Tim Anderton

We already brought Horsefeathers Roadhouse back from the near dead once. The Anderton Corporation bought the property over 10 years ago and dove into a complete roof-off restoration of the building. The entire facility was gutted and re-worked. New electrical, upgraded plumbing, new phone and data lines, new HVAC, internal firewalls between building areas, and the distinctive corrugated metal roof. Then we turned to outfitting the place for business- cooking equipment, exhaust vents, coolers and freezers, bars, and even the tables and chairs. It was a big job, but that's the sort of thing we usually go after.

And with that, soon we were off and running. Word got out- the food was good, the prices were reasonable and the place was a lot of fun. We refined the concept as time went on, responding to customer feedback, and future projections were phenomenal. And that's when trouble reared its head.

The sewer service that was reported to us before the sale of the property didn't actually exist. We were running a restaurant on the lake on a septic system. Immediately, yet regrettably, we shut the doors and regrouped. Initial reports, however, were encouraging- a company surfaced that offered to get us connected to the municipal sewer main. Hopes high, we forged ahead, only to find that the main didn't exist yet. It took nearly 8 years for a main to get there, too. During that time, we had to leave the Roadhouse empty.

That stretch of time took its toll. We had closed the doors on a fully functioning, and highly successful, restaurant complex. By the time we were able to consider re-opening them, we again found ourselves facing restoration issues. Vandalism, weather, and even changing technologies meant much of what we had done over 10 years ago had to be done again. At least this time, we didn't have to tear the roof off.

Billed as “The Pinnacle of Contemporary Luxury”, plans are still moving ahead for the Arcadian Residence and Resort on Speedway Blvd in Concord, NC. Slated for completion no later than Fall 2012, the 151 unit, 13 story complex will offer condominium units from $395,000 up to $3 million and feature a signature restaurant and up-scale retail shops. Judging on the success of Bruton Smith's addition of condo spaces to Lowe's Motor Speedway in the late 80s, as well as pre-sales of his own project, Steve Lee (president, CEO, and founder of the company behind The Arcadian) is confident he can pre-sell every unit in the complex. This is good, since the company financing the project has set it down as a requirement before ground is broken.

So, is the market tight or not? Especially for high-end residential space in a thin market like Concord? Some developers, like Lee, are forging ahead while others, and finance companies behind projects like Lee's, are pulling back. Portman Holdings' OneCharlotte project was recently put on hold in uptown Charlotte, citing economic uncertainty. Lee sees it all differently, though. In a recent Observer column, Lee is quoted as saying:

The over-arching point here can be taken 2 different ways. On the one hand, Lee's attitude seems that no matter how “tight” things might be, the market still exists- it's just a matter of tailoring the product to those more in a position of acquiring it. The other way of looking at the situation is a bit more speculative. Given 2 successful developers taking opposite views on the same situation, one might wonder how much of the market situation is self-generated. The Portman decision to delay OneCharlotte conveys the message that this is NOT the time to get into new construction in the greater Charlotte area. How many smaller developers accept this as a reliable indicator? How many lower profile projects are going to go on hold now as a result of little more than Portman's decision to delay theirs? In essence, is the commonly communicated belief that the real estate market is tight essentially making that market tighter, as we all feed off of each other's decisions?

Of course, there's no way to know for sure. And in the meantime, Steve Lee is forging ahead in Concord. Is he marching to his own drummer, or just blind to the situation? I guess we'll see by late 2012.

Site Selection Magazine, the prime source of information in large-scale commercial real estate, has again recognized Mooresville, NC as one of the top growth areas in the country. For the 3rd year in a row, Site Selection named Mooresville in the top 3 for economic growth among Micropolitan Areas (population of less than 50,000). This honor is verified by recent numbers from the USDA's Economic Research Service, who tracks growth information for populations between 10K and 50K.

In an effort to help sustain this growth, the Town of Mooresville has given $100K to their Economic Development Corporation, which was bolstered by matching funds from Iredell County in the amount of $175K and will go towards both new and existing programs of the EDC.

With NASCAR teams and related suppliers still moving into the area, and Lowe's adding on to their main corporate campus, Mooresville is further securing its position as a top growth location and business-friendly community. Plans are underway to break ground on a renovation of the old Cotton Mill on the south side of town on Highway 115, promising to bring high-end retail shops, live-work spaces and luxury condominium spaces to the area. It's never been a better time to set up shop in Mooresville.

To see space in Mooresville currently available from The Anderton Corporation, see our website.

Charlotte Observer reporter/columnist Doug Smith has been reporting for months on the lack of availability of office space in Charlotte (here and here). The bottom line is that less than one percent of administrative office space in Charlotte is vacant/available at this time, and that isn't going to change much until the middle of 2009 at the earliest.

Area businesses think nothing of looking 10, 15, even 20 miles east or west of the inner loop to locate themselves. Why is no one coming north? Simply crossing the county line out of Mecklenburg offers substantial potential reduction in overhead to business owners, owing to lower taxes in Iredell County. A healthy portion of the Charlotte work force is living outside the inner loop already. The traffic on I-77 headed south every weekday morning attests to the number of employees and potential employees already living north of the city.

Real estate professionals cited in Smith's articles verify this lack of inclination for businesses to move north from Charlotte, but none even attempts to offer an explanation as to why. And, given the lack of explanation, it seems reasonable to assume that maybe there *isn't* a decent reason to eschew the northern suburban areas other than a prejudice against the area based on limited (or even incorrect) impressions of what the region has to offer. Huntersville, Cornelius and Mooresville do have vacant space on offer, as well as access to the same workforce and local transportation and logistics resources that Charlotte offers. What difference does it make which direction one has to drive to get to the airport if it still takes roughly the same amount of time?

With all this in mind, we as professionals in various aspects of the real estate business can and ought to work on altering this situation. With vacant office space nearly non-existent in Charlotte, there's no reason why now isn't the time to start showing all of those potential tenants what's on offer here around the lake.

For commercial, retail, and office space in Mooresville currently available from The Anderton Corp, please visit our website