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May. 05, 2005
Mixed-use project to replace old mill
Homes, retail planned to rise after
1930s building demolished
DOUG SMITH
A
Charlotte
real estate developer plans to demolish a mid-1930s mill complex in the
Oakhurst neighborhood and redevelop the land with homes, stores and
services.
David Krug & Associates
recently paid about $2.2 million for Woonsocket Spinning Co.'s
200,000-plus square feet of buildings and approximately 16-acre site at
4701 Monroe Road
.
David Krug said his company is
still formulating a development master plan for the east
Charlotte
property, but he expects to combine single-family and multifamily homes
with retail uses.
"Residential -- very
affordable residential -- would be a major component with retail on the
front providing more services to the community," he said. "A
grocery store would be outstanding. We believe there's a real shortage of
services."
By "very affordable," he
said he anticipates homes would be priced consistently with others in the
neighborhood.
The site, across
Chippendale Road
from
Oakhurst
Elementary School
, backs up to the Oakhurst neighborhood's bungalow homes and shady
streets.
"That's the beauty of
this," Krug said. "Oakhurst is a ... community just tucked in
there with lots of rooftops you don't see."
His project is another example of
the "big infill" development that's spreading to neighborhoods
where buyers priced out of the burgeoning uptown market can still find a
home near the urban core.
In
Wesley
Heights
on the west side, for example, the first of 147 homes are under
construction in 13-acre
Lela Court
. Similar projects are under way or under discussion in such neighborhoods
as NoDa,
Optimist
Park
, Cherry, Second Ward and
Belmont
.
Krug said his company is most
interested in developing the commercial component in Oakhurst and likely
would bring in specialists in single-family and townhome development to do
the residential.
He said he was surprised that soil
contamination wouldn't be a major problem, considering that the mill had
been operating there since the mid-1930s.
But, Krug said, "The cost of
asbestos removal and demolition will be substantial."
The redevelopment also will
include the neighboring Arrow Laundry & Cleaners property, which
Krug's company purchased for about $162,000.
He's acquiring land for the
mixed-use project through a holding company named Lake City Tractor Supply
LLC.
The mill building was pieced
together over the years with additions -- including a metal structure --
and didn't have any standout features that would make it worth preserving,
Krug said.
A construction timetable is yet to
be determined. But Krug said he plans to start asbestos removal and
demolition as soon as
Woonsocket
vacates.
He said the woolen yard mill
closed in January but remains in control of the building for another month
or two while it packs and ships out equipment.
Woonsocket
has the right to stay longer if it needs more time to complete the move,
Krug said.
The bulk of the redevelopment
property is zoned industrial, but it also includes some multifamily land,
he said.
"I don't think we will need
all the industrial land for the commercial development," Krug said.
"We probably will end up back filling it with a lot more
residential."
Krug said his company had
confidence the revitalization movement was spreading eastward when it
began acquiring property in the nearby
Elizabeth
neighborhood off
East Seventh Street
in the mid-1980s.
"Now the bloom is clearly on
all these urban neighborhoods," he said. "We see this as an
extension of what Grubb Properties is doing with its redevelopment of
Elizabeth
."
Grubb Properties' project, which
covers about six blocks along
Elizabeth Avenue
between
Hawthorne Lane
and
Independence Boulevard
, is to include homes, shops and offices. Two of the biggest announced
tenants are a Whole Foods Market natural foods supermarket and an Eastern
Federal Corp. multiscreen movie theater.
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