Peebles Proposes Affordable Brooklyn Village Charlotte Plan

One of Charlotte’s most high-profile redevelopment efforts is getting a major reset by shrinking the number of apartments in the first phase and pivoting to all affordable housing.

BK Partners, the master developer behind the Brooklyn Village project in uptown Charlotte, proposed selling acreage for affordable housing to Charlotte housing agency Inlivian and Legacy Real Estate Development for an affordable housing development, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.

The plan calls for 250 affordable apartments, a drop from the approved 496 market-rate units and 56 affordable units, along with a fraction of the previously planned retail space, which shrunk to just over 9,000 square feet from 20,000.

The changes are intended to speed up the construction timeline while adding affordable housing to Uptown, a “high-resource” neighborhood, the Peebles Corporation’s Donahue Peebles III told the outlet.

BK Partners, a joint venture between the Peebles Corp. and local firm Conformity Corporation, was selected to lead the redevelopment in 2016. Construction has yet to begin despite years of public engagement and planning.

The new proposal introduces a partnership with Charlotte housing agency Inlivian and Legacy Real Estate Development, Donahue Peebles III’s Florida-based affordable housing firm. The shift to a fully affordable program is also aimed at unlocking financing tools and public support that the prior plan struggled to secure.

The two-building development would rise on parcels at 700 and 800 East Brooklyn Village Avenue, with retail space and 175 parking spaces. Apartment rents would target residents earning between 30 and 80 percent of area median income, with a 99-year affordability covenant and 10 units reserved for survivors of domestic violence.

Inlivian and Legacy Real Estate Development have applied for funding from the city’s Housing Trust Fund and requested $2.5 million in gap financing from Mecklenburg County. It also needs approval to amend the master redevelopment agreement and secure state-issued low-income housing tax credits, without which the project cannot move forward.

BK still plans to build a 150-key hotel and almost 500,000-square-feet of office space in the first phase of development.

The overall plan for the phased development hasn’t been scaled back, Peebles said. It still calls for 1,434 residential units, including 250 that are affordable. It also calls for 586,000 square feet of office space and 280 hotel rooms, plus culrural space, a public park and pedestrian friendly streets with trees.

No construction timeline has been set, though Peebles said the team hopes to start construction this year if approvals materialize.

Charlotte’s multifamily absorption was high despite 146 multifamily developments totaling almost 31,000 units delivered in the past two years, with another 13,000 units expected this year, according to CoStar data. Charlotte’s strong population and job growth has driven overall average rent up slightly less than 1 percent from last year to $1,636 a month as of last month.

— Judah Duke