Controversial Mountain Island Promenade development in limbo

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Whether you study a map of Charlotte or take a driving tour, you’ll soon realize the city is running out of empty space in the county it nearly fills. That’s why it’s projected, once the economy improves, that development will sputter to life in a big way in the northwest part of the city.

In the Mountain Island Lake area alone, a mini development boom that began in the late 1990s produced plans for nearly 10 new shopping centers, of which half were built. Today, however, thanks in large part to the Great Recession, four of those are replete with empty storefronts.

One of the stalled projects is also the area’s most hotly contested: Plans for Mountain Island Promenade, a $133 million mixed-use Cambridge Properties development, began circulating more than five years ago, and the project was supposed to be completed in 2009. Now, George Maloomian, the company’s president, hopes to break ground by the end of 2012 on the first phase of the development.

“It’s unfortunate that we got so far along before we got stopped,” he said, “but we are very close to getting this thing started.” However, he added, “It depends on the economy.”

Maloomian blames the economy for the project’s pause but points out it would have been much worse for his company and the community if construction would have begun and then had to stop.

Public outcry

Mountain Island Promenade is a 120-acre project near Brookshire Boulevard, Exit 16, on Interstate 485. The Charlotte City Council has already approved the development’s plans, which includes 640 housing units — 500 of which are anticipated to be apartments — and retail and office space. At one point, a Lowe’s Home Improvement store was touted as the project’s anchor tenant, and there was even talk of a Lowes Foods grocery store and Kohl’s department store.

Many in the public, however, were not impressed. They petitioned the City Council to reconsider the project, citing concerns about low-income housing, crime and traffic on Mount-Holly Huntersville Road. For a while, concerned residents banded together under the banner of “Mountain Island United.”

They even began posting their discontent on a blog where residents, such as Rick Lyke, of the nearby Overlook community, wrote in May 2008: “We need to control development and make smart choices; jamming as much as possible into an already crowded space is the wrong way to go.”

Lyke is among residents who voiced concerns about the project to the City Council. While he hasn’t heard anything about the project recently, he said the Mountain Island area is “one of the last areas of Charlotte that hasn’t seen the development boom. So once the economy turns around, we expect to be in the next wave.”

Lyke says he’s not opposed to the development altogether, adding, “If it went away, I wouldn’t be counting that as a victory. I don’t think anyone was trying to block the development totally.”

He accepts that the development will eventually become a reality, but he wants to know if it will be built responsibly. When the wheels of progress begin to move again, it will be important for the community to double-check the developer’s plans to ensure they haven’t changed, he said.

Looking for tenants

Maloomian said plans haven’t changed, though he wouldn’t discuss potential tenants and admits he’s relieved the project stalled before construction began, not after.

“We’re actively trying to market it to users, and when we get a critical mass of users, we’ll move forward with it,” he said. “Our hope, and the way that we’re communicating our progress, is to get started in two years, maybe less, if we’re lucky.”

He also said that while he’s still in talks with Lowe’s Home Improvement, which is headquartered in Mooresville, nothing’s final. It’s become increasingly difficult to find interested tenants under the current economic conditions, he said.

The home improvement company has five other locations within 10 miles and four more within 15. Since the Promenade project stalled, Lowe’s built two locations in Denver, a 10-minute drive from the Promenade site, and another across the road from Northlake Mall, also only a few minutes away.

“Currently we are not moving forward with that site,” said Stacy Lentz, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s Home Improvement.

‘Substantially raise the bar’

Maloomian also commented on his company’s run-ins with the Promenade’s future neighbors.

People in the area, which includes three lakefront communities, did a lot of “fear mongering” over misplaced concerns about low-income housing that stem from the project’s plans to include townhomes and apartments, he said.

“When we get Mountain Island Promenade completed, it will substantially raise the bar for development in that area,” he said.

He declined to discuss price ranges for the multifamily housing units.

In a Feb. 16, 2008, post on Mountain Island United’s blog, minunited.blogspot.com, Tom Blomquist, also a resident of the Overlook community, wrote: “Our area does not need more entry-level housing and apartments, and it needs the (Mount Holly-Huntersville Road) traffic problem addressed now, not after it becomes impossible to get in and out of our neighborhoods.”

Maloomian said his company, which has already cut 225 apartments from the project, vows to invest $2.5 million in off-site road improvements. Construction will begin by addressing the community’s traffic concerns first, he said. Its next move will be to build interior roads. From that point, it will still be at least six months before “we can build vertical” and at least three years before tenants can move in, he said.

With the City Council’s approval in place, the property cleared of the few old homes that once dotted the wooded property and community meetings in Mountain Island Lake a distant memory, Cambridge Properties’ next steps are to secure retail and office tenants, obtain building permits and break ground.

The only city and county permits on file for the project are for demolition and site grading.

And the only thing marking the Promenade is a battered sign.