25-acre town center to transform Ballantyne in south Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – A new 25-acre town center coming to south Charlotte’s Ballantyne community will transform the area, and it’s popular golf course.

Developer Northwood Office LLC announced on Saturday that they plan to