Time Warner seeks rezoning

Time Warner Cable wants to rezone 85.3 acres on the north side of West Arrowood Road between Woodknoll Drive and Red Oak Boulevard so it can add 260,881 square feet of space to its existing site. The company wants to eventually construct three new buildings, a satellite farm and two new parking decks, bringing Time Warner’s total office space at the site to nearly 1.2 million square feet.

Time Warner is requesting a rezoning to conditional office along with a site plan amendment from conditional neighborhood business and office.

There appears to be some confusion, however, regarding the proposed expansion.

At a Charlotte City Council meeting Monday night, Michael Cole, managing partner at Cole, Jenest & Stone, represented Time Warner at a public hearing on the possible rezoning. He said Time Warner wanted to expand “so they have the potential to accommodate an additional 1,100 to 1,400 positions” at the site.

Several minutes later, Councilman David Howard asked Cole how many jobs the new phase of development would support. Cole said it was difficult to nail down exactly, but there are about 1,400 employees there now. “We’re going to add the buildings to allow them to double,” he said, adding that some of the process would include consolidation from different Time Warner locations around Charlotte.

“So many times we hear about incentives for people we’re trying to bring into the area,” Cole told the City Council. “This is an opportunity to do some things that will encourage Time Warner to commit to the area for the long term and basically double the size of the campus.”

Asked for a comment the following day on the new jobs, Time Warner remained mum, willing to provide only an emailed statement. “Thanks for reaching out,” wrote Scott Pryzwansky, director of public relations. “We have no expansion planned; we’re simply seeking a rezoning of the property at our Charlotte campus to allow for potential future expansion.”