City agrees to sell uptown land to apartment developer

The city of Charlotte has agreed to sell nearly 4 acres of prime vacant land on Stonewall Street to Pollack Shores Development for $12.2 million, an agreement that could bring hundreds of new apartments and help pay off the city’s NASCAR Hall of Fame debt.

The site is tucked between Interstate 277 and Stonewall Street on the south side of South Caldwell Street. It’s one of five new parcels the city and state created last decade when they reconfigured the I-277 and South Boulevard interchange.

If the City Council approves the sale Monday, the city would use the money to help pay off a $20 million loan used to build the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

A Pollack Shores representative couldn’t immediately be reached to talk about the company’s plans for the site, which is covered in a large mound of dirt from another nearby apartment project. The Atlanta-based company is already building apartments elsewhere in Charlotte, including a 250-unit complex on Central Avenue near Plaza Midwood and a 273-unit complex on Park Road.

The south side of uptown along Stonewall Street has seen a major surge in construction, especially apartments, as the Charlotte market rebounds. A couple of blocks from the Pollack Shores site, Proffitt Dixon is building the 230-unit Fountains Uptown complex at Stonewall and McDowell streets.

Crescent Communities recently announced a Whole Foods and 450-unit apartment complex at Stonewall and Caldwell streets. That project will be built on a separate parcel of city-owned land that Crescent has a contract to purchase for $10.3 million.

Charlotte Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble said the city’s contract with Crescent requires the developer to close on the sale by October.

Crescent is also planning to build a 27-story apartment tower at Stonewall and Tryon streets. And Portman Holdings is planning to build a 19-story office tower a block away, at 615 S. College St., next to the Westin hotel.

An upset bidder would have a chance to outbid Pollack Shores’ offer before the sale is final. Any upset bid must be at least 5 percent more than Pollack Shores’ bid, plus $100.

If the Crescent and Pollack Shores sales go through, the city would be able to pay off the NASCAR loan, which has a balance of $16.2 million in principal and $3.8 million in accrued interest.

The city still has two other empty pieces of land for sale nearby.

One is a 1-acre site at 650 E. Stonewall St. The other is a 2-acre parcel behind the Summit-Grandview apartments just south of uptown.

Kimble said he expects those two pieces of land to sell for between $8 million and $9 million. The city would keep most of the proceeds, with the N.C. Department of Transportation receiving about 20 percent.

To help build the NASCAR hall last decade, the city and state agreed to shrink the footprint of the I-277 and Caldwell Street interchange to create new marketable pieces of land.

That land has been used as collateral for a $20 million hall construction loan.

“It’s taken us about five years longer than we thought (to sell the land) because of the economy,” Kimble said. “But it’s panning out.”

The city took out a second $20 million hall loan that was backed by the sale of hall sponsorships and commemorative brick sales. Those two revenue streams fell short, and earlier this year the city, Bank of America and Wells Fargo agreed to write off about $19 million of that loan.

This story was originally published April 24, 2015 at 12:22 PM with the headline "City agrees to sell uptown land to apartment developer."