North Hills shopping center struggles to recover after burst pipe soaks some businesses

The 2-inch pipe, embedded in a second-story wall in the residential portion of the North Hills development, failed Sunday, sending several gallons of water cascading into the retail establishments on the first floor, according to building tenants. At least seven business at the center, located at 4209 Lassiter Mill Road, were affected during the incident.

North Hills is a live-work-play development in Midtown Raleigh and offers several residential units along with stores and restaurants.

Vivace restaurant, which has operated out of the center for 11 years, appears to have suffered the brunt of the damage during the incident.

Restaurant officials estimated repairs could cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. Vivace is closed although officials said they hope to reopen within a month after crews have repaired the water damage. Restaurant employees were cleaning up from the damage by looking to salvage equipment and other goods.

"Everyone is saying how sorry they are for us," said owner Kevin Jennings. "And we're saying we're sorry we can't accommodate (their) reservations. It's been a great response."

The restaurant was waiting for insurance adjusters to arrive to tally the damage, but officials said drywall and wood in the building were damaged by the water.

Said Jennings: "It started to rain in the restaurant (and) the general manager called me and said I don't know what's going on, but we have rain coming in on three sides of the restaurant."

Officials have not yet said if last week's below-freezing temperatures that chilled the Triangle for several days were the reason why the pipe failed.

Quail Ridge Books, also located in the same shopping center, suffered some damage during the incident and has been closed since the incident, but it reopened Tuesday.

An event planned for Tuesday night would go on as scheduled, store officials said.

Bookstore workers said water came down through the ceiling tiles and employees rushed to put out buckets to catch the water and covered inventory with plastic tarps.

Store employees said they are unsure how many books were damaged during the incident.

"We scrambled," said Broche Fabian, a publicity assistant for the store. "We got buckets (and) we put them under the water (and) we got computers out of the way to save all the books that we could. And then we had to shut down."

Many of the books at Quail Ridge were saved thanks to the quick actions of the staff.

"We are still evaluating" our losses, Fabian said. "I would say it's not as much as other stores in the area, so we're really lucky. This whole strip was really shut down."

Said Jennings: "It started to rain in the restaurant (and) the general manager called me and said I don't know what's going on, but we have rain coming in on three sides of the restaurant."