Charlotte Real Estate🔥

Nov 25

Written By Matt Hultquist

We are grateful for your friendship and partnership in the Private Business Roundtable this year.

Join us for Dec 3rd from 7-9am at Vantage South End for our Year End Coffee Social.

Also, hiring Head of Business Development for Polysonics in Charlotte or DC.

Please send ideas here. 🔥

Some real estate highlights from Ledger / CBJ below:

Vantage South End sells for $517 per square foot (Lowe’s $888, Honeywell $735),
$100mm 7-story, 234 unit Cotswold apartment development,
2,200 new apartment units in Levine-Northwood Ravin combo on Providence Road.
New development at Manor Theatre & Panera Bread site in Eastover?
Rea Farms new CMS middle school plus 917 homes developed by Childress Klein.

Matt Hultquist | Hillandale Advisors | Matt@HillandaleAdvisors.com

429 East Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28203 | 704-574-5659

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Horizon Roofing & Restoration (NC/SC) | Polysonics – Acoustics & Technology Design (DC & Southeast) | Aiwyn (Automate Your Cash Flows)

The Fallon Co. last week broke ground on a $100 million, seven-story apartment development in Cotswold called The Colwick. (CBJ)

A Boston developer, the Fallon Co. is also working with Charlotte's housing authority Inlivian on a long-planned project called Centre South, a major mixed-use, mixed-income project at the edge of Dilworth.

Cousins Properties is under contract to buy office tower development Vantage South End from the Spectrum Cos. for $328.5M, Cousins announced last week.

By our math, given that the development is listed at 635,000 square feet, that works out to about $517 per square foot.

That’s a handsome price, given how things are in the office market. It seems like a nice vote of confidence in the market for new office towers in South End.

Consider some of these recent sales of office buildings in Charlotte:

Vantage South End, $517 per square foot,
The RailYard, South End, 2020: $612 per square foot,
Truist, uptown, 2020: $472 per square foot
Honeywell, uptown, 2021: $735 per square foot
Lowe’s, South End, 2021: $888 per square foot

The one outlier in recent office sales is the Vanguard purchase of the Centene campus in University City. That was around $167 per square foot, as we noted in April.

https://charlotteledger.substack.com/p/charlotte-commercial-real-estate-323?utm_source=substack

Ginormous Providence Road development gets a couple of big boosts; 2,200 new housing units in Levine-Northwood Ravin combo

Plans appear to be moving forward in south Charlotte on a series of coordinated rezonings that could bring nearly 2,200 new apartments and townhomes to the Providence Road corridor.

City staff is recommending in favor of the three rezonings — from Levine Properties, Northwood Ravin and Horizon Development Properties — near the intersection with Old Providence Road, by the Providence Square shopping center. Last week, a citizens advisory panel of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the applications, too. Rezonings that have the support of city staff and the Zoning Committee almost always pass the City Council.

Committee members said the big development would support the city’s goal of creating “10-minute neighborhoods,” or areas where people can live close to jobs and shops.

Some nearby residents, though, say they worry about the effects on traffic to what they say is an already overburdened Providence Road. Traffic studies filed with the city show that the developments would add more than 17,000 trips per day. State transportation data shows that that section of Providence now handles about 34,000 vehicles per day.

“If you look at what they are proposing, it is in the same ballpark as the northeast quadrant of Ballantyne Reimagined,” nearby resident Dennis Grills told The Ledger. “The infrastructure doesn’t support that intensity.”

Residents have made similar arguments against other proposed rezonings in south Charlotte this year, but council members typically vote to go forward with rezonings on the belief that the city needs more housing.

The rezoning applications would allow the Levine property to contain 1,562 housing units, the Northwood Ravin portion to have 745 and the Horizon part to have 380, for a total of nearly 2,700. But there are already roughly 500 housing units on the properties, according to city documents. Nearly 200 of the apartments would be affordable housing. The plans also envision refreshing the shopping center, including adding a yet-unnamed grocery store.

In addition, the city and county governments are considering $19M in infrastructure grants to help with the projects.

The opposition seems muted, and given the support of city staff and the advisory panel, it’s hard to imagine these rezonings being defeated. (The Ledger named it one of “6 hot rezonings to watch in 2024,” with a 2-flame intrigue rating out of a possible 3 flames.)

A City Council vote is expected in December.

Is time growing ripe to redevelop the Manor Theatre site in Eastover?

The Panera Bread on Providence Road in Eastover has closed.

We’re not usually into reporting news of one-off chain restaurant closings, but this one is in a prime location in Eastover next to the old Manor Theatre, which closed in 2020. This Panera also happened to be a power breakfast/coffee meeting site where you could often catch a glimpse of bankers and other leading business figures.

It is worth pointing out (as we did after the Manor closed) that the entire portion of that block that fronts Providence Road, between Laurel Avenue and Fenton Place, is owned by a single company, Eastern Federal Corp. The company also owns a portion of the adjacent block. We’re guessing that at some point, they might want to do something there besides own an abandoned theater and now a closed restaurant. (There are several active businesses in that stretch, including Laurel Market, a Starbucks, a Thai restaurant, a wine shop and a nail place.)

You could easily envision an urban-style low-rise residential building or two with ground-floor retail and restaurants, perhaps with underground parking, when the time is right.

We asked Eastern Federal’s Josh Page, who is the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, what its plans are for Eastover. He said via email: “Yes, Panera Bread has vacated. They were at the end of their current lease term, and we have heard that they found another location. There is nothing more to report than that.”

Related Ledger article:

“Manor Theatre replacement could be big” (May 22, 2020)

First look: Cotswold’s ‘first large-scale rental development in decades’

The Fallon Co. is holding a groundbreaking ceremony today for The Colwick, a 234-unit apartment development it is calling “Cotswold’s first large-scale rental development in decades.” A press release says the event will offer the media “a first look at exterior renderings, showcasing the design that complements the Cotswold community.” But some Whispers investigative reporting unearthed this rendering … that is plastered on the fence outside of the development. (The site is on Colwick Road, the street behind the Chick-fil-A, near Shun Lee Palace, Publix and Cotswold Elementary School.)

In brief:

Crescent Communities has started construction on the first apartment complex in the River District, west of the airport. The 318-unit complex will be called Novel River District and is expected to be complete in early 2026. (Axios Charlotte)
North Graham purchase: Cityplat of Raleigh bought a 0.75 acre site with an industrial building at 2910 N. Graham St. from All-Type Sheet Metal Fabrications for $2.125M.
South Charlotte middle school: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools closed on its previously announced purchase of 115 acres off Tom Short Road near Rea Farms. It is mostly vacant land that is destined to become a new middle school plus 917 homes developed by Childress Klein. Purchase price: $11.595M. The seller was affiliated with the Cato family.
Industrial purchase: The Vickar Group of Charlotte bought two industrial properties on the corner of Stockport Place and Westinghouse Boulevard totaling 7.6 acres. Combined purchase price: $6M.
Big apartment sale in Mallard Creek: The Highland Ridge Apartments in Mallard Creek were sold by Charter Properties of Charlotte to Independence Realty Operating Partnership of Philadelphia for $73.5M.

If you’d like our support with new business development, fundraising or other M&A, please email me at Matt@HillandaleAdvisors.com or visit www.HillandaleAdvisors.com.