Are we crazy? I loved the opinion piece in today's Charlotte Observer in the Local & State section. I live in Birkdale Village and I am all for Mixed Use Communities. I also lived in Germany with their tight knit village surrounded by farm fields and wild live areas interconnected with biking and walking paths - mixed use is a phenomenal way to life.However, I predict that the Village at Lake Norman by Cornelius Bromont LLC will be a disaster for Cornelius and the North meck area. We are already suffering a retail glut. The entire length of Catawba will soon be more retail shopping centers, the shoppes at Birkdale is going in on 73, and the new center just opened behind the existing Target at Exit 25. The Village at Lake Norman itself will probably be successful but at what price to the other existing shopping centers?
1 - Northcross Shopping Center will definitely suffer - Old Navy is already closing its location there in favor of the new store on exit 36. And if a Super Target does go in, Target will close the existing store here as well. Make that two empty big box stores about 1 mile from the Village at Lake Norman.
2 - Birkdale will suffer - Birkdale already has ten vacancies. That has to hurt the current facility owners. And now two more chains are filing for bankruptcy:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080220/retail_bankruptcies.html
3 - Catwaba Ave looks terrible as it is. Do we need another reason to add to the vacant run down shops on this road too?
Overall, the entire 77 corridor is over building on retail. How can new home permits be plunging while new retail construction is sky rocketing? My partners and I personally spent the past year trying to find a viable commercial retail site to build on but we couldn't make any of the numbers work. Everything currently being built is speculative. It would be way better for the local governments to be conservative now and keep the land undeveloped and pristine for future development than to try to redevelop future run-down and vacant shopping centers. Does Cornelius want to be the next Independence boulevard? No one I know says, "Oh, look at that vacant shopping center what a great place to live!" However, everyone I know wants a piece of nature to live next to.
I hope we get smart about our growth. Here's the opinion article in the obersver today in case you missed it: "Don't dive right into growth"
1 - Northcross Shopping Center will definitely suffer - Old Navy is already closing its location there in favor of the new store on exit 36. And if a Super Target does go in, Target will close the existing store here as well. Make that two empty big box stores about 1 mile from the Village at Lake Norman.
2 - Birkdale will suffer - Birkdale already has ten vacancies. That has to hurt the current facility owners. And now two more chains are filing for bankruptcy:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080220/retail_bankruptcies.html
3 - Catwaba Ave looks terrible as it is. Do we need another reason to add to the vacant run down shops on this road too?
Overall, the entire 77 corridor is over building on retail. How can new home permits be plunging while new retail construction is sky rocketing? My partners and I personally spent the past year trying to find a viable commercial retail site to build on but we couldn't make any of the numbers work. Everything currently being built is speculative. It would be way better for the local governments to be conservative now and keep the land undeveloped and pristine for future development than to try to redevelop future run-down and vacant shopping centers. Does Cornelius want to be the next Independence boulevard? No one I know says, "Oh, look at that vacant shopping center what a great place to live!" However, everyone I know wants a piece of nature to live next to.
I hope we get smart about our growth. Here's the opinion article in the obersver today in case you missed it: "Don't dive right into growth"
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