All Forum Posts by: Josh Stack

Belmont roads not ready for 800 more homes, another shopping center, residents say

Several residents believe the area's roads will be too overwhelmed by the time construction of a proposed neighborhood and commercial center along Armstrong Ford Road in Belmont would be finished.

If approved by Belmont City Council, Arizona-based home builder Del Webb would build 809 homes restricted to residents age 55 and older and a 13-acre commercial center on the east side of Armstrong Ford Road by 2029.

In March, members of Belmont’s planning and zoning board dividedly approved to send the project to Belmont City Council for further consideration.

Lack of infrastructure

“It doesn’t make sense what we were trying to put people though,” said Wil Neumann, who lives in the Timberlake neighborhood on the west side of Armstrong Ford Road – a two-lane road without a shoulder or turning lane – located in the town limits of Cramerton. Timberlake sits across the street from the proposed Del Webb community, named the South Fork Senior Community.

Neumann, a former North Carolina house representative who serves as chairman of Cramerton’s zoning board, isn’t against the proposed development, but rather the future traffic congestion in the area if more developments are green-lighted.

A 549-home subdivision south of the proposed South Fork Senior Community and a 20-home development along Tucker Road near South Point Road are also being considered by Belmont leaders. Earlier this month, City Council approved a development across from the new Belmont Middle School, which includes 43 houses and 53 townhomes, according to the city's website.

“We have to build roads,” said Neumann, who explained that the only major roads running east and west through the area are Interstate 85 and Wilkinson Boulevard (U.S. 74). “It doesn’t look like they’re going to [build roads] anytime soon. We’re just not going to go anywhere.”

There are no plans to expand Armstrong Ford Road into four lanes, nor add a center turning lane to the road.

Congested intersections

Del Webb’s preferred primary entrance to the neighborhood would be built along Armstrong Ford Road at the intersection of Cimarron Boulevard, which is the entrance to Timberlake, north of The Courtyards of Cramerton entrance and south of the proposed commercial center.

Del Webb hopes to include a 50,000-square-foot grocery store, a CVS Pharmacy, two fast-food restaurants, 30,000 square-feet of retail and restaurant space and 25,000 square-feet of medical office space in the retail center.

“You’re looking at over 1,000 homes that are going to be accessing the intersection of Cimarron and Armstrong Ford Road,” said Russell Poole, who lives at The Courtyards with his wife, Carol, during a recent Belmont planning and zoning meeting.

“When you factor in the homes and factor in the retail [center], that intersection at Cimarron and Armstrong Ford Road will be untenable. It will be gridlocked.”

Del Webb, a brand of Pulte Homes, Inc., initially sought an entrance north of the proposed commercial center along Armstrong Ford Road, at the intersection of Eastwood Drive, though already-existing power utilities would cause the intersection to be skewed.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation believes the skewed intersection could be unsafe for drivers, according to a recent letter from a NCDOT engineer.

NCDOT suggested purchasing land to better align the intersection or relocate the utilities, but Kimley-Horn and Associates, which completed a traffic impact analysis for Del Webb based on data from 2018 and 2019, recommended a neighborhood access at Cimarron Boulevard.

Retail center not needed

The Poole couple doesn’t believe Del Webb should follow through with the retail center, as a Harris Teeter, Walmart, ALDI and Food Lion, as well as numerous restaurants and fast-food joints, all exist within about four miles of the proposed development.

“I think that’s just unnecessary, not to mention two fast-food restaurants with a two-lane road like Armstrong Ford Road. It’s just crazy,” said Carol in a recent phone call.

Del Webb also plans to link their 809-home neighborhood with the Amberley subdivision along Nixon Road. Nixon Road intersects with South Point Road just north of South Point High School, the new Belmont Middle School, a large shopping center home to Harris Teeter and other merchants and a future Chick-fil-A.

Other plans for the development include a 21-acre park along the South Fork River, walking trails and a four-lane road running through the development, called the South Fork Parkway, which includes sidewalks and bicycle lanes.

Age doesn’t matter

Bridget Grant, a land use consultant with Moore & Van Allen, believes a community restricted to residents 55 and up won’t have jarring effects on traffic, she told the planning board in March.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t retire at 55,” said Dave Porter, a 67-year-old resident of The Courtyards. “That was a false premise and false assertion.”

