Brixx's Beer Special

So we sat outside at Brixx last night with a group of friends and enjoyed Brixx's Saturday night $2.50 beer special. It was a German Lager that I can't remember the name of. Every Saturday night Brixx has a different beer special. Its a great deal and considering that their list of about 30 import beers are all great it is a fantastic way to try out new beers. I also had a vegetarian pizza that was great as well. I have two slices left which I think I'll enjoy once I'm done writing here.
Birkdale's live music band was great last night too. They played a good mix of 80s rock. We really enjoyed the live music and wound up sitting outside until about 11pm. The live music ends at 9:30 PM which seems a little early but I guess that since people live right above the shops it makes sense not to keep them up all night. What we were amazed by is how little of the music we were able to hear as we walked towards the main strip. We figure that since the speakers are pointer towards Sam Furr that the houses behind the village don't get much of the music.
What was nice about last night is that we didn't get to Brixx until about 8:30 PM. Since it was so cool out Birkdale was lively but not packed so we got an outside table right away. Even cooler, is that Brixx has these outdoor gas heaters that throw heat down on the tables so even though it was a little cool out we were quite comfortable. I'm thinking of getting one of these Resnor heaters for my back deck. I wonder how much they run and how hard it is to tap in to the existing gas line?

Are there too many homes for sale?

As we walk the neighborhood, we can't help but notice the number of houses for sale in the village. They seem to be growing faster than the weeds in some yards around here. I did a quick search of the MLS on the Keller Williams website returned 19 homes for sale within Birkdale Village. That seems like a lot - It's actually about 5% of the homes in the village (there are 400 homes in just the village in case you are curious). Many people are probably trying to lock in their solid real estate appreciation gains of the past year or two. I'm thinking the village has experienced a 12-20% increase in property values in the past year. So I wonder if this is just the time of the year that everyone plans to move as school gets out and everything looks its best as the flowers and tress blossom.
I remember thinking last spring that there were many homes for sale and they all sold. I'm thinking that if between now and June we clear this backlog of homes then property values will spurt up again. If these houses sit for a while then we have probably reach a plateau while the rest of the surrounding area catches up.
Another concern that I have is the number of investors that seem to be buying homes in Birkdale to rent them out. I think that this drives up values in the sort term but at some point all of those investors have to get out as well. But I also know that most landlords in the village also live in another village home so that goes a long way towards ensuring that the landlords care about the community.
I also know that there seems to be many people moving here. In fact, have a family member and a friend both moving to Birkdale Village before June 1st - there goes 10% of the available housing stock. It seems that whole clusters of families are moving south together.
Well, I'll write more about this topic as it develops. I'm hopeful that Birkdale will continue to appreciate and remain the vibrant place that it currently is.

A Time to Sit - Starbucks, Wine Bar, or Cafe Mia

This is my favorite time of the year for sitting outside. I especially love the mornings which are still crisp and slightly cool but which warm up slowly when the sun arises.
Morning. Here in Birkdale my favorite place to sit outside in the mornings is at the Starbucks. The coffee is ok but what I really enjoy is the people that Starbucks attracts. It is energizing to see so much life in one place and to see people starting their day on such a nice morning. Its amazing how many business meetings take place over a cup of Joe at Starbucks. What is also amazing is the number of people willing to brave the wind, dew, or just about any elements in order to sit outside. I myself prefer sunny days but this past Sunday I even saw a woman sitting out under the overhang during that slogging rain storm we experienced.

Noon. Although I haven't had too many noontime meals in the village we mostly prefer Brixx (Brick oven Pizza) or Red Rocks (Not sure how to classify this one) for their lunch time fare.

Evening. Choices here vary depending on what we seek. If sitting out to enjoy wine is our desire then the Wine Bar is the place to be although we often have to wait a bit for outside seating and then fight for chairs to boot. If we desire beer then I highly recommend Brixx with its various foreign beers. You can't beat the Sampler beer platter which lets you sample four exotic beers at a reasonable price. Or even better is its Saturday night $2.50 beer special. We've sat outside many a night in the summer at Brixx listening to the live music. Lastly, our favorite ice cream, coffee, and conversation stop is Cafe Mia. Marco and Mia, the owners, and, yes, he is Italian, and double, yes, the cafe is named after his wife, Mia, have a wonderful selection of Gelato Ice Cream. It truly is delicious. They also have great Italian coffee which is way better than Starbucks. (On a side note they recently started serving a breakfast and a lunch but we haven't checked it out just yet).

So those are our choices. Of course there are more that we like at Random times: Jason's Deli (Good place for a dog too to sit out with you), Galway Hooker, Eez, and lastly just the plain old benches in Birkdale are nice too.

