NoDa mills to go up for sale

The Mecklenburg and Johnson mills, which sit vacant after failed redevelopment attempts, will be going up for sale next month.

Peter Zeiler, the city’s transit station area development coordinator, said one goal is “to maximize the sale value, while preserving the building for historic restoration.” Another goal, he said, is a redevelopment that would feature 20 percent of residential units set aside for low-income families.

After the north Charlotte neighborhood’s textile mills shut down in the early to mid-1970s, Trenton Properties took over the two buildings, and in the early 1990s they were converted to affordable housing, Zeiler said.

Between 1990 and 2004 the city invested about $6.3 million to rehabilitate the buildings. But in 2006 the project went bankrupt, and the city took possession of the buildings. That same year inspectors found structural problems with the buildings and they were vacated.

In 2007 the city selected Tuscan Development to turn the old mills into a mixed-use development that would include low-income housing. But that deal fell through in late 2008 because of the complexity of the project and the lagging economy, Zeiler said.