Russell, 65, and Porter, believe Moore & Van Allen was wrong to suggest that residents of the 809-home development won’t significantly impact area traffic during peak hours.

“That was ingenious at best and deceptive at worst,” said Russell, who said he and Carol leave their home at least four times a day.

Outdated traffic analysis

Like Neumann, Porter and the Pooles aren’t against more housing. They believe Belmont City Council should urge Del Webb to complete another traffic impact analysis based on the most recent traffic in the area.

The town of Cramerton agrees, according to a resolution passed by town commissioners in late March.

Signed by Cramerton Mayor Will Cauthen, the resolution urges Belmont leaders to consider special zoning conditions to make Del Webb pay for traffic impacts around Cramerton’s Timberlake and Courtyard neighborhoods.

Cramerton’s resolution also asks that the traffic impact analysis be updated once COVID-19 executive orders are lifted and schools operate in-person five days a week.

Belmont City Council plans to hold a public hearing 6 p.m. Monday, May 24, at its City Council meeting at its new CityWorks building, located at 1401 E. Catawba St.

You can reach reporter Gavin Stewart at the Gaston Gazette

Gastonia offers small businesses support in economic plan

Janiya Winchester The Gaston Gazette

Gastonia leaders expect the city's new FUSE District to help grow small business already downtown while also serving as a catalyst for future growth.

"For those living in or around downtown and FUSE Districts, you will see increased pedestrian traffic and new businesses opening," said Kristy Crisp, the city's director of economic development, said. "Center City Crossings, Trenton Mill and other residential projects will bring the much needed residential density that small businesses need to thrive."

The stadium in the Franklin Urban Sports and Entertainment District will hold one of its first events Saturday and baseball will start being played there over the Memorial Day weekend.

Other developments coming to Gastonia include an approximate 100-unit apartment complex on Main Avenue, expected to be completed by 2023. Having people living in downtown will help fuel growth, city leaders say.

Changes downtown makes it easier to recruit businesses and entrepreneurs who can provide more jobs at higher wages, Crisp said.

"Gastonia has focused on marketing to individuals and businesses as the best location choice to call home," Crisp said. "We want and need to offer diverse housing options to accommodate all ranges of affordability to be attractive to businesses and industries.

"We're expecting to see a lot of new businesses start over the new year and we want to make space for those new entrepreneurs to grow," said Crisp.

Gastonia leaders also have plans to develop Garrison Boulevard as an Arts and Culture District by expanding financial support to small businesses, increasing business engagement in city development and more.

To live, work and play embodies the message the city wants to promote for downtown, said Crisp.

The city opens conversations with local business owners to survey their needs and help alleviate issues for them.

Business owner "Red" Ross said he has seen interest grow in his toy store Red Genesis during the pandemic.

"People are collecting more because it takes them back to a simpler time before the pandemic which is good for the toy business," Ross said.

But he agrees small businesses in Gastonia could use a boost from the city.

"We need to attract hipsters and these young kids that have great jobs and money that they want to spend," Ross said.

Local developer R.D. Harrell Co. bullish on Kings Mountain for big residential development

By Collin Huguley –  Charlotte Business Journal

After hours of public hearing and multiple community meetings, the Cannon 35 residential project is finally expected to get an answer on its rezoning request.

On Tuesday, Kings Mountain City Council will continue the public hearing for the project site's rezoning. Cannon 35 calls for the development of 730 residential units and is being proposed by R.D. Harrell Co., a Matthews-based developer. Dean Harrell, who is leading the project, said the estimated cost for the total buildout is $120 million. The project would be located at a 57-acre site between Kings Mountain Boulevard and Crocker Road.

The public hearing was originally scheduled for the council's March 30 meeting. The hearing lasted for hours before being tabled so residents could get more information on the project. A second community meeting for the project was held on April 19, setting the stage for a resolution on the rezoning request on Tuesday.

“We feel that we’re in a good position,” Harrell said. “I think Kings Mountain is poised for this growth."

Harrell said that, if the rezoning passes, he will look to have the engineering for the project complete by the fourth quarter. If that happens, grading for the site would begin later in the fourth quarter or in the first quarter of 2022.

The project has three phases, site plans show, but the site would be mass graded, Harrell said. The first phase is for the project's 360 apartments, the second phase includes 215 townhomes and the final phase is 155 units of senior housing.

