Light Rail in Charlotte

Why NOW is the time to invest in the Center City, South End, New Bern/Tyvola, and South Charlotte areas. The LYNX Blue Line is going to run parallel to South Blvd with multiple stops in each of these areas and it is scheduled to open in Fall of 2007. This will be Charlotte's first mass transit system besides the CATS bus system and it has everyone talking. South Boulevard is going to be one of Charlotte's newest hotspots. Dilworth and Wilmore are already there, now we should start seeing the same type of growth and appreciation trickling southward.

Some developers caught wind of the light rail before others and are sitting pretty on land surrounding the light rail. One such developer is BlueSky Partners, LLC. They plan on building a multi-use complex composed of four buildings that will gradually decrease in height to blend in better with the pre-existing Dilworth neighborhood. I think this is an awesome concept and I hope they get the rezoning for this project. If they succeed it will bring almost 200 new loft-style condos to the area with prices projected to start in the low $130,000s for a 472 sq. ft. condo (please see first Blog entry). Look for these to start pre-selling in early 2007 with a completion in late 2008.

Crosland, Inc. has a nice 35 acres near one of the planned light-rail stations so we can expect to hear some plans for this property as well. Whatever they decide to do, we can count on one thing, it won't be another Arlington (Big Pink Building). Dilworth residents don't mess around when it comes to their neighborhood. They want to keep the quaint, tree lined streets with 1940s and 1950s bungalows looking the same. No eye-sores here.

Even Lowe's hardware had to agree to build residential condos around it's new location on South Boulevard to buffer it from the pre-existing homes in Dilworth.

The Wilmore side of South Boulevard will probably be more prone to larger scale condo/multi-use developments, but no word yet on what is to come. I'll keep my ear to the ground and keep you posted.

This city never ceases to amaze me. I love the confluence of the new and the old. My great-great-grandparents had two homes in Dilworth, both on Kenilworth, and they would be astonished at all of the development that is popping up just blocks from their homes. Keeping the old, historic neighborhoods is important and growth is inevitable, hopefully we'll see very tasteful new construction that compliments these historic neighborhoods.