Pappas Properties has presented plans to the Charlotte city council’s economic development committee for a high density, mixed-use development with retail, office, and multifamily residential at a 5.3-acre site around the Scaleybark light-rail station development.
The redevelopment initiative traces back almost a decade. The Charlotte Business Journal reports that it has been more than eight years since the city plans to redevelop the former Charlotte Regional Realtor Association (CRRA) property in midtown Charlotte were introduced with Pappas. Now the site at Kenilworth Ave. and Greenwood Cliff Rd. with a 46,000 sq. ft. office building constructed in 1970, plus the vacant land on the site, is on the way to being redeveloped.
“We think this is an exciting project,” said Pappas Properties owner Peter Pappas. “We have worked with about every department in the city and county to come up with a comprehensive plan that puts together the infrastructure, open spaces, public road extension, a mixed-use development and a new building for the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association.”
The planned development would demolish the existing CRRA building on Greenwood Cliff Rd. and a build a new, 33,000-sq. ft. office for the Realtors next to the current building. In its place, a mixture of residential and retail uses — 21,600 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail and 172 residential units — would be built in a second phase, followed by an eight-level parking deck containing more than 1,200 spaces.
The final two phases propose more mixed-use development facing Kenilworth Ave.: a 175,000-sq. ft. structure with retail, hotel and residential uses and a 168,000-sq. ft. office building.
Pappas was also required to include 80 units of affordable housing for families making less than $40,320, the Business Journal article reported. But so far, working with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, the company has been unable to win federal tax credits it says it needs to do the project. Three applications have been turned down. The city says Pappas is now “evaluating a different financing approach to implement the affordable units.”
Pappas has so far built required site improvements, such as a linear park, lighting, landscaping, a plaza along South Boulevard and a stormwater retention pond. Pappas is the developer behind the Metropolitan and Sharon Square (the Whole Foods, apartments, restaurants and offices in SouthPark).
The company discussed at the meeting a land swap, expanding Pearle St. Park by about an acre at the current Charlotte Housing Authority site, which would subsequently be shifted farther down Baxter. Pappas representatives revenue from the sale of remaining property could help fund park improvements.
“What’s taking a bit more time is seeing if we can do property exchanges so everyone can be in a good place,” Pappas said.
Pappas is seeking as much as $3.9 million in reimbursement from the tax-increment grants fund to pay for the project’s public infrastructure.
“A lot of what happens in District 7 is paid by developers,” said District 7 council member Ed Driggs. He cited the Waverly project off Providence Rd., indicating the developers haven’t sought tax-increment grant funding for infrastructure adjustments related to that 90-acre site.
Most of the committee members were enthusiastic about the project. However, no action on the plan was taken at at the April 14 meeting.