Remember Charlotte's Unified Development Ordinance that went into effect in 2023? One of the most contentious parts of the change meant to guide future development, was allowing triplexes in neighborhoods previously only zoned for single-family homes. Well, the first of those new triplexes are now hitting the market for more, I'm joined now by Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter for our segment, BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: Tony, where are these triplexes located and what's the asking price?
Tony Mecia: Mostly in south Charlotte. The first really to come online from a company called Aspen City Homes are in the Sedgefield neighborhood and near Barclay Downs near SouthPark. They're listed in MLS for $999,999 per unit. The Unified Development Ordinance, one of the goals was to increase the supply of housing in the city with the idea that that would decrease housing costs, or at least provide some relief on rising housing costs. These are obviously very expensive — they're about 2,100 to 2,200 square feet. The real question is, is this helping increase the supply of affordable housing given that these are not affordable? The argument is that by increasing the supply of housing, even for luxury housing, that you're helping the problem by giving people more options.
Terry: Now, some residents in neighborhoods where triplexes are being proposed have protested, saying that they don't fit in with the neighborhood and that they're concerned about increases in traffic. Is that still the case now that these things are actually here and on the market?
Mecia: Well, I think, Marshall, that a lot of neighbors don't really like them for the reasons that you pointed out, but there's not a lot that they can do about them. The city has said it wants to look at the regulations on these and maybe tighten those up a little bit. There are also residents in the Lansdowne neighborhood in south Charlotte that have sued to block Aspen City Homes from building a triplex in their neighborhood. Court records show that that lawsuit was settled last month. And as we're talking here, I don't have the details on that settlement. So I don't know whether that's going to go forward or not, but certainly a lot of people are kind of watching and wondering what can be done.
Terry: All right. Over to SouthPark now, where the sale of nearly two and a half acres is raising hopes for a new office tower. What are the details, and how does that fit into the overall sagging office market that we've heard a lot about? I mean, I thought everyone was working from home.
Mecia: There are a lot of people working from home at least part-time. There are people buying land for office towers, really for the future — I don't think anything is imminent in construction of new office towers. But what we have in the SouthPark area is a parcel right across from the entrance to SouthPark Mall.
Childress Klein owned the land and sold it to an insurance company called AmWINS, which is located in the Piedmont Town Center. It's a global insurance company. Unclear exactly what's going to happen there, but the land was rezoned recently in the last couple of years for an office tower of up to 225 feet. I should also mention, Marshall, one quirky little thing. The company affiliated with AmWINS that bought that site has an interesting name. It's called 8 6 7 5 3 0 9 LLC, which is an apparent reference to the 1981 Tommy Tutone, one-hit wonder about a number found on a bathroom wall.
Terry: I guess there's only so many names you can pick for something like that. That's an interesting choice. All right, well let's end on some food news. You report two longtime Charlotte places are closing. Which ones and why?
Mecia: Fenwick's, which is a restaurant in Eastover that's been there since 1984. The owner there, his wife died a few years ago because it hasn't really been the same, and he's 84 years old, and says it's just time to move on to something else. And then another establishment closing, Sur La Table at SouthPark Mall. This is a kitchen gadget store that also offered cooking classes, that company filed for bankruptcy a few years ago.
These two are just the latest food-related businesses closing. Other ones that have closed in the last couple of weeks include the uptown restaurants, (The) King's Kitchen and Haymaker, Letty's on Shamrock, and the bakery Wentworth & Fenn at Camp North End. So a number of closings to start the year.
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