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North End Charlotte
Shook Kelley worked with The Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, Vision Ventures, LLC, and Mount Vernon Asset Management, LLC to develop a strategic vision plan for a new area of redevelopment north of the downtown Charlotte area. This vision plan will serve, going forward, as the public face of North End, with an official submittal to the Charlotte 2020 planning team.
For quite some time, the north side of Center City Charlotte was, in many ways, a “lost land.” Redundant manufacturing facilities, underutilized and undervalued storage facilities have been the most prominent artifacts of time past. More important are the neighborhoods that were decoupled from the former manufacturing base. Over time, many of the neighborhoods became, in turn, decoupled from mainstream society, failing in many conventional measures used to chart stable and supportive social conditions.
Change actually began stirring in North End back in 2001. It was in this year that The Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership (CMHP) began it’s groundbreaking effort to actualize the vision contained within its Statesville Avenue Corridor Plan, which was developed by The Housing Partnership and the City of Charlotte, and adopted by the Charlotte City Council, to provide a road map for revitalizing a key inner-city corridor in Charlotte. Since adoption, CMHP has developed projects and other public bodies have invested in road improvements, new school construction, and water and sewer upgrades. These initiatives were strategical, tactical, highly involved, ground breaking and nationally recognized efforts to restore existing neighborhoods, physically and socially. These efforts, however, only tell half of the story.
Shook Kelley helped to develop such an idea for creating such a nucleus, and a model community for this once forgotten area of Charlotte, with a plan that delineates a number of initiatives designed to leverage the resources of both the private and the public sector.
CMHP’s real contribution has been the social and management program that they deploy in selecting and qualifying tenants, in supporting them as they transition into being contributing members of a more viable neighborhood, and managing expectations for all throughout the relationship. It is as much, if not more, for these efforts that CMHP has received votes of confidence, in the form of financial support, from the City of Charlotte, the private sector, and through various foundations and grant programs. Investment by CMHP in the neighborhoods of North End took a significant turn in 2007. It was in that year that they embarked upon their most significant project to date—the redevelopment of the former privately owned Double Oaks project from a deteriorating post World War II housing complex into a model sustainable, mixed use and mixed income community, Brightwalk – master planned by Shook Kelley. Planned in a manner that fulfills the best intentions of a Smart Growth agenda, Brightwalk is destined to become a catalyst for further stabilization and rejuvenation of the adjacent Druid Hills, Genesis Park and Park at Oaklawn neighborhoods, as well as the others of the North End. Clearly, the investment of time, energy and money by both the City of Charlotte and the private sector parties supporting CMHP since 2001 is paying real dividends for the individuals seeking personal and communal stability, and for all citizens of the city. However, as important and as significant as Brightwalk is, it is but one piece of a larger agenda for Charlotte as it faces the challenges of the 21st century. Importantly, this is an agenda that matches up with the opportunity afforded by North End.
Given the incredible opportunity to develop the area into a model of sustainable and socially equitable growth, CMHP and the private sector cannot accomplish this mission alone. Given the fragmented land uses within, and the perceptions of the area, this is not an easy or quick task. Absent a nucleus around which such a community can grow, and a model by which others may emulate, the area may likely be underdeveloped in an uncoordinated and uninspired manner for years to come. Shook Kelley helped to develop such an idea for creating a nucleus, and a model community for North End Charlotte, with a plan that delineates a number of initiatives designed to leverage the resources of both the private and the public sector. Most importantly, this idea has the power to become the heart of a new and expanded district – and a model community for the 21st century.
For quite some time, the north side of Center City Charlotte was, in many ways, a “lost land.” Redundant manufacturing facilities, underutilized and undervalued storage facilities have been the most prominent artifacts of time past. More important are the neighborhoods that were decoupled from the former manufacturing base. Over time, many of the neighborhoods became, in turn, decoupled from mainstream society, failing in many conventional measures used to chart stable and supportive social conditions.
Change actually began stirring in North End back in 2001. It was in this year that The Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership (CMHP) began it’s groundbreaking effort to actualize the vision contained within its Statesville Avenue Corridor Plan, which was developed by The Housing Partnership and the City of Charlotte, and adopted by the Charlotte City Council, to provide a road map for revitalizing a key inner-city corridor in Charlotte. Since adoption, CMHP has developed projects and other public bodies have invested in road improvements, new school construction, and water and sewer upgrades. These initiatives were strategical, tactical, highly involved, ground breaking and nationally recognized efforts to restore existing neighborhoods, physically and socially. These efforts, however, only tell half of the story.
Shook Kelley helped to develop such an idea for creating such a nucleus, and a model community for this once forgotten area of Charlotte, with a plan that delineates a number of initiatives designed to leverage the resources of both the private and the public sector.
CMHP’s real contribution has been the social and management program that they deploy in selecting and qualifying tenants, in supporting them as they transition into being contributing members of a more viable neighborhood, and managing expectations for all throughout the relationship. It is as much, if not more, for these efforts that CMHP has received votes of confidence, in the form of financial support, from the City of Charlotte, the private sector, and through various foundations and grant programs. Investment by CMHP in the neighborhoods of North End took a significant turn in 2007. It was in that year that they embarked upon their most significant project to date—the redevelopment of the former privately owned Double Oaks project from a deteriorating post World War II housing complex into a model sustainable, mixed use and mixed income community, Brightwalk – master planned by Shook Kelley. Planned in a manner that fulfills the best intentions of a Smart Growth agenda, Brightwalk is destined to become a catalyst for further stabilization and rejuvenation of the adjacent Druid Hills, Genesis Park and Park at Oaklawn neighborhoods, as well as the others of the North End. Clearly, the investment of time, energy and money by both the City of Charlotte and the private sector parties supporting CMHP since 2001 is paying real dividends for the individuals seeking personal and communal stability, and for all citizens of the city. However, as important and as significant as Brightwalk is, it is but one piece of a larger agenda for Charlotte as it faces the challenges of the 21st century. Importantly, this is an agenda that matches up with the opportunity afforded by North End.
Given the incredible opportunity to develop the area into a model of sustainable and socially equitable growth, CMHP and the private sector cannot accomplish this mission alone. Given the fragmented land uses within, and the perceptions of the area, this is not an easy or quick task. Absent a nucleus around which such a community can grow, and a model by which others may emulate, the area may likely be underdeveloped in an uncoordinated and uninspired manner for years to come. Shook Kelley helped to develop such an idea for creating a nucleus, and a model community for North End Charlotte, with a plan that delineates a number of initiatives designed to leverage the resources of both the private and the public sector. Most importantly, this idea has the power to become the heart of a new and expanded district – and a model community for the 21st century.