Cannon 35 is located just a few miles from the site of the Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort off Dixon School Road. Harrell said the casino is "just a bonus" for the project because he is confident in the Kings Mountain market. He cited a 2020 report from SmartAsset, which named Kings Mountain as the healthiest housing market in the U.S.

Harrell has been planning Cannon 35 for around a year, he said, and targeted Kings Mountain because of growing employment opportunities in Gaston County. He added the lack of new residential product in the area presented an opportunity.

The company has several other Kings Mountain sites under contract for future projects, he said. The firm is committed to being a player there in the years to come, with Cannon 35 leading the charge.

“The market is moving out that way," Harrell said. "The R.D. Harrell Co. is all in on Kings Mountain."

Jim Gallagher

FUSE is the culmination of a lot of time and effort put in by multiple people and entities over the past several years. The Grizzlies were such a huge success at Sims Park that they propelled what we now know as “FUSE” (Franklin Urban Sports & Entertainment) into existence.

The catchy name is the work of Jason Thompson, the Gastonia director of planning. I was first elected to City Council in 2010, and seeing an average crowd size of 2,000 – 4,000 people gathered at Sims Park for a Grizzlies game was hard to ignore.

Even back then I knew how great it would be to harness that foot traffic and funnel it to our downtown businesses that so desperately needed it.

First, we had to overcome the $600,000 price tag for the Sears building, since it was sitting on the exact location we needed to build. John Bridgeman, our mayor at the time, had a background in real estate and was able to speak with the building owners and eventually negotiated the price down to half, $300,000. Finally things were set in motion.

Mayor Bridgeman made it clear that if the city moved forward with purchasing the Sear’s property that we would also need to purchase the Budget Inn as well. We wanted to revitalize as much of our city as we could so we purchased the Trenton Mill and the Coca-Cola Bottling Building as well.

Looking back now, this was absolutely the right thing to do. At the time, our city only collected $16,000 in property taxes every year from those properties. We will now far exceed that.

In 2017, the FUSE project fell to Michael Peoples, our new city manager. He was absolutely the right man for the job. He, along with his team of city employees, started marketing The Trenton Mill, the Coca-Cola Building and the warehouse behind it.

We all knew that Trenton Mill was a piece of Gastonia history worth saving and wanted to see if it could be repurposed into apartments. We were happy to find that The Lansing Melbourne Group was up for the challenge.

The city got to work making sure that the Trenton Street railroad crossing would become a silent crossing so as not to bother any residents. It took quite some doing, but we were able to get Norfolk Southern to commit to accomplishing this.

I am happy to report that Trenton Mill started being re-developed in October 2020 and will be completed with 84 apartments by Dec. 31 this year. I have always said that the only way to see true change downtown is to have people living downtown. We always seemed to put the cart before the horse in that respect, but that is finally changing.

The Coca-Cola Building is being re-developed by Eric Vargasko and his team Lenox Development. The top floor will be apartments, the ground floor will be shops and maybe a restaurant and the basement will be unique car condos for high-end car owners.

Around the back of the Coca-Cola Building there is a warehouse that will become the home of Durty Bull Brewing Co. They are from Durham and are spectacularly renovating the property, inside and out.

So far, $75 million of private money has been invested into the area surrounding FUSE as a direct result of Gastonia’s investment of $30 million into creating that ball park. We used to say “build it and they will come”, and we have already more than proven that – and we haven’t even opened!

Developers are also looking at the YMCA property to add more apartments. This, combined with Center City Crossing that will be building studio apartments, as well as one-, two-, and three-bedroom luxury apartments, starting later this year, is going to push private investment into our downtown to over $100 million.

This does not include the baseball team owner, Brandon Bellamy, investing $5 million to bring professional baseball back to Gastonia for the first time in 25 years.

FUSE will not just be for baseball, the Management Team is looking to bring other events here as well. We are looking forward to having everything from concerts and events, to soccer, lacrosse, and football games. I understand that Stuart Cramer high school baseball team had an accident with their field and will be playing their high school baseball games there.

I would personally love to have the Battle of the Bell, Hunter Huss vs Ashbrook football game, played here- since both of my kids graduated from Ashbrook.

FUSE has brought so much to our city already, and it is only just the beginning. I know we are all excited to see the ripple effect this will have in Gastonia, and how unprecedented it really is. We are seeing neighborhoods stabilize and revitalize, economic growth and new businesses, and people taking pride in their community.

