The University area lost a $1B-deal in the summer. Now, a new leader hopes to boost region
University City Partners, a nonprofit group that promotes the north Charlotte area, has hired a new president and CEO.
Keith Stanley will join the group in January, the group announced on Monday. He comes from Near West Side Partners, a Milwaukee, Wisc.-based nonprofit that he’s been leading since its inception in 2014.
He will step into the role as University City Partners plans for new growth, with goals of making the area more walkable and connected.
Stanley’s arrival also comes in the wake of a surprise, major setback for the region. In August health care giant Centene Corp. backed out of plans for bringing its East Coast headquarters to the University area, a $1 billion investment that would have brought at least 3,237 jobs to Charlotte over the next decade.
The CEO’s next steps
Over the next few months, Stanley plans to learn what challenges are most pressing for both the University City Partners’ board and for the area’s residents. He believes empowering residents with a voice is important as the area continues to experience growth.
That growth took a big hit when Centene bailed out. The company cited reduction in real estate and shifts to remote or hybrid work as reasons why it backed out of its plans.
When asked if he was concerned about that decision, Stanley declined to comment.
He said he was looking forward to working with the board and the community on developing plans and strategies to bring more businesses and economic growth to the area.
University City Partners says the area continues to see year-over-year growth, driven especially in the past few years by the light rail extension.
The area, for example, has seen about a 42% increase in multifamily units built per year. A vision plan released last year details goals by University City Partners to make the area more walkable and connected.
“Those are key as we look at leveraging opportunities of economic development and growth,” Stanley said.
He’s also impressed with work done already to extend the light rail Blue Line to UNC Charlotte as well as investments into expanding the area’s greenways.
Tobe Holmes, who’s been leading University City Partners as interim director, will stay on with the nonprofit as senior director of land use and economic development.
Building on work from Milwaukee
Stanley thinks his experience working with what he described as five “anchor institutions” in Milwaukee prepared him for the role in University City.
Near West Side Partners was founded through the support of five groups: Harley-Davidson, Marquette University, Molson Coors, Potawatomi Business Development Corporation and Advocate Aurora Health. Advocate Aurora Health and Charlotte-based health care giant Atrium Health announced a deal in May to combine. If approved, the move would result in the fifth largest hospital system in the country.
Near West Side aims to make the 1.9-square-mile neighborhood a better place to live, through revitalization and helping sustain businesses.
Since 2014, 47 new businesses have opened, many of them owned by women or people of color, Stanley said. The group also has aimed to reduce crime and improve people’s perception of the neighborhood.
These public-private partnerships helped make Near West Side a better place to live, Stanley said.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
