Ballantyne, an upscale,2,000-acre neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, is recognized as one of the largest mixed-use communities in the Southeast. Developed on farmland in the early 1990s, primarily by The Bissell Companies, Ballantyne grew into a thriving community with features such as a golf course and a corporate park with more than 4 million square feet of office space.
With 17,000 employees working in the corporate park pre-pandemic and over 70,000 residents, Ballantyne didn’t face growth challenges. What was missing, however, was a sense of connection that would encourage people to stay, engage and explore. So, in recent years, Ballantyne has been undergoing a monumental transformation aimed at redefining its future.
To become a great place, Ballantyne needed to develop a recognizable, coordinated and sustainable civic realm. The goal is to evolve the area from a 9-to-5 environment into a vibrant 24-hour community that is connected to neighboring areas while maintaining its own unique identity.
A New Vision
Northwood Investors, a global real estate investment and management firm, acquired Ballantyne from The Bissell Companies in March 2017 for $1.2 billion, making it the largest real estate transaction in Charlotte’s history. Several months later, Northwood teamed with Boston-based land-planning firm Sasaki, locally based LandDesign (which had been involved with the master-plan project since its inception), and Cooper Carry on architecture and experiential graphic design to start working on its vision for the Ballantyne campus.
Northwood’s master plan, Ballantyne Reimagined, aims to transform the surrounding area from a traditional office park and public golf course into a more urban, walkable environment, creating a vibrant community destination that benefits office workers, guests and visitors alike. The design seeks to maximize the use of an underutilized site by increasing its density and enhancing connections to the surrounding natural landscape.
“Our goal was to create a new standard for sense of place that makes life better and more fun,” said John Barton, president of Northwood Office, Northwood Investors’ office platform. “We have developed an activated area beyond the eight-hour workday that brings more options to Ballantyne.”
Under its previous zoning, the 535-acre Ballantyne Corporate Park was permitted to have retail only on the first floor of office buildings, and no multifamily was allowed. Northwood worked collaboratively with the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County on a three-year rezoning process allowing for a mixed-use development district. The rezoning received approval over a Zoom call amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in June 2020. “It was said to be the largest and most complex infill rezoning in Charlotte’s history,” Barton noted.
Another important component was a more than 1,300-page traffic impact analysis required to ensure all aspects of the infrastructure would perform. The project team established a forward-thinking infrastructure system to accommodate long-term growth and the potential to evolve to meet future demand. Northwood invested $111 million in infrastructure, including the construction of two new main thoroughfares and improvements at more than 20 intersections. Infrastructure work began in February 2021.
With a full master plan on paper, Northwood worked strategically to place major roads near future development pads. “Our flexible infrastructure opens up future development parcels for intentional growth,” said Clifton Coble, senior vice president of development at Northwood Office.
The initial phase of Ballantyne Reimagined is primarily complete. It includes 600 multifamily residential units, a 5,000-person-capacity amphitheater, the 6.4-acre Stream Park, 70,000 square feet of retail, and a 300,000-square-foot office building — adjacent to existing office buildings — that is 99% leased.
“Northwood’s vision is to create a better quality of life and experience for current and future employees, residents, guests and visitors to Ballantyne,” said Fred Merrill, principal at Sasaki.
Author
Christina Thigpen