The Village at Lake Norman

Friend or foe? Will the potential Village at Lake Norman compliment or compete with Birkdale Village. The Huntersville Herald and Urban Planet both have interesting facts and thoughts about the proposed development. 900,000 feet or retail, 300 living units, a new Hwy 77 exit 26, Westmoreland expanded to 4 lanes - Wow! These are some big numbers and changes for what is currently a country road!

The debate online seems to center around whether this will create a traffic nightmare or is this the density that Charlotte needs to have to accommodate the influx of new residents. I'm in favor of the latter, density, only if it means that other lands are set aside for preservation and green space. What is the likelihood of large amounts of green space being preserved? Probably close to Nil. So what I think will happen is that we will have the density and around it we will have the typical sprawl and in the end we will be stuck with horrendous traffic. Sorry if that discourages anyone from moving here but, hopefully, the three towns community can figure out how to build more roads and expand the current greenway plan. Someone on Urban planet made an interesting comment:

"This would mean the Lake area would have Exits, 23, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 36. Anywhere else in the state, this would be it's own metro area."

Wow, I did not think of it this way. That is allot of exits in one short stretch of highway!

On the other hand it would be really cool to live in between two awesomely planned mixed use communities and to be able to walk between the two on the McDowell Creek Greenway, click to read previous post. I imagine that if they could incorporate enough commercial space then people could truly live, work, play here North of Charlotte. As soon as a plan for this development comes out then I will try and post it here to this blog.

"When you add in Bryton and the Langtree mixed use new urbanist developments, this means that 2,100,000 sq ft of upscale retail space has been announced for Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius. If you add in some smaller TOD projects on the proposed rail line, this number rises to about 2.5 million sq. ft. This is an amazing amount of retail if all of it is built "

Another great comment from Urban planet. I also wonder how many Birkdale developments are possible along one stretch of highway. I just remembered that Bryton is being planned between Exits 18 and 23. That too will be a massive mixed use community. It will definitely be interesting to see how this all develops. Of course, I would rather see more Birkdale's then the Harris Blvd strip mall after strip mall style development. If you never go to Harris Blvd then you are probably lucky because it has lots and lots of lights and lots of strip malls.

Of course, my load officer also made a comment that as traffic gets worse people will want to live in mixed use because then they don't HAVE to drive anywhere if they don't want to. Ok, so now that I am wrapping up this random thought debate, I want to add a caveat for any friends from the DC, NY, or Boston metro areas. The traffic here is NOTHING compared to what is normal in those metro areas! We are many years away from being that bad. But I guess that everything is relative.

Birkdale vs Northlake

I attended a BBQ this evening at our friends new house in Wesley heights just West of Charlotte. Most people at the party live north of Charlotte and we were discussing the relatively new Northlake Mall off Exit 18 on Hwy 77. The party was predominantly women (seems to be a Charlotte thing I'll have to write about in a future post). Most agreed that they were not particularly fond of the new Northlake Mall. However, they all expressed concern that since many of the same stores were at both Northlake and Birkdale that Birkdale would eventually suffer.

Thankfully, the Charlotte Observer reported the following:

With Northlake mall now six months old, it's showing no signs of harming its nearest major competition, Birkdale Village. Some retail observers thought the proximity of the open-air Birkdale to the Northlake traditional enclosed mall, along with the fact that several major stores are duplicated in both spots, might lead to a shakeout.
But there's plenty of demand to go around, experts say. "There's really not been any negative impact from the mall," said Darryl Cater, spokesman for Inland Real Estate Group of Companies Inc., Birkdale's ..."

I for one hope that Birkdale maintains its strong appeal. Northlake may not be much now but with both a Lowes and a Super target opening right across from the mall it might become more attractive in the future. I personally think that it is a shame that the city of Charlotte let them build Northlake like they did. At first the developer went to the town of Huntersville which turned the developer down. So Charlotte being the great neighbor that it is let the developer build the mall right on the city/town limits. Why isn't Northlake Mall a mixed use development itself. I mean that Hwy 77/Exit 18 is the epitome of poor planning and sprawl at its best. On one corner there is Harris Corners Parkway a commercial office complex. On two corners are currently or soon will be big box stores. And, lastly, there is the mall. I did the math assuming that 1500 people work in Harris corners they will have to make 180,000 car trips a year through the intersection just to get lunch. Why doesn't the mall have commercial buildings above it. Workers could walk down to the food court or shop in the mall, parking could be consolidated since workers work on weekdays and malls are crowded on weeknights and weekends, and land around the mall could have been preserved for walking trails or something.

Well, enough ranting about better possible land uses and back to the original thought of this post. Will Northlake threaten or compliment Birkdale? Is there room enough North of Charlotte for both and all of the other retail that is planned for the area? I personally think so - except maybe in the dead of winter. Let me know what you think.

While searching for information about the developments around Northlake I found this interesting Urban Planet website that describes how Northlake Mall came about and has many local reactions to its development.

