Commercial Confidential: Harrisburg Town Center

Editor’s note: “Commercial Confidential” is a Mecklenburg Times profile of a commercial property in the Charlotte area. 

Prior to 2003, the growing town of Harrisburg, just north of Charlotte in Cabarrus County, didn’t have an epicenter of commercial property.

Sure, there were small pockets of retail and places to eat, including the Harrisburg Family House Restaurant, but the town lacked a real center of activity and congregation.

So in 2003, Mark Swartz, with what was then called J&B Development & Management, started a development that would change the face of the Harrisburg commercial market: Harrisburg Town Center.

The Town Center has about 300,000 square feet of commercial space, including a YMCA, a health clinic and even a wine bar. Swartz said he has been approved for an additional 400,000 square feet of commercial space in the Town Center, at N.C.

Highway 49 and Roberta Road.

Chris Orr, president of Charlotte-based Romans Properties, which handles leasing at the Town Center, said the development of the center has improved life for the residents of Harrisburg, a town of 11,751, according to a 2011 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“You have a whole bunch of residences behind the center (that) are privately owned,” Orr said. “And many of those folks there were really interested in having a town center.

“You only have two or three other (commercial) options in Harrisburg.”

Orr said despite the size of the town, he hasn’t had much difficulty finding tenants to come to the Town Center. Having little-to-no competition elsewhere in Harrisburg has been a boost, he said.

“Usually by the time they call me, they’ve already researched it (Harrisburg),” Orr said. “With the residential base you have here and and the schools and the cost of living, it’s a great market to be in.

“It’s not an oversaturated market at all. It’s been one of my more active listings.”

GUION can be reached at [email protected], (704) 817-1344 or on Twitter at @paytonguion.

Center name: Harrisburg Town Center

Address: Intersection of Highway 49 and Roberta Road

Square feet: About 300,000, but could expand up to 700,000.

Year opened: 2003

Developer: J&B Development & Management

Owner: Charlotte Real Estate Services

Leasing company: Romans Properties

Lease rates: Between $15 and $20 per square foot

Vacancy rate: Between 6 and 8 percent vacant.

Major tenants and square feet occupied: Cabarrus Family Medicine (26,000); Cannon Memorial YMCA (15,000); Sports Junction (15,000)

Did you know? Harrisburg Town Hall, in the heart of the Town Center, was built specifically for the development, Orr said.