This was a team effort and could not have been accomplished without the help of so many. I am proud to say that I am from a place where the people care enough to invest their time and resources to build a brighter future. I invite you to come out and see what their time and investment has brought to us all, it is truly incredibly impressive.

Purchase season tickets, come get a beer, and support our team, the Honey Hunters. FUSE has been a home run and I am proud to have been a small part of bringing it to Gastonia.

Jim Gallagher is a member of Gastonia City Council.

Work begins at last on long-planned redevelopment of old mill

Chronicle Mill, Belmont, NC

From the CBJ:

Work begins at last on long-planned redevelopment of old mill

The adaptive reuse of the old Chronicle Mill in Belmont had already been in the works for nearly seven years when the Covid-19 pandemic put a planned groundbreaking for the project on hold last spring.

"I'm hoping this is only going to be 90 days and we can get back on track and things work out like before," John Church, co-owner of the property, told CBJ almost exactly a year ago. The project had been expected to break ground in the second quarter of 2020, but Armada Hoffler Properties (NYSE: AHH), Church's partner in the redevelopment, said it would be delayed "until economic conditions stabilize."

It took a little longer than Church had hoped.

But the Gaston Gazette reports now that work has recently started at the site, which is on Catawba Street in the vicinity of the city's downtown area. The project will eventually deliver nearly 240 luxury apartments and about 9,000 square feet of commercial space.

The price tag of the redevelopment has been pushed up to $50 million, the Gazette notes, as a result of spiking lumber costs caused by shortages stemming from the pandemic.

Church and his wife, Jennifer, purchased the mill property in July 2013 for $258,000. The project remained on hold for several years while the couple navigated different site plans, environmental concerns and other issues, with Armada Hoffler becoming a partner in 2018.

The firm postponed multiple projects last year, including the Ten Tryon tower uptown — another long-awaited development. It wasn't immediately clear whether work is moving forward on that or other projects in the company's pipeline.

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Chronicle Mill construction begins; project leaders eye fall 2022 completion

Construction of a $50 million hub in Belmont where people will one day shop, work and live in style kicked off earlier this month.

Activity at Chronicle Mill along Catawba Street has ramped up in recent days as workers rip up the damaged flooring within the mill and clean up rubble from recent demolition.

Workers tore down the east warehouse facing First Street and the west warehouse on the opposite side of the building to make room for construction, which includes a community park, a new five-story building, a small parking deck and adding another level to the former mill.

Land grading will begin in the next few weeks to prepare for construction, according to John Church, who purchased the former textile mill with his wife, Jennifer, in 2013 to use it for an adaptive reuse development. Armada Hoffler Properties became a majority partner in 2018 and will continue to oversee the design and management of the mill.

Home for some, fun for others

Chronicle Mill – named after Maj. William Chronicle, a Revolutionary War hero who was killed in the Battle of Kings Mountain – may not look like home right now, but 238 luxury apartments geared toward millennials will eventually take up most of future mixed-use complex.

Roughly 70% of the apartments will be studios, and the remaining will be one and two-bedroom units. Some units will have options for balconies, or patios on the ground floor, and a second bathroom, Church said.

While there are adaptive reuse projects in the area, Church said Chronicle Mill will cater to a new demographic not yet reached in Gaston County.

“It’s a higher-end development that is targeted toward millennials, retirees and people who want to downsize,” Church said. “It does focus on a new segment of the market.”

Rent will range from $1,000 to $1,600, and the apartments will vary in size – Church expects between 700 and 1,100 square-feet.

Redevelopment of the mill includes plans for 9,000 square-feet of space suited for restaurants, retail stores and offices. Some 1,500 square-feet will be used for the mill’s leasing office. Other amenities planned for the community include co-working space, a yoga studio, a club room, a fitness center and an outdoor pool and surrounding courtyard.

Two live-work units are included in the design, which are designated for business owners at Chronicle Mill who also want to live at the mill.

“It could be an artist, an attorney, a hairdresser or a massage therapist, theoretically, who could service people there,” Church said.

Project leaders purchased an additional half-acre and Chronicle Mill’s former laboratory building in front of the mill in 2020. Built in 1958, the 6,000-square-feet building was used to prototype new textile products for the mill, according to Church, but has been used as office space in recent years.

The additional property will be used for parking and more retail space.

