Thu, Jul. 03, 2003 
Condos planned near shopping center
Expected senior center also helped `Polo Club' select Matthews site
DOUG SMITH

Wherever a giant shopping center goes, more development is sure to follow.

Lifestyle Development Co. is the latest residential builder to find opportunity near 620,000-square-foot Sycamore Commons shopping center, which opened about two years ago at East Independence Boulevard (U.S. 74) and Matthews Township Parkway (N.C. 51).

Owner Brock Fankhauser, whose "pinwheel" style condominiums target empty nesters and active seniors, plans 44 units in a 12.4-acre project called The Polo Club.

The convenience of Sycamore Commons, within a half-mile, made the decision easy for the developer, but there were other factors.

Matthews plans to build a $2 million senior center on about 10 acres next to the condos, and Presbyterian Hospital Matthews is nearby on Matthews Township Parkway, a fact certain to be of interest to seniors.

"We think building next to a senior center will be a recipe for success," Fankhauser said.

The Polo Club's two- and three-bedroom, two-car garage condos will range from 1,300 square feet to 1,900 square feet and sell in the $150,000 to $200,000-range.

A new residential project targeting buyers in the 45-year-old to 75-year-old range already is under construction on the opposite side of Matthews Township Parkway.

DeWitt Real Estate Services of Raleigh is developing Bella Sera, 166 townhomes with two- to four-units to a building. They are priced from $189,900 to $220,000.

Lifestyle Development's copyrighted pinwheel design features four condos to a building. Units are configured so you see only one front door from any angle, giving the structure the appearance of a stately home.

Fankhauser said The Polo Club, valued at about $7 million, will be similar to its first Charlotte project: Trellis Pointe, off Albemarle Road next to a Target store nearing completion.

A sunroom will continue to be a prominent feature in most units at The Polo Club, but the exterior design has been tweaked to include more stone and brick.

Fankhauser plans to develop the project as a small village, incorporating the property's streams and rolling terrain. He has taken reservations on 20 units in the past two months.

If construction starts in September as planned, he said, the first units could be ready by early next year. Lifestyle Development is negotiating for additional land that could expand the project by 24 units.

At Trellis Pointe, which Fankhauser announced about two years ago, 20 of 62 condos remain for sale in the $130,000 to $180,000 range.

Lifestyle Development uses that project to illustrate the pinwheel design to potential buyers at The Polo Club.