City Council considers three plans for Eastland: tennis, swimming and a Target store

Charlotte City Council members discussed Monday three new proposals to act as an economic catalyst for the Eastland Mall site: a tennis complex, a new swimming center, and a Target store. And some of the proposals would require spending tens of millions of dollars in public money.

The Eastland master developer, Crosland Southeast, has room for a new partner after Charlotte FC last year said it would no longer build a youth soccer academy on the site, which has been renamed Eastland Yards. The city’s professional soccer team is building its academy and headquarters off Monroe Road instead.

Crosland Southeast is moving forward with a big part of the plan, building townhomes, apartments and retail on the site. Eastland has been vacant for roughly a decade after the city demolished the old mall. The developers hope to have the first phase of Eastland Yards open next year.

Here are the proposals city staff presented to council members on Monday:

• The swimming proposal would have one or two 50-meter swimming pools. It would be home to a local swim team, the Aquatic Team of Mecklenburg, and could also host large college meets and age-group meets for the state and region. The organizers also said they would have community outreach programs to help people learn to swim.
  The estimated cost: between $45 and $50 million. The swim backers told the city they would need roughly $35 and $40 million a year.
• The racquet center would have 80 indoor and outdoor courts — for tennis, racquetball and pickleball. It would cost roughly $55 million, with $45 million needed in public money. The tennis backers also said they would have community outreach. They proposed signing a $1 per year ground lease with the city for access to the site.
• The third option is simple: a new Target store. The company said it wouldn’t need any public money and the store would employ between 250 and 300 people.

Crosland Southeast is already set to receive roughly $35 million in public money, mostly for infrastructure such as roads, to develop its portion of the project.
Members of the city’s jobs and economic development committee said they are concerned that the swim and tennis groups need a large amount of public money — without having yet raised their portion of the projects' budgets.

“I think these numbers are high,” said City Council member Ed Driggs, referring to the projected economic impact from the tennis and swim centers. “I think we have work to do.”

Council members voted to give everyone 60 more days to refine their proposals.

City Council member Marjorie Molina, who represents east Charlotte, said that’s needed.

“The main concern is to get the highest and best opportunity for Eastland,” she said. “And fulfill the promise the city has made to the east side for so many years now.”