A developer’s $700 million Brooklyn Village redevelopment in Uptown Charlotte has been stymied by high interest rates and tight lending, mirroring nationwide trends.
BK Partners, a joint venture of New York-based Peebles Corporation and local firm Conformity Corporation, anticipate a delayed construction start due to financial hurdles, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.
“There is a lot of stress on banking and commercial markets, so a lot of lenders that would typically allocate dollars are working though their own balance sheets,” Donahue Peebles III of Peebles Corporation told the outlet.
The mixed-use development has been in the works for six years. It will span 3 million square feet and pay homage to the historic Brooklyn Village, a historically black neighborhood that “was destroyed as a consequence of urban renewal,” Peebles said.
Brooklyn Village will feature apartments, hotels, office space and retail, spanning 17 acres across several city blocks. One of the ways it will honor the neighborhood’s roots is by refurbishing the old Myers Passage roadway into a path to connect Brooklyn Village’s north and south phases.
Initial site work has been completed, and the Bob Walton Plaza has been demolished. Despite efforts to find a way forward, Peebles reported that current financing and market conditions are not favorable for starting construction.
Predevelopment work, including major utility tie-ins, continues in preparation for future construction. Peebles remains optimistic about the project’s timeline, targeting a summer 2025 construction start for the first phase of apartments.
“As rates decline, and we move into next year, I think we’re going to find a much more accommodating set of financial conditions,” he said.
Read more
Commercial
Charlotte
Charlotte’s development pipeline is slowing
Development
Charlotte
Fortius, McCraney add 1.3M sf to Charlotte’s industrial proliferation
Development
Charlotte
Trammell Crow, Gensler, locals in mix for 90-acre “Destination District”
The first phase of Brooklyn Village is slated for multifamily housing with at least 10 percent of units priced below market rate, plus 106,800 square feet of retail space and a 150-key hotel. The property will be divided into six parcels, potentially including up to 531,600 square feet of office space.
BK Partners was selected as the project’s master developer in 2016 and finalized the contract terms with the county in 2018.
—Quinn Donoghue
Update: A previous version of this article assigned a quote to Don Peebles. The article has been updated to specify that the quote was from Donohue Peebles III, and not R. Donohue Peebles Jr.