Long-awaited $683 million Brooklyn Village project on track to start by early next year
It’s been a long wait. But the $683 million Brooklyn Village mixed-use development is finally months away from moving dirt.
Sitting on 17 acres, mostly in uptown’s Second Ward, the project will bring apartments, offices, hotel rooms and retail to an area lacking those sorts of destinations. The Board of County Commissioners heard an update from county real estate management director Jacqueline McNeil on Tuesday afternoon about it.
No vote was taken, although some commissioners said discussing the project was like “revisiting a bad nightmare” over their concerns about the number of affordable units for low-income residents and the amount of open space.
The project is named for Brooklyn, a Black neighborhood that was torn down in the 1960s and ‘70s under the federal urban renewal program. The neighborhood was once home to more than 1,000 families and around 1,400 businesses.
In Brooklyn’s place went the Government Center, courthouse, jail and other municipal buildings.
BK Partners — a partnership of two companies, Conformity Corporation and The Peebles Corporation — is the developer. Peebles is based in New York; Conformity is based in Charlotte.
The developer has made it a goal to provide accessible affordable housing, according to a BK Partners statement sent to The Charlotte Observer. The developer will continue to work with the community to make the project inclusive for everybody.
The project is expected to be completed over at least the next 12 years, according to Tuesday’s update. Later phases included redeveloping parcels by South McDowell and 3rd streets — by Marshall Park.
A development in three phases
Brooklyn Village will be built in three phases. In all, there will be more than 1,200 residential units.
There also will be 252,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 712,400 square feet of office, 280 hotel rooms and 2.5 acres of park and open space, according to McNeil’s presentation to the board.
Between 124 and 149 of the units will be priced at various affordability levels. Some 30% of the units will be for 60% of the area median income; the remaining affordable units will be for up to 80% of area median income, according to Tuesday’s update. For a family of four, for example, units targeted for 60% AMI translates to household income of $56,250, or $39,600 for a single person.
Closing on the property is anticipated for early 2023. Construction would start shortly after that.
The developer has three years to complete the first building of the first phase. That phase includes a minimum of 395 apartments at the corner of South Alexander Street and East Brooklyn Village Avenue. There will be more than 100,000 square feet of retail and around 530,000 square feet of office plus 150 hotel rooms.
What the renderings show
Renderings shared Tuesday show two residential towers that have ground-floor retail. The hotel also has ground-floor retail.
Renderings for the office portion show two towers sitting atop a parking garage. The towers are different sizes but the taller one would be 17 stories.
BK Partners has identified a national multifamily developer to purchase two parcels being developed for the residential component, McNeil told commissioners. It’s unclear who that national developer is. The two parcels would also have 20,000 square feet of retail space and 630 parking spaces.
For the nearby 13-story hotel, BK Partners is in discussions with a well-known brand, according to McNeil. The hotel would have a large conference center space plus more retail.
Getting back what was lost?
Wilhelmenia Rembert, a temporary at-large county commissioner, said she called for Tuesday’s update on the project. She asked how the community was being kept informed about the status of the project.
Rembert, who was selected to replace former commissioner Ella Scarborough, asked what assurances existed to make sure commitments like those on affordable housing were being kept. McNeil told her the developer remains obligated to what’s spelled out in a master redevelopment agreement.
Rembert hoped the mixed-use development could return the area to what it was once — a vital part of the Black community.
“I’m hoping we don’t lose the opportunity to make sure that a lot of what was lost can come back,” Rembert said. “That is that Black and brown people in this community can see businesses enterprises, hotels, restaurants, physician offices, attorney offices back in the same space where they used to be decades ago.”
County Commissioner Chair George Dunlap reminded fellow board members that the project started in earnest four years ago. The county made the best decisions it could at the time, he said, and the community had ample opportunity to give input.
“There’s not been any secrets about it,” Dunlap said.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 6:10 AM.
