The Village at Lake Norman

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"

Cool Slide Show Addition

So tonight I added a cool slide show to the right side of this page. I found it on slide.com. It looks pretty cool and it displays pictures of the Birkdale area. Its too bad that I can't figure out how to save the pictures from the slide show to my computer. This slide show also has pictures of Exit 23's Presbyterian Hospital and Rosedale shooping center. Ah, well, they look good too. If you go to the link then you can also view slide presentations of other interesting areas in Birkdale.

Ideas for the Empty Stores

Have you noticed that Pike's has gone out of business in Birkdale? As a group of us were sitting out at the wine bar tonight we were musing about what would be a good fit for that location. Someone also pointed out that the space on the corner behind the old Pike's is also vacant. So with two spaces to think about here is a listing of our ideas about what would be a good fit for these locations.

The Front Side Prime Corner Slot: We all agreed that this would probably do best as another Red Rocksy type restaurant. The new owners definitely need to make more use of the outdoor seating possibilities. Pike's did not use its prime location real estate well enough. That corner gets the most sun in Birkdale and only Brixx uses the outdoor seating. I also suggested that they could transform the street side windows into sliding ones that open up horizontally which will allow the indoor and outdoor spaces to flow together. It was also suggested that a restaurant call 'Restaurant X' from Davidson could move in. Restaurant X's Irish owners serve a great fare. We also came up with a BY style bakery/deli. I know that the bagel bin is great but it would be awesome to have that in Birkdale vice driving over to Northcross. Plus, the bakery could sell all sorts of other breads and really good meats.
As for the space behind the former Pike's, someone suggested a performing arts studio so that parents could drop their children off and enjoy the time in Birkdale. Perhaps, this could be the bakery location? How about a personal training studio? A massage/spa place? We all felt that since it was off the main street that it would be tough for a retailer or traditional restaurant to survive in that space. We also though that it was odd that the store front has been under construction continuously for at least the past year. Who knows, maybe they've had a succession of tenants drop off after they already started remodeling.
Well, whatever fills these voids we hope that they do well and offer us all some new service and yet another reason not to drive somewhere else when we don't have to.

The Huntersville Herald

Does everyone get that local paper in their mailbox on a weekly basis? I'm talking about The Huntersville Herald which usually has a run down of local development projects and upcoming issues with the school board, town boards, police departments, and sports. I mostly like reading about the new developments and new roadway plans that the towns are considering. I would put the Huntersville Herald on par with the Charlotte Observer's Lake Norman section published on Thursdays and Sundays. The Charlotte Observer has better color layouts but The Huntersville Herald goes into much more depth on each specific story. Post a comment below about which newspaper you like better for your local news source. Even better, if you know of another informative local source, then post a comment about that as well.

The Herald's websites says that it is published by 5 PM each Friday, which figures that it gives them the entire work week to get it finalized. The Herald is a Mecklenburg Newspaper Group, LLC and is mailed for free to residents of Huntersville and Cornelius. Everyone else pays $35 per year for a subscription. I'm guessing that the newspaper is soley advertising supported since it is mailed out free and its website is plastered with ads for advertising in the paper. I'm amazed that a free ad support newspaper that serves such a relatively small community can survive.

Since finding their online website, I've been reading most of the articles on the papers website related to developments around the village. Right now I'm reading a complicated story about the future developments of Cornelius' planned Robbin's Park which is currently next to the Greens at Birkdale but which could be swapped to a further location. Anyways, if you want to read up on really local news then The Huntersville Herald is a great source.

Living in Birkdale and thinking of an MBA

I have many ideas for topics to write in this blog and one that I have been discussing with various people that I meet on our twice daily dog walks is the quality and differences of local MBA programs. Not counting numerous online programs available the local region offers three quality MBA programs within commuting distance: UNCC, Wake Forest, and Duke.

UNCC
UNCC offers the most flexible MBA program close to Huntersville. This program allows students to take classes at their convenience - weeknights, weekends, or weekdays. There is no fixed schedule (unlike the next two programs) and you can take up to five years to complete the program. I am not sure of the cost but I think it runs about $18-$30K


Wake Forest
Wake Forest is a top 30 ranked school and has a Charlotte Business School campus dedicated to Charlotte. Currently it is located in South Park right across from South Park Mall. In a few years they will have a dedicated uptown campus that should make commuting there much easier for use North Meck residents. This program starts and finished within 22 months which offers the chance to bond and network with a group of classmates.
Wake has an evening and a Friday/Saturday format and they begin every August and January. An Executive MBA runs about $56K.

Duke

Duke is a top 10 ranked school and has a few Executive programs available. I realize that this is a 2.5 hour drive from Birkdale/Charlotte. However, Duke has a Cross Continent program that meets once a quarter for a week straight and then follows up the second half of each class with an online portion. It is a lock step program like Wake Forest. What's neat about this program is that you would only drive to Duke 4 times a year and before each class transitions to the online phase you actually get to meet your classmates and spend a week networking. Additionally, one week of the program is spent in Europe and Asia respectively.

An Executive MBA from Duke runs about $96K.



Grad School Prep
Before you consider any of the above MBA programs or many other grad school programs you'll likely have to take the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, or MCAT. UNCC's Continuing Ed Department has a great preparation program that is definitely worth the money. It is cheaper than Kaplan or any of the commercial classes but the instructor is awesome. I took the class and it was great.

Do you know of any other programs that I have not researched, then let me know.

Ramsey Creek Dog Park

Is Fido driving you nuts? Does he need attention and wants to play? Then the Dog Park is for you. The Dog park extracts all that excess energy and leaves our dog content to sleep. Watch out though. The dog park is addictive. Once we started going our dog was so much better behaved that when it was raining or we couldn't go it was amazing how bad we felt for him.

Ok, so this is not exactly in Birkdale Village. But since so many people here have dogs we feel we must tell everyone about this great place.

It is a 4 Acre off leash place for your dog(s) to run free. Our dog absolutely loves it as he leads other dogs on a great circular chase around the park or as he play boxes with other dogs his size. Its great for the people too. We have met so many wonderful people at the dog park. In fact, we tell family back home that since moving to Charlotte all of our friends come from the dog park or the gym. The best times to go are weekdays from 5 PM till dusk (later in the summer due to the heat) and Saturday mornings 9 to 11 AM. There are two sections. One for large dogs and one for small dogs but everyone just goes to the big section. The little dogs have a knack for taking care of themselves.

When you go for the first time, dog not walk in with your dog on the leash. So many new people try to protect their dogs by keeping them on the leash for the first time. This doesn't work out so well when 10 or more dogs come running to check out and say hello to their playmate! So many poor owners become entangled. It is both best and most appropriate to let your dog off the leash between the two entrance gates and trust that the dogs will sort out appropriate behavior on their own. Once accustomed to so many other dogs your dog will have a blast!

Check out the Dog Park Link and Application Form on the right side of this blog. A $35 Pooch Pass is required but this is good because all dogs must be vet certified and vaccinated to get a pass. This helps protect all dogs.

How To Get There:

1 – Take a left out of Birkdale Village at NC-73 W/Sam Furr Rd
2 – Turn right at W Catawba Ave
3 – Turn Left at Nantz Rd
4 – Follow the signs for Ramsey Creek Park. The Dog Park is on your left as you enter the Park.