At $855,000, addition is county’s biggest residential project of 2013

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EASTOVER — The priciest residential construction project in Mecklenburg County so far this year isn’t a new house; it’s a custom, architect-designed addition to an already roomy and completely updated home in the heart of this upscale Charlotte neighborhood of renovated homes.

Including 586 square feet of unheated space, the 3,824-square-foot addition will cost $855,000, according to county building permit records. The next most valuable residential permit of 2013 comes in at $725,246 for a 12,351-square-foot new home, including 2,248 square feet of unheated space, a little further to the east in the city’s Providence Park neighborhood.

Groundbreaking for the renovation project was scheduled for today, said Ben Collins, whose Charlotte-based Salins Group is the building contractor for the project.

The addition will nearly double the size of the existing home at 302 Colville Road. County property records say the house is 4,316 square feet, of which 3,740 square feet is heated.

The building cost of the addition, which will comprise three stories, with a full basement and attic, is a reflection both of the size of renovation and the interior features, said Collins, who does custom renovations, additions and new homes. In adding the new space, Collins said, his company also will do “cosmetic work” to the existing exterior and bathrooms, as well as a to-the-studs remodeling of the kitchen, where the addition will tie in.

Designed by Ken Pursley of Charlotte’s Pursley Dixon Architecture, the addition will include a basement entertainment area, a large first-floor family living area, and additional bedrooms and baths on the upper floors, including a new master suite, Collins said.

The existing home, which county records say was built in 1950 but Collins said is three decades older, “has good bones” and has been thoroughly renovated, including new mechanicals, plumbing and wiring. That, he said, would make his job of tying in the addition far less complicated than if he were working with old “bones.”

County records say the property at 302 Colville was worth $1.2 million at the time of the flawed 2011 tax revaluation. The bulk of that value was in the land, at, coincidentally, $855,000. It sold in 2011 to the current owners, Howard and Natalie Homesley, for $935,000, the records say.

“Six years or so ago, at the height of the market, new owners would have torn down the house and built new on that property,” Collins said. “People today are much more prudent how they spend, and it’s a really nice house.”

Collins said he wanted to emphasize that “these people are not pretentious in the least. They have a nice house, and they chose not to do a tear-down. They are just making it nicer.”