Lake Norman Urbanization and Projects

[rjp212]

Cherokee Investments out of Raliegh intends to renovate and expand the former Burlington Mills in downtown Mooresville that will include 300 residential units, 250k of retail space and another 140k of office space. Estimated to cost 150 Million and take over 5 yrs to complete with construction set to begin in the second quarter of 2007.

Mooresville Mills

Now if only they could get the rail line to come to Mooresville as this project would be along the North Line.

[reverbandwhiskey]

Wow, that is really cool. Nice to see development like spreading out!

[dubone]

It looks like Cherokee is fast invading Charlotte. Welcome!

[DigitalSky]

Sounds like something positive for Mooresville

[monsoon]

It appears that a developer, Bromont Investments of Arizona, is proposing to build another Birkdale Village just inside the border with Huntersville in Cornelius. This development will be 3X the size of BV with 900,000 sq ft of retail, 2 hotels, and 284 residences built above the shops as they are in Birkdale Village. I believe this development will be located on the land next to BV but I don't know if there will be direct connectivity. Both will directly connect to the Upper McDowell Creek greenway which is underconstruction so it should be possible to walk between the two developments. It will also include two hotels with 350 rooms. It's said that it will resemble a Southern seaside beach town.

In addition, the developer is going to pay to add Exit 26 or 27 to I-77 if the federal government allows it. Given there is going to be an exit 32 added just up the road for Langtree/Lowes, I can see this highway, which is unbearably congested now becoming even more congested as people will try to travel to what is no doubt going to be fairly upscale shopping.

The Cornelius city council has the authority to allow or disallow this proposal. I predict this will be a death blow to NorthLake mall if approved.

[Miesian Corners]

If the Town of Cornelius approves this, we can all kiss any movement of vehicles on I-77 goodbye. This will mean that every crossing on the freeway in north Mecklenburg and southern Iredell (with the exception of Mt-Holly-Huntersville Rd) will have huge developments. Even Davidson, a town that prides itself on not getting caught up in all the hyper-growth, is allowing a large project at Exit 30. It will have a Sheraton Convention Hotel with several hundred rooms. God help commuters and through-traffic!

Edited February 14, 2007 by Miesian Corners

[monsoon]

I agree as the road become impassable now most times of the day. This would mean the Lake area would have Exits, 23, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 36. Anywhere else in the state, this would be it's own metro area.

[ChiefJoJo]

This is the type of thing that should be tied to adequate public facilties IMO--in other words, if there are no facilties to support it (I-77 capacity--forget the interchange), then it should be denied on that basis. That's a good reason to adopt impact fees for new developments, as it creates a revenue stream tied to the growth that creates the problem in the first place.

[atlrvr]

I worked on a study for a developer for another 300 apartments or so right across Moreland from this....Cornelius threw a hissy-fit when they found out that it would be apartments and not condos, and tried to deny it zoning based on that fact, which is illegal....I'm not sure what the end result was, but ultimately it looks like the last "local" shortcut across I-77 will become another nightmare....the lake communities should band together and implement their own LRT system paralleling the west side of I-77...but I doubt many residents would be fond of that idea.

[DigitalSky]

yeah this project screams both traffic nightmare and blow to Northlake mall. I wonder how many of the tenants might leave the mall to come to this development, seeing as it has 900k square feet of space and is in an area with a much higher income level. It only makes sense for the development to add an exit off Westmoorland Road.

[uptownliving]

If I understand the articles correctly this will be East of I-77 and about 1.5 miles from the nearest Transit Station on the North Line.

I havn't been able to find any other developments this company has done and have just briefly seen the site plan for this. This looks to be another internally focused development along the lines of Birkdale Village/Midtown/Phillips Place. It has a nice internal street lined with retail and residential, but the exterior of the development is mostly parking. From the site plan I could not tell if it is decked or surface.

[rjp212]

Don't forget construction on Exit 35 (Brawley) and 37/38 (Cornelius Rd) are suppose to begin in the next decade or so.

Where did you find the site plan, uptownliving?

[uptownliving]

WCNC briefly showed it last night on thier news.

[rjp212]

I was hoping it was posted somewhere online.

[monsoon]

I worked on a study for a developer for another 300 apartments or so right across Moreland from this....Cornelius threw a hissy-fit when they found out that it would be apartments and not condos, and tried to deny it zoning based on that fact, which is illegal....I'm not sure what the end result was, but ultimately it looks like the last "local" shortcut across I-77 will become another nightmare....the lake communities should band together and implement their own LRT system paralleling the west side of I-77...but I doubt many residents would be fond of that idea.

