Blame it on the Fed.
That’s the chorus that Don Peebles joined while explaining the latest delay on a $700 million Brooklyn Village project that’s been on his drawing board for eight years, the Charlotte Observer reports.
The CEO of New York-based Peebles Corp. told the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners that he now doesn’t expect work to start for another two years of interest rate hikes over the past two years.
Peebles partnered with local developer Conformity Corp. to build Brooklyn Village under the BK Partners name. When the developers received approval for the project in 2016, they expected to wrap up work in 2021.
That never happened. Due to a dispute between the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County over the conveyance of the land led, the project hit a series of delays, Peebles told the commissioners. Those cost the developers a chance to obtain financing in the era of historically low interest rates that began to shift a couple of years ago.
“We’ve seen the most rapid interest rate rise in American history and rates are the highest they’ve ever been in 25 years,” Peebles said. “If the economic conditions allowed us to start the project tomorrow, we would start tomorrow.”
The 17-acre development would include about 1,200 apartments — 10 percent of them considered affordable by various local measures — with a hotel and retail and commercial space.
Brooklyn Village is in Uptown Charlotte’s historically Black 2nd Ward. The development would seek to highlight the area’s history, Peebles has said, while returning some vibrancy to an area that was hollowed out under various urban renewal projects of years past.
BK Partners got the go-ahead on a 5-3 vote in 2016 despite some reservations from several members of the Mecklenburg County board. Commissioner Pat Cotham, who remains in office, voted no, as did former board members Ella Scarborough and Matthew Ridenhour. Some new members have continued to question the project, calling for higher allotments for affordable units and additional green space.
Peebles said BK Partners has made strides on various components of the development, with sewer and utility work nearly finished. The developers plan to build the project in three phases, with the first coming to Brooklyn Village South around the recently cleared Walton Plaza.
Peebles got some pushback and a warning from some of the elected officials at the most recent hearing.
“I know there’s some tough times, but I don’t think it’s as bad as you’re making it out to be,” Commissioner Laura Meier told the developer, adding that “apartments are going up everywhere” in Charlotte.
Read more
Commercial
Los Angeles
Developers tout approvals for $1.6B Angels Landing
Development
New York
Talking LA’s latest supertall Angels Landing, with developer Don Peebles
Residential
South Florida
Katrina Peebles knows what Wellington’s luxury buyers want — because she’s one of them
Commissioner Vilma Leake said she was passing along concerns expressed by her constituents in the 2nd Ward when she quizzed County Manager Dena DiOrio and Peebles on whether the project would ever get done.
The bureaucrat and developer both said it would be completed — eventually.
“Well, you better hurry up,” Leake said.
Peebles has several other projects pending in New York and Los Angeles.