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.

Upper McDowell Creek Master Plan

The attached map from The Huntersville Herald was really cool. I like how it lays out the area and color codes the future plans for the area around Birkdale. The only question that I have about this map that I haven't seen written about anywhere else is what the 'future development' is that is in the top left corner of the map. That would be the area along Catawba Ave in front of Robbins Park. I was always under the impression that Robbins Park would cover all of the land from McDowell Creek to Catawba.

Here's an except from Jason Pauling who's email I included in a previous post:

"Greenway master plans show proposed Upper McDowell eventually connecting to the Torrence Creek /Lower McDowell Creek greenway. Pauling said this will probably not happen for another five to 10 years, however. Plans to extend it in the north to Jetton Road extension may occur within a decade or so. It all depends on land acquisition. The county is currently working on plans to extend the Torrence Creek greenway from Cedarfield to Rosedale, and west from Cedarfield to Beatties Ford Road. That work is expected to begin next year and be completed sometime in 2008."

Robbins Park

This Robbins park Map. Notice at the bottom of the map the road connection to Birkdale village. I believe that this is Pennington that it will run into. Also, it looks like the road will run across McDowell Creek over to Stratford forest.

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.

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.

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.

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.