Impacts of COVID-19

Armada Hoffler delayed construction the project, originally expected to be completed later this year, in 2020 due to economic instability during the pandemic. Workers have recently set a pace to open the mill in October 2022, though the mill could open in phases beginning sooner, according to Church.

“They’re really driving hard to get this thing done as quickly as possible,” he said.

Fortune Magazine reported last week that the price of lumber has nearly doubled due to a shortage prompted by the pandemic.

Rising lumber costs has driven the project’s bill up from $45 million to just north of $50 million, Church said.

Workers are recycling as much brick and wood as they can during the renovation. Church noted that parts of the recently demolished buildings could reappear as tables, benches and other furniture throughout the mill.

Transforming downtown

Downtown restaurants and retail stores already encourage steady foot traffic and busy streets on a nice day, but Church believes Chronicle Mill will bring revolutionary change to the area.

“Right now, it’s hard to imagine,” Church said. “It’s going to take everything up a notch in terms of how people will be in downtown Belmont. I think it will be a neat to see how it positively impacts the city.”

It’s been a long, complex journey for the Church family, filled with different iterations of what new life at Chronicle Mill would look like.

Add the uncertainty of the pandemic and a seemingly gradual approach to normalcy, Church now watches the challenges surrounding Chronicle Mill steadily resolving following nearly a decade of devotion to the concept.

“Doing a deal is one thing, constructing the project is another,” said Church, recalling a recent visit to the mill site. “All of a sudden [it was] very satisfying and exciting to see the change. For my wife and I, it’s been very satisfying seeing something that we’ve dreamed of come to fruition.”

You can reach reporter Gavin Stewart at the Gaston Gazette.

1. Ask your PM to run a Rental CMA, they can do this.

2. Track rents on Zillow for the neighborhood you are considering.  Set up a saved search and get notified of new rentals in the area.

3. Call local property managers and ask about rents in the area.

4. Run a rentometer report.

5. Check Facebook Marketplace and FB groups as Grant suggests.

6. Search for property managers in Charlotte on Google and hit their website, look at the inventory they have for rent and triangulate your potential rents.

Costar and Yardi publish market reports, these are multifamily but you can get an idea of rental rates and market dynamics through them and then triangulate your rental. Vacancy is running around 5% or less in Charlotte and outlying areas, in general, for good product.

Casino likely to open in Kings Mountain after feds approve revenue agreement between N.C., Catawba tribe

The casino is now likely to open in Kings Mountain after the federal government approved a revenue-sharing agreement between the Catawba Indian Nation and the state of North Carolina.

This seemingly clears the way for the casino to open near the state’s southern border.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs signed off on the compact last week.

The South Carolina tribe will offer Las Vegas-style gaming at a planned resort in Kings Mountain. The tribe says the casino could provide thousands of jobs to North Carolinians.

North Carolina currently has two casinos run by the Eastern Band of the Cherokees, who sued the Interior Department and the Catawba tribe last year to try to stop the new casino.

That suit is still pending in federal court.

In July 2020, leaders of the Catawba Nation tribe of South Carolina broke ground on land in Kings Mountain to build the new casino resort.

Local leaders, attorneys and Catawba Nation Chief William Harris all say the casino is happening - and it’s happening fast. They say the space, on Dixon School Road just off I-85, should become that resort as early as spring or summer of next year.

“I don’t know any word that will actually describe what it means to have a righting of a historical wrong,” Harris said. “If we have an opportunity to right a wrong, step toward it not away from it. And that’s what happened here.”

The new casino will cost nearly $300 million and is expected to house restaurants, table games and 1,300 slots.

Catawba Nation worked years for the day.

The groundbreaking came after the tribe won federal approval for the land, and faced a lawsuit against the project by The Eastern Band of Cherokees who operate their own casinos in western North Carolina.

“Indigenous people have had a hard road of hope for many many years,” Harris said. “So if we can come together, then there’s a phrase out there: this is ‘strength in unity.' So instead of doing inner fighting, let’s unite and make something better.”

They say the project will create about 4,000 new jobs and provide economic benefits for Cleveland County and for South Carolina, where the Catawba Nation calls home.

”We’re going to be able to put schools on our reservation because we didn’t have economic development to develop that,” Harris said. “So when we talk about jobs, schools... not only does that effect Catawba, but it effects this area.”

Developers say this would start with a temporary casino, with slots and other games opening first. Then, about 18 more months of work for the full resort to be complete.