Here's Northlake Under Development:

McDowell Creek Greenway

Birkdale will eventually be connected to the Mecklenburg Country Trailways system. McDowell Creek which runs right behind Birkdale is part of that plan. Above is the map of the Birkdale Village piece of the trail that will incorporate our current pond walkway and will run right behind the movie theater. Here is the link to Mecklenburg County's McDowell Creek Page and Map:

http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Park+and+Rec/Greenways/Upper+McDowell+Creek.htm.

This section of the Greenway will initially run 1.5 miles from West Moreland Road to Sam Furr. It will connect Birkdale, Stratford Forest, the future Robbin's Park, and the Alexander Chase neighborhood. The design is largely complete and they should start construction this summer.

I wrote Jason Pauling, Mecklenburg County's Greenway Planner, to suggest that the trail might be better off running beside the village along the gas line that runs between the village itself and the Greens at Birkdale Houses. Here is his great response:

"Thank you for your email and questions. The issues at Sam Furr relate to the fact that we will not be able to go under Sam Furr at this time due to the fact that the box culverts are too small, plus we do not own any land next to the creek and would have a tough time trying to get through the Birkdale golf course. Therefore, the best crossing would be at the intersection of Birkdale Commons Parkway and Sam Furr Road as you have mentioned. We would most likely widen the sidewalk along Sam Furr, which is currently 5-feet wide and separated from the road by a planting strip. We have not researched the possibility of using the gas easement, but I will do that and let you know if it looks feasible. Birkdale Commons Parkway contains sidewalk and bike lanes, and is a good overland connector for the greenway to continue. The next leg of McDowell after that will most likely extend from the end of Birkdale Commons Parkway, back to the creek, and then run behind the Wynfield neighborhood toward Gilead Road, where it will connect to the Torrence/Lower McDowell Creek system."

I also asked about a future possible connection to the northcross shopping center and eventually to the light rail stop at Sam Fur/73 and 115. Can you say weekend morning walks to the Bagel Bin? He replied:

"As far as a connection to Northcross, there is a tributary of McDowell Creek called Caldwell Station Creek that runs behind the Northcross Center. Not sure if it runs all the way to 115, but it gets close. I think that developing a greenway along this tributary is something that would be in the Town of Huntersville and Town of Cornelius Greenway Master Plan. It's a good idea, although getting under I-77 would be a challenge and major cost factor. Check with Michael Jaycocks with the Town of Huntersville Park and Rec. dept. to see if this creek is in their master plan. His number is 704-766-2228. In the meantime, We will be improving the existing boardwalk/bridge crossing at Townley Road, which will provide a connection to Northcross Drive, where there is a CATS Park and Ride lot. By using the greenway and the boardwalk/bridge, you would avoid having to get on Sam Furr Road. Safety of bicyclists and pedestrians, and connections to a number of destinations is our primary goal."

I look forward to the day a few years from now when I could
eventually Bike for miles on the interconnected Greenway system of Mecklenburg County.

The Village Beginnings

Did you know that Birkdale Village was an Equine Farm? I had heard dairy but the developers website actually says equine farm. It's also amazing when we meet a local who tells of riding their bikes as kids up Sam Furr to the intersection of Hwy 21. At that time there was no highway entrance or exit and both 73 and 21 were just two lane roads. What is equally amazing is how few locals we meet in our travels around the area. That's part of what we like about this place. Almost everyone here is new and that makes everyone so much more willing to reach out and engage their neighbors in line at Starbucks, the Bagel Bin, or anywhere really for that matter.

While designing Birkdale the developers took extra care to ensure minimal conflict between the various uses. For example, the street lights are lower to the ground than typical street lamps and have lower watt bulbs so that the apartments above are not bothered by the light. However, to ensure that the retail had enough light and that pedestrians felt safe they added many more street lights than normal as well.

Did you know that Birkdale village has 15,500 parking spaces. Yes, that's fifteen thousand! I find this hard to believe because there just doesn't seem to be that many spaces. Especially so on nice summer nights when you see cars waiting in line for parking spaces - thankfully, we live in the Greens at Birkdale and don't have to worry about parking.

Did you know that Birkdale Village was patterned on a Nantucket village, which has two to three story buildings with offices/residences above first floor shops. Of course, Birkdale's buildings are much larger than a typical village building.

Here is an except about the humble beginnings:

"In Northern Mecklenburg County, just North of Charlotte, suburban developments and golf course communities are quickly replacing what was once farmland. As the population continues to grow, residents have expressed concern that the area lacks a sense of place and community. Pappas Properties, LLC, and Crossland, Inc. kept this concern in mind when they developed Birkdale Village, a mixed-use, village style town center. The center combines 233,000 square feet (21,646 square meters) of street-level retail and 54,000 feet (4,924-square-meter) movie theater surrounding a town green where residents and visitors gather for community events."