Townhomes to join Huntersville mixed-use area
Rosedale already has retail, restaurants
"Republished with permission from The Charlotte Observer.  
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By DOUG SMITH

Meeting Street Homes is preparing to start a new townhome project in Huntersville's Rosedale commercial-residential mixed-use community.

Huntersville recently approved rezoning about three acres in Rosedale to permit construction of 26 townhomes and seven live-and-work units.

Sam Burns, division manager of Meeting Street Homes, said shops and restaurants are open around the site, making it ideal for a neotraditional, pedestrian-friendly housing.

"Usually what happens is you build the housing first and then wait for the retail development to fill in around it," he said.

Rosedale, which covers roughly 80 acres, includes about 30 retail/restaurant businesses, offices, a day-care center and more than 18 acres of park land. It's on Gilead Road at Interstate 77's Exit 23.

The townhomes, designed by David Furman Architecture, will be built around a landscaped common area behind a Harris Teeter supermarket and a Johnny Rocket's '50s-style restaurant.

Prices range from $117,900 for the smallest two-story brick townhome (1,025 square feet) to $233,000 for a three-story, 2,020-square-foot end unit with two-levels of living space above an office or a shop.

Burns said Meeting Street Homes is starting the permitting process and expects to begin construction in about six weeks. The first units should be ready for occupancy by May or June, he said.

Each townhome has a private courtyard, a fireplace and a one-car or two-car garage. Live/work units have a courtyard, but garages are optional.

They are being sold as true townhomes, not condominiums.

Townhome owners, like single-family homeowners, get a deed to their unit and the land it sits on. Condominium buyers, on the other hand, own only the space inside their units.

Townhome, condominium and small single-family residential projects are continuing to be announced even in this sluggish economy, developers say, because mortgage rates are low enough to entice buyers.

Some Charlotte-area lenders, for example, were posting 30-year fixed mortgage rates as low as 6.25 percent this week.

David Simonini formed Meeting Street Homes last year with partner Joe Roy to apply custom-home attention to detail and architectural correctness to building about 120 single-family houses, condominiums and townhomes a year.

That's a different niche from Simonini's high-end custom homes, which sell for an average price of about $1.7 million.

Meeting Street also is developing townhomes in Cornelius and Davidson and doing The Traditions at Ballantyne Country Club, an empty-nester targeted project of 26 single-family homes in south Charlotte.

Doug Smith's Notebook

Ballantyne Commons East has signed three new restaurant tenants, bringing the 135,000-square-foot shopping center off Ballantyne Commons Parkway at U.S. 521 to 98 percent leased, says Lincoln Harris broker Paxton Hollar.

Fox and Hound English Pub and Grille will occupy the former Cooker's restaurant space - about 7,200 square feet. Dennis Thompson and Total Entertainment Restaurant Corp. opened the first pub this year in the old Atlantic Beer & Ice location on North Tryon Street.

Planet Noodle, a new concept by Planet Grille owner Norman Block, will open in about a month in 2,600 square feet. Block said it will seat about 85 people and feature noodle dishes with "light, broth-type sauces" from around the world.

The Wok, which the owners describe as "upscale Chinese - between a bistro and takeout" - will open by the first of the year in 1,322 square feet. It will seat about 30 inside and have outdoor seating as well. Patrons order from a menu board at the counter, but all food is cooked to order.

Duke Energy, the largest tenant in the 581,666-square-foot Wachovia Center at 400 S. Tryon St. increased its space by 18,348 square feet. That brings its total in the 32-story building to 354,561.

Meredith Gubler of Trinity Partners represented building owner Equity Office Properties, and Duke's in-house real estate team represented the tenant.