The City of Charlotte, Tepper Sports & Entertainment, and Crosland Southeast will host a community meeting on Thurs., March 12, as part of the Eastland rezoning petition process. This meeting will help residents, business owners and area property owners better understand the rezoning request and provide an opportunity for feedback on the project.
Representatives from the city, Crosland Southeast and Tepper Sports & Entertainment, will make presentations at the meeting and residents and provide feedback.
The city of Charlotte and Crosland Southeast have filed a rezoning petition for the Eastland Mall site and an adjacent property to allow residential and commercial development as well as a Major League Soccer headquarters. There are three development areas on 78 acres to be rezoned to MX-2, permitting residential mixed-use development, and MUDD-O, or mixed-use development district with optional provisions.
The city owns 69 acres at the Eastland site, and the rezoning petition includes an adjacent eight-acres— the former Hannaford grocery store site.
A portion of the site is currently used as an open-air market on weekends, and the Charlotte Area Transit System has a center there.
There have been many attempts to develop the site since Eastland Mall was knocked down in 2013, but the property hasn’t been rezoned since the mall was developed.
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper’s plan to create a practice facility and headquarters for Major League Soccer — the 30th franchise coming to Charlotte — on about a third of the property. It would include up to a dozen soccer fields, some open to the community. The MLS team would play matches in uptown, at Bank of America Stadium.
The city is negotiating an agreement with Tepper Sports for the Eastland MLS facility.
Plans also include a public park and a green connection.
Eastland needs significant infrastructure work — grading the land and removing acres of asphalt; building new roads, including a main street that would serve as the project’s primary commercial corridor; adding traffic signals; and rerouting water and sewer lines. Work is expected to start before the end of this year.
Vertical construction of the first phase of development — which will include market-rate apartments and for-sale housing, as well as food and beverage retail — would probably begin in mid-2021 and deliver by late 2022. The western portion of the site will include a mix of commercial space and residences.
The public meeting is scheduled for Mar. 12 from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Council is expected to vote on the rezoning application May. It will be held at Calvary Church of the Nazarene, 4000 N. Sharon Amity Lane in Charlotte.
For more project information, visit envisioneastland.com.