Here’s where a developer aims to put Charlotte’s next walkable neighborhoods
Want to live the suburban life? The Charlotte area has options: the communities around Lake Norman, border towns like Fort Mill, S.C., and across-the-river stops of Belmont and Gastonia.
But when it comes to folks looking to live in a more urban setting, with well-connected streets, transit, places to eat, drink and go to work, the list becomes a bit shorter. So says one Charlotte developer who’s aiming to change that.
The team behind Space Craft has been on a mission during the past five years to build out parts of Charlotte’s urban core with more walkable and connected places. Scroll through the firm’s website and you’ll find sayings like “putting the walk back in sidewalk.”
“We are a band of urbanists who believe in the magic of cities and the joy of walkable neighborhoods,” the website reads. “We are colorful murals, not beige boxes. Extra-large windowpanes, not extra-wide highway lanes. Corner cafe, not mall superstore.”
For Space Craft, which also has offices in New York and San Francisco, the work starts in an area known as the Mill District. Comprised of Belmont, Optimist Park, NoDa and Villa Heights, the area gets its name from seven textile mills that are still intact.
All have been converted into other uses today like the popular food hall Optimist Hall.
Space Craft already has one apartment project — The Joinery — finished in Optimist Park. This month, it announced two more, one in Belmont, the other in NoDa. The two latest projects, within walking distance of a light rail stop, will bring 93 more apartments to the area.
The idea is to focus on developing neighborhoods close to the center city, where Charlotte has invested in transit and other ways of getting around without being in a car.
It goes against the old way of expanding out to the suburbs.
“The American development model of the 20th century was to expand outward and use land in a somewhat inefficient way that removed farm land and wetland and replaced them with low-density suburban sprawl,” Space Craft CEO Harrison Tucker said.
Charlotte’s first apartment without parking deck
Charlotte can take a cue from European cities like Paris and London by filling in the urban core with a sort of development that’s more friendly to the pedestrian or bicyclist, Tucker said.
“Why can’t we have those experiences right here in Charlotte?” Tucker said.
Enter The Joinery. The 83-unit apartment building on North Brevard Street is car free, meaning it was built without a parking deck. When it opened in April, Space Craft called it the first “deck-less” apartment building.
Residents who do have cars have to find parking on the street. The building is up the street from the Parkwood stop along the LYNX Blue Line.
Unlike other large apartment buildings, residents don’t have to swirl up and down a parking garage to park then enter the building to their apartment, Tucker said.
Instead, most people get into the building from the same front entrance. That allows for more potential for interaction and chance to get to know your neighbors, eliminating time spent going up and down a parking garage.
The Joinery also has electric bikes in the lobby residents can use to get around town.
Technology like that as well as car share apps and scooters are giving people more ways to get around when compared to a decade ago. It’s this type of technology that excites Tucker.
“Our intentions are to create a sense of place, to make day-to-day life more interesting and convenient, and to build vibrant communities,” Tucker said when The Joinery opened.
More and more people can now get groceries and medicine delivered thanks to technology, cutting out other previously-necessary car trips.
“Your neighborhood becomes very important,” Tucker said. “You can get the things you need delivered to you and then you really want to have your retail, food and beverage and public space in your neighborhood. We’re in a different place than we were 10 years ago, and we feel like there’s a real opportunity to adapt.”
More apartments in Charlotte’s Mill District
Space Craft has two more apartment projects under construction. Both are expected to be done by the spring. And both will include at least one parking space per unit.
The Millhouse, at 1115 Seigle Ave., is a 28-unit building in the Belmont neighborhood. The project’s design, including three facade types, was largely informed during community input in a recent rezoning process, Tucker said. The name is intended to pay homage to the area’s history of millhouses.
Belmont grew rapidly during Charlotte’s textile boom with new churches and schools popping up. Much of the area had previously been farmland, according to the Mill District website.
In NoDa, work is continuing on Inkwell. The 65-unit project is at 724 E. 36th St. Once complete, the building will have three retail storefronts.
Like The Joinery, both buildings are solar ready and offer building-wide composting. Once installed, the solar panels are intended to help power common areas.
This helps provide a different way of building that has a lower carbon footprint without sacrificing much in terms of design, Tucker said.
Tucker believes projects like The Joinery offer a case for reforming parking requirements in Charlotte and other cities. Charlotte’s newly-adopted Unified Development Ordinance includes minimum and maximum parking requirements depending on whether you’re in a more residential, industrial or commercial part of the city.
But parking garages can eat up land and add costs that get passed down to the tenant.
“There’s a good case on the math that’s probably been under-investigated by the development community,” Tucker said about these expensive parking additions.
Maybe, he said, more folks will start looking into how the math could help save some money and lead to more walkable communities.
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 10:07 AM.
