The former Eastland Mall site has sat empty for years. Can soccer bring it to life?
After years of failed attempts to rejuvenate the 69-acre Eastland Mall site, city officials are betting that the arrival of Major League Soccer could be the silver bullet.
Once a premier shopping destination in east Charlotte, the now-razed property will be developed into the MLS franchise’s headquarters and practice facilities, Mayor Vi Lyles said Tuesday at a press conference.
During the official announcement, council members rekindled a vibrant vision of east Charlotte — one that is deeply intertwined with their $110 million pledge to ensure MLS is a “successful venture over the next many years,” Lyles told league Commissioner Don Garber in a November letter.
Eastland is heavily favored to receive a “sizable” investment from the city, said council member Matt Newton, whose district includes the site.
“We want to see the promise of Eastland re-instituted,” Newton said.
The soccer facilities are part of a broader plan to revitalize the area, led by developer Crosland Southeast. Those plans also call for several hundred homes and townhouses, open space, shops and restaurants. The firm is also looking at bringing a grocery store and medical offices to the site.
Tim Sittema, managing partner for Crosland Southeast, called the MLS franchise a “big win for the east side.”
The city’s goal behind landing MLS is more focused on spurring economic development in overlooked parts of town, rather than merely hosting another professional sports team, council members have suggested.
“We needed to make sure that in being involved in this deal ... it benefited more than just uptown Charlotte, it benefited more than just the affluent folks in our community that might be able to afford season tickets,” said City Council member Larken Egleston. “That it was something more inclusive and more engaging of the community.”
A ‘tremendous catalyst’
Panthers owner David Tepper, who was awarded the MLS team, and local leaders have been tight-lipped about specific plans for the team’s headquarters and practice facilities. But Sittema said the development group is working quickly and planning to file a rezoning request with the city in the next 30 days.
The MLS headquarters and practice fields will occupy about 29 acres, said council member James Mitchell.
Construction will likely happen within a “very expedited time frame,” Newton said, though it’s unclear if the facilities would be completed ahead of the team’s inaugural season in 2021.
Additional growth tied to MLS is expected to spill into nearby vacant lots, Newton said, creating strong economic corridors along Central Avenue, Sharon Amity Road and Albemarle Road.
“It’s going to be a tremendous catalyst for the immediate and surrounding area — something that will fulfill the spirit of what Eastland was,” Newton said. “It will also be a reflection of the diversity that our community in east Charlotte holds.”
Sittema said there will also be a community field at the Eastland site, managed by Tepper Sports and Entertainment, that can be used by youth and adult leagues. He said the community and practice fields will help attract residents to visit the site.
Building an ‘attraction’
Eastland Mall, which opened in 1975, once attracted people from all over the city to visit its indoor ice rink, movie theater and department stores. But facing competition with nearby malls, it shuttered in 2010 after anchor stores Belk, Dillard’s and Sears closed in succession.
In 2012, the city bought the mall for $13.2 million and demolished the buildings.
Efforts to revitalize the site have revolved around grandiose plans, from a movie studio to an entertainment district centered around a fake ski slope. But all of those attempts have fallen through.
Will the backing of an NFL owner worth $12 billion turn things around?
Addressing the media, Tepper said it would have been cheaper to construct the practice facility for the MLS team where the new practice facility for the Panthers is being built in Rock Hill. But he, along with city leaders, have a vision for what Eastland could become.
He imagines shops and international restaurants lining Central Avenue along the way to the practice facility.
“We think we can build sort of an attraction and build that community out there,” he said.
Despite the building boom sweeping the rest of Charlotte, developers have skipped over many parts of east Charlotte. The area around the mall site has a median household income of $42,800, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. That’s well below the countywide average of $61,695.
Mimi Davis, president of the East Charlotte Coalition of Neighborhoods, said residents are overwhelmingly supportive of bringing soccer to the area.
“It’s time that east Charlotte grows and began to take its place as one of the places that everybody wants to live,” she said. “We want equality of opportunity here.”
But they are still nervous about the plans for the overall development, she said.
Transformation vs. displacement
Manolo Betancur wore his signature shirt when Tepper walked into his bakery on Central Avenue last month. It read: “Made in America by immigrant hands.”
Tepper had asked Betancur, who moved to the U.S. from Colombia about 20 years ago, what he thought about bringing the soccer facilities to Eastland.
If done right, having MLS in east Charlotte could be transformational, Betancur told him. But Betancur said small businesses need to be included in the project.
Council member Braxton Winston said the city needs to be “very careful” as it makes progress on the Eastland development and ensure that it is involving small businesses and local residents.
Just a few miles up Central Avenue, rising rents in Plaza Midwood, like many fast-changing neighborhoods in Charlotte, have pushed out longtime businesses. Betancur fears the bakery where he’s worked for nearly 15 years could wind up with the same fate.
“I told (Tepper), whatever you do there, you’ve got the power to bring life, hope and prosperity to us, to this community,” he said.
“Or you have the power to bring us down.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