The apartment complex was built. I don't know how they might implement any kind of transit on the W. side of I-77. There are no trains tracks at all there. Interestingly enough, the Cornelius county council is debating a moratorium on all new projects while they work on their development goals to bring them in line more with Huntersville and Cornelius. That would definitely affect this project.

[cltheel.sdl]

This will be insanely huge! I think we all need to demand good urban planning from these folks if they're going to build something this big. This development, at 900k sq. ft., is only 600k sq.ft. smaller than SouthPark. I don't really seeing this killing NorthLake. True, it will take some away from it, but it is not a mall, and will not have big department stores or some of the other specialty shops found at NorthLake. I also expect the northwestern part of Meck to grow exponentially over the next decade, as well as tremendous growth in Gaston coming soon. This growth will help solidify NorthLake's place in the market.

However, the traffic from this development will be tremendous. It's like another Arboretum except near the Lake. Does anyone know the sq. footage of the Arbo in south Charlotte?

[rjp212]

I think the moratorium is mostly on residential projects. Cornelius is worried because the town's tax base is predominetly residential and it want to improve its commercial sector. This project alone will HUGELY increase the commercial percentage in the town.

One thing Cornelius strictly demands in it's zoning laws is road facing buildings with parking in the rear. So even though this will be mostly internal facing, I see atleast some of it facing Catawba Ave or Westmoreland.

It is scheduled to have 4 main anchors, so basically this is a mall just not completely under one roof.

[DigitalSky]

This will be insanely huge! I think we all need to demand good urban planning from these folks if they're going to build something this big. This development, at 900k sq. ft., is only 600k sq.ft. smaller than SouthPark. I don't really seeing this killing NorthLake. True, it will take some away from it, but it is not a mall, and will not have big department stores or some of the other specialty shops found at NorthLake. I also expect the northwestern part of Meck to grow exponentially over the next decade, as well as tremendous growth in Gaston coming soon. This growth will help solidify NorthLake's place in the market.

However, the traffic from this development will be tremendous. It's like another Arboretum except near the Lake. Does anyone know the sq. footage of the Arbo in south Charlotte?

http://www.aacusa.com/arbo.html The Arboretum in south Charlotte is 581,601 square feet, so this new center's retail space will be a little less than double the Arboretum.

PS- there is also Northcross Shopping Center, which is owned by the same owners of the Arboretum and looks identical to it, so this is like another Arboretum except near the lake: http://www.aacusa.com/northcross.html

Edited February 14, 2007 by cantnot

[monsoon]

This growth will help solidify NorthLake's place in the market.

I don't understand the thinking behind that. The mall is already dying and competition for its affluent base of customers isn't going to help it much.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Yep. Northlake will be swimming with the fishes. It'd be pretty sweet if they could get it to interconnect with BV.

[uptownliving]

Update from the Observer:

Bromont president Walt Rector said he's signed two of the department stores, the grocery store and a high-end electronics store as a junior anchor, although he declined to name them.

Both the 250-room and the 100-room hotel would be owned by the same company, he said.

Anyone want to take a stab at which department stores he has signed? Saks Fifth Avenue perhaps?

[DigitalSky]

Wouldn't it be ironic if Dillard's and Belk left Northlake and moved to this new development? And then Sears and JCPenney moved into Northlake... ironic twist of fate.

I can see Saks at The Village at Lake Norman.

High-end electronics... Tweeter probably

Grocery - it's Whole Foods, Earth Fare or Fresh Market.

[JerseyBoy]

Update from the Observer:

Anyone want to take a stab at which department stores he has signed? Saks Fifth Avenue perhaps?

That could be a very strong possibility given the demographics of the area. Though I see this more as an upper-middle class development so possibly a Macy*s and (going out on a limb saying this one) Saks.

[voyager12]

While this development may compound traffic problems in the overall area if approved, at least it will be built with pedestrians and connectivity in mind. The end result will probably be heads and shoulders above Metropolitan in the urban sense and this place will be in the suburbs. How funny.

[monsoon]

There is already a high end electronics place just up from there. I don't remember the name, but they are known for putting bling systems in cars, boats and home theatres in the Lake Norman area. In terms of the people that I know living at the Lake, I don't know anybody that shops at Northlake. If they decide they need to go to Charlotte for something then they go to SouthPark. Most of the time they shop at the Lake. However I don't see anchors closing at that mall yet. If a Belk were go into this location they would most likely close the Belk at Exit 36.