‘We’d love to stay in the neighborhood.’ RoCo leaving Charlotte’s Central Square
One of the last remaining tenants of Charlotte’s Central Square is no more. RoCo will be closing its Commonwealth location at the end of business on Sunday, Nov. 14.
However, the RoCo (short for The Roasting Company) restaurant owner told CharlotteFive that the team is actively looking for another space in the Plaza Midwood area — but good locations are hard to find. “We’d love to stay in the neighborhood. We have been looking for the past 6-8 months and continue to look,” owner Doug Bell said.
“We hate it, because we love Plaza Midwood and we wanted to be there for a long time. It took us two years to find a location over there,” he said. The Commonwealth location at the edge of Plaza Midwood opened in 2017. “We’ve been over there long enough to establish ourselves and we have some great local customers.”
The restaurant known for its rotisserie chicken dishes has two other locations, including its original home on Montford Drive and a Rock Hill expansion. Both will remain open while the team continues the search for RoCo’s new third home.
“Our priority would be to be in Plaza Midwood. If we find a really good location somewhere else we would do that — but those are hard to come by as well,” he said.
RoCo’s location in Central Square, at the corner of Central and Pecan avenues, has been recently slated for a new development named Commonwealth. Developer Crosland Southeast and investment firm Nuveen Real Estate will begin construction this fall.
RoCo made a deal with Crosland, Bell said on Saturday afternoon. “They would like us to be part of the new center, but that’s several years down the road. That is still an option — something we are still open to as long as they are but that’s a ways in the future. We’ll just kind of have to see what happens.”
RoCo follows several neighbors in its departure, including Elizabeth Billiards, Yoga One, Sammy’s Deli, Yama Izakaya and more.
RoCo
Location: 1332-B Central Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205 (closing Nov. 14)
Neighborhood: Plaza Midwood/Commonwealth
Location: 1521 Montford Dr, Charlotte, NC 28209
Neighborhood: Montford/Madison Park
Location: 122 S Oakland Ave, Rock Hill, SC 29730
Neighborhood: Rock Hill
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 9:03 PM.
