a
fourth 150,000-square-foot build
ing, to be occupied at the first part
of 1998. Prominent tenants there
are Tekelec, Apria Health Care and
Zevatech.
On the other side of Enterprise
Center, Metro Center features three
buildings and totals about 270,000
.square feet,
Plans c^I for a development
called Paramount Center, which
will be northwest of Perimeter Park
and south of 1-40. Lichtin is wait
ing for the Outer Loop of the belt-
Une to be put through next to the
development before beginning con
struction.
Outside of the Morrisville city
limits, north of 1-40 at the edge of
the Raleigh-Durham International
Aiiport, Weeks/Lichtin is develop
ing Woodlake Industrial Center,
which features three buildings of
about 500,000 square feet.
Plans call for an additional
340,000 square feet in three more
buildings. The new buildings will
house offices for Time-Wamer
cable along with other smaller of
fice tenants.
"It will bring in several hundred
people who will shop and eat in
Morrisville," Lindner said.
Most of the buildings are built on
a speculative basis, but there has
been no problem leasing them. For
example, the building in Enterprise
Center which is slated to open in
July is already 100 percent leased.
"We build it, they’re kind of com
ing," Lindner said. "This is a
dynamic area...we’re the most ac
tive developer in the area.”
Southport is located on 48 acres
along Aviation Parkway.
Ms. Hallyburton, broker for
Carolantic Realty and leasing agent
for Southport, joked about being
David to Lindner’s Goliath, but
both said they refer people to each
other to try to keep them within
Mcffrisville.
Ms. Hallyburton joined
Carolantic Realty in 1989. The first
building at Southport, in which she
was interviewed, was about 12 per
cent leased at the time, she said.
She asked how long the building
had been standing, and they told
her 18 months.
"But something in the back of my
head told me Morrisville is going to
grow," she said. Within six months,
building 1 was completely leased
and building 2 was more than 50
percent leased. In six more months,
both buildings were completely full
and plans were under way for
building 3.
Today, developers are planning
buildings 11 and 13, and looking
for about 20 acres more to continue
to develop. (Building 12 is already
completed, along with 1 through
10).
The three potential sites for pur
chase are on either side of Evans
and Aviation and directly behind
Southport. A ball-park estimate of
land cost now is about $80,000 per
acre, Ms. Hallyburton said. She ex
pects to announce a land purchase
within a few months.
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Roaming Rover could cost big bucks;
board toughens animal control law
The Morrisville Board of Com
missioners put a little more "bile"
into its animal control law, allow
ing the town to collect fines if
animals are found running loose or
damaging property.
The town's current law was last
updated in 1982.
Under the new law, tickets for
$25 may be imposed on people
who allow their animals to become
a "public nuisance." The fine would
increase exponentially for repeated
offenses within 12 months, to $60
for the second violation, and $100
for each subsequent violation.
If fines are not paid within 10
days, the town may take the owner
to court.
In the existing law, people could
receive a misdemeanor fine of $5
and court costs for a violation. "We
don’t get the proceeds of the fine,
even though our personnel spend
their lime enforcing the ordinance,"
Town Manager David Hodgkins
told the board.
"This is a badly needed or
dinance," said Mayor lYo Tern Bil
ly Sauls. "It’s not our intent to
make money, though it does help."
Commissioner Mark Silver-Smith
supported the law but wanted to see
another law enacted for cats.
"I don’t have a problem with
dogs running at large in my neigh
borhood. I do have a problem with
cats," he said.
The law adopted 4-1, with Com
missioner C. T. Moore abstaining
because his son is the animal con
trol officer.
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