“This is an economically depleted area of North Carolina. So yes, Catawba is going to benefit from this, the citizens of Catawba are going to benefit from this,” Harris said. “If times get tougher, economy tightens up, it will effect the phases. So just know that the dollar will drive the development.”

Published Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Another large industrial building is being developed in the Charlotte region, adding to a rapidly growing trend of bigger projects in recent months.

Charlotte-based Trinity Capital Advisors is developing Delta Industrial Park on Delta Drive in Gastonia. The project calls for a 600,000-square-foot industrial building that can be expanded up to 1 million square feet. There is not yet a firm timeline on when the project will deliver, said Massie Flippin, partner at Trinity Capital.

Flippin said site work has begun for the project and Trinity Capital has the ability to deliver the building in an "eight- to 12-month period." He said Trinity Capital is actively talking to several prospects for the project and the developer has not yet decided if it will be speculative.

"There's been an evolution in demand in terms of what tenants are looking for in terms of size," Flippin said. "There's been more absorption and desire from tenants, particularly in the e-commerce sector, to take larger buildings as everyone reassesses their supply chains."

Delta Industrial Park is a cross-dock building with 130 total dock doors, four drive-in doors and 36-foot clear heights. Trinity Capital says ideal uses for the building would be distribution, manufacturing, e-commerce and third-party logistics, among others. It will be located just off Exit 14 of Interstate 85 in west Gastonia.

Flippin said the location was ideal for the project because of its proximity to the interstate and a strong labor force.

"The fact that we can pursue 600,000-square-foot deals up to 1 million square feet on this project makes it a little more unique," Flippin said. "This particular site gives us a little more flexibility to chase a wider array of deals."

Delta Industrial Park is part of an ongoing effort by Trinity Capital to develop more industrial space in the Carolinas.

Trinity Capital is in the process of developing the 441,000-square-foot Alexander Commerce Park in Durham. Also in the Triangle, it is developing more buildings at industrial development Eastgate 540. In South Carolina, Trinity Capital is building Palmetto Commerce Park, which includes 850,000 square feet of industrial space.

"We love these Carolinas markets because they are East Coast-centric, which is certainly an attractive facet of people satisfying a piece of their supply chain with a single source," Flippin said. "If they're going to put a facility here, it is very reachable."

Gaston, Cleveland lithium operation to present proposed mine next week

Leaders of a lithium mining project expect to soon seek state approval to dig an open-pit mine in western Gaston County.

Piedmont Lithium, an Australian startup which hopes to soon re-domicile operations to the United States, has eyed 1,200 acres in rural northwest Gaston County, about six miles east of Cherryville, for its proposed mine since 2016.

The group plans to talk to Gaston County commissioners about their plans on Tuesday.

Underneath the surface of those 1,200 acres – mostly centered on the Hephzibah Church Road area near the Lincoln County line – sits a mass of spodumene concentrate, a mineral rich with lithium, which Piedmont Lithium believes will help meet the needs of the future battery-powered world.

Piedmont Lithium plans to mine spodumene in Gaston County and build a lithium hydroxide plant in neighboring Cleveland County. The proposed processing plant in Kings Mountain, which would be located along Dixon Road about 20 miles south of the mine, has already been approved by the state Department of Environmental Quality, according to Piedmont Lithium.

Piedmont Lithium will complete a local rezoning application and state mining application in April, according to Patrick Brindle, Piedmont Lithium's vice president of project management.

Rezoning for Piedmont Lithium’s mining land must be considered and approved by Gaston County commissioners.

Allen Fraley, who represents the Cherryville Township, which includes the mining site, on the commission, said commissioners know about the project, but have only scratched the surface of how the mine will affect Gaston County environmentally and economically.

“We’re very interested to see the final plans and once they do the application,” Fraley said. “It could be great news, as long as the people who will be adversely affected are compensated properly. That’s my big concern.”

Fraley prefers if Piedmont Lithium wants to mine in Gaston County, lithium production should also occur in the county, rather than in Kings Mountain.

“We would rather have the production facility, if there’s somewhere that it would work in Gaston County,” Fraley said. “Obviously we don’t want the big hole and none of the jobs and positive benefits from having it.”

Fraley looks forward to Piedmont Lithium’s presentation Tuesday night’s work session, which begins at 6 p.m. at the board room in the Gaston County Courthouse.

