It took only two years after a Charlotte City Council vote in the urban renewal-era year of 1961 for bulldozers to start wiping out the 80 years’ worth of the city’s history called Brooklyn. Today, going on 12 years after efforts began to bring housing, shopping and pedestrian traffic back to Second Ward – Charlotte’s government district, dominated by stern, institutional buildings – the vision of a reincarnated, well-rounded Brooklyn is still just that, a vision.
For Matthews Gateway, the name says it all. Situated in the town of Matthews on Trade Street, between Matthews Township Parkway and John Street, the mixed-use shopping center, as Chris Orr put it, is a “gateway into Matthews.”
Week after week, developers announce new apartment projects in Charlotte. Like the 342 units in NoDa, or the 321 units in southwest Charlotte, or the 270 units in South End that have started, or will start, this year. In Charlotte, it is a rare week that passes without the revelation of a new multifamily project. And the numbers justify that trend, for now.
One the nation’s premier homebuilders was being humiliated by the Charlotte City Council; worse, PulteGroup was on the verge of losing a rare and potentially lucrative opportunity. But Pulte bounced back this week from January’s nasty public scolding to win a unanimous City Council endorsement of a rezoning case that would allow development and building on a patch of scarce land in booming and nearly built-out south Charlotte.
For builders and developers who don’t consider the Equal Credit Opportunity Act before signing on the dotted line with a lender, North Carolina lawyers have some advice: Start considering it, as ignorance can be costly.
When Coats moved into the Toringdon office park in 2003, the building was brand new. The paint had just dried, the carpet had just been laid.
He was a newly married 31-year-old back in the fall of ’08, a two-year custom homebuilder just earning his market creds, and he had three big spec projects under way. That’s when the banks said, “No more.”
After pushing Innovation Park from somnolent to successful in three years, BECO South appears to be pushing against an unpromising trend in the University City area.
A bill that would make finding relief easier for developers, builders and even private residents upset with certain categories of zoning decisions is speeding, thus far unimpeded, through the North Carolina General Assembly.
West of Interstate 77, W.T. Harris Boulevard is blanketed in retail. An outdoor store? Check. An electronics store? Check. A Christian bookstore? Check. And then there’s Northlake Mall.
