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Feb. 04, 2005
Target to anchor mixed-use complex
SuperTarget to open in October 2007
near new mall off I-77 in north
Mecklenburg
DOUG SMITH
A SuperTarget will anchor
NorthCrest, a mixed-use development planned next to Northlake Mall off
Interstate 77 in north
Mecklenburg
.
Target Corp. recently paid $7.5
million for 16 acres next to the entrance road to the mall under
construction on a section of
W.T. Harris Boulevard
formerly named
Reames Road
.
In addition to the 174,000-
square-foot SuperTarget, NorthCrest will include a 120,000- square-foot
retail village and about 150 condo or apartment units, said Tom McMillan,
a partner in Collett & Associates, the developer.
The 1.1 million-square-foot mall,
to open Sept. 15, has touched off a commercial and residential building
boom. Retailers are eager to follow the growth with shops and services.
Northlake will create a
destination for shopping, and Target and other nearby retailers should
benefit from its traffic.
SuperTargets -- typically about
175,000 square feet -- offer about 40 percent more selling space than
regular Target stores and include grocery departments, delis and Starbucks
coffee shops.
They seek to attract a more
upscale customer than Wal-Mart Supercenters by emphasizing presentation
and ambience versus the warehouse feel of a discount retailer, retail
analysts say. Wal-Mart Supercenters are slightly larger at more than
200,000 square feet.
McMillan said Target Corp. has
been involved in the design of the NorthCrest store, which will feature
more windows than a typical Target and create "an open, airy
feeling."
"It's nice to have them as a
partner, providing input from what they've learned from all over the
country," he said.
The pedestrian-oriented retail
village, which likely will include a pair of anchors totaling 15,000 to
20,000 square feet each, will be designed to mesh architecturally with the
SuperTarget, he said.
Together, the Target store and
shopping village will total about 294,000 square feet, roughly the size of
Cotswold Village Shops at Randolph and Sharon Amity roads in southeast
Charlotte
.
Target Corp. has set a tentative
opening date of October 2007 at NorthCrest because it wants to make sure
road work around the mall is complete, McMillan said.
The roads, which will give
shoppers access to Interstate 485, Interstate 85 and I-77, will enable
Target to draw from a large regional market area.
McMillan said Collett &
Associates might be able to start site work on the 35-acre tract for the
retail portion by the third quarter. He estimated the value of the retail
portion at $30 million-plus.
NorthCrest also includes a
1.9-acre parcel earmarked for a fast food restaurant, he said.
A residential developer would be
brought into the project to build the condos or apartments.
McMillan doesn't have a timetable
yet for the residential phase. "I think the market will need to
mature a little before we start the multi-story residential," he
said.
The partners in NorthCrest are
Steve Vermillion of Harris, Murr & Vermillion, Johnny Harris of
Lincoln Harris and John Collett of Collett & Associates.
Collett & Associates worked
with Core Properties Inc. to acquire land for the project. Core's Rich
Barta represented Target in the land transaction.
Core also is the project's leasing
agent.
Target has 1,313 stores in 47
states. In the
Charlotte
area, it has 10 Target stores, including a SuperTarget off I-77 in
Mooresville.
The chain seems to be focused on
rapid expansion in the
Charlotte
market.
Last week, it paid $3.6 million
for 10.57 acres in the Blakeney mixed-use community at Rea and Ardrey-Kell
roads in south
Charlotte
.
That 124,717-square-foot store
will be two miles south of it similar-sized StoneCrest Target at
Rea Road
and I-485.
Target
also plans to open a store atop a
Home
Depot
EXPO
Design
Center
in 2007 as part of Pappas Properties redevelopment of the
Midtown Square
shopping center site near uptown.
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