“We’re definitely going to do our homework. I can promise you that,” he said.

Commission Chairman Tom Keigher’s concerns mostly related to the impact to the quality of life around the site. Keigher expects the area will be subjected to severe noise pollution upon full build out, as well as road degradation.

“Are these trucks going to go through residential areas? Are they going to tear up roads? Because all the ore is going to be pretty heavy in those trucks,” he said.

In a video posted to Facebook by Commissioner Chad Brown, Brown questioned Piedmont Lithium’s plans to mine in Gaston County but produce next door in Cleveland County.

“I don’t think that’s right for Gaston County right now,” Brown said in the video. “Why didn’t they come to us and give us the lithium part, where we can do the batteries an all of that? We can make them here and sell them here.”

Piedmont Lithium expects the mine and plant to employ 300 people, who will make an average of $60,000 a year, plus roughly $30,000 in various benefits, according to previous reports.

Piedmont Lithium signed a sales agreement with Tesla in 2020 to sell a third of its annual production to Tesla for five years. The agreement begins upon delivery of the first product, which Piedmont Lithium expects will occur between July 2022 and July 2023.

You can reach reporter Gavin Stewart at the Gaston Gazette.

Why new-to-town developers are still salivating over Charlotte

By Katie Peralta Soloff | February 27, 2021

Even during a pandemic, out-of-town developers are buying up properties all over Charlotte.

Why it matters: National developers see Charlotte as a lucrative investment opportunity because of the city’s growth, in particular the number of young professionals who’ve moved here. “It’s important to follow the workforce,” said Aaron Lazovik, managing director of Acram Group.

• Charlotte, many firms say, is well positioned to rebound — especially when it comes to a physical return to offices.
• The pandemic is still on developers’ minds, though, and it’s shaping how they think about the projects here.

Driving the trend: Some of the most popular investment targets are old industrial buildings in hot neighborhoods.

• New York-based Acram bought its first Charlotte property in October 2019: A brick building at 300 Rampart St. in South End for $12.6 million. In late December, the firm bought 227 Southside Dr. in Lower South End for $14.5 million, county property records show.

Both properties are single-story former manufacturing plants in fast-growing neighborhoods. Both will include a mix of office and retail tenants (227 Southside is where Protagonist Brewing has its second location). They both have ample outdoor space, plus parking lots.

• In the post-pandemic return to work, these types of properties will have an advantage over crowded office towers with parking decks and elevators, the Acram team says.
• “In a post-COVID world, that’s pretty attractive. Tenants can control their own space and have direct access to outside air,” said Acram managing partner Matt Cassin.

Yes, but: It remains to be seen what demand for future office space will look like. In Charlotte, companies like Grant Thornton are downsizing, CBJ has reported.

• Furthermore, neighbors often worry that new development could drive up property values — and price longstanding residents or businesses out.

Back in South End, Kairoi Residential bought the 13.5-acre Stax fitness property at 3722 South Tryon for $12.65 million last fall. That was the San Antonio firm’s foray in Charlotte.

• At the Stax site, Kairoi plans to build a sprawling, high-end apartment community.

What drew them here was Charlotte’s diversified job growth, said Daniel Zunker, president of development. The city is a financial hub, but its STEM growth is equally impressive, Zunker says, and according to at least one list, we’re No. 1 in STEM growth nationally.

“We absolutely love Charlotte. It’s a place we’ve wanted to break in for a long time,” Zunker said. He describes four cities — Denver, Austin, Charlotte and Nashville — as the “new guard,” fast-growing cities that are ripe for investment.

“That’s where action is happening. That’s where businesses are going to be started. That’s where entrepreneurship is going to flourish,” Zunker said.

Austin-based Artesia Real Estate, also lured by the job and population growth, bought the old City North Business Center on North Tryon in 2018 for $8.8 million. Artesia has spent the last few years rehabbing the property for office and retail tenants.

By the numbers: City leaders anticipate nearly 385,000 people will move to Charlotte over the next two decades.

• There’s $3 billion in new development planned in 2021 for Uptown and surrounding neighborhoods like South End and midtown, according to a new report from Center City Partners.
• The Charlotte region has recovered nearly 88,000 of the jobs it lost in the first two quarters of 2020, according to the latest economic report from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. If Charlotte keeps up this pace of job growth, we could return to job levels we had pre-pandemic by the end of this year. [