Charlotte City Council members will vote Monday evening on a potential next step in the ongoing effort to redevelop the old Eastland Mall site. The mall was once a retail and social hub in Charlotte, but major anchor stores started leaving the mall about a decade ago.
Eastland closed for good in 2010. The City bought the site two years later, and the mall was demolished in 2013. There've been several designs for redeveloping the property, including proposals for a Hispanic-oriented shopping center, movie studios, and an outdoor entertainment complex.
City Council members will vote on whether to hire a new consulting firm to help identify what factors stand in the way of redeveloping the old mall site. The City would pay Texas-based Jacobs Engineering Group $145,000 for the initial study.
Depending on the findings, the City could pay the consultants another $430,000 for a second phase of analysis. That could include a market feasibility study, master planning, and efforts to recruit potential developers for the Eastland site.
If council members approve the spending, city officials anticipate the latest effort to design a new life for the former mall property could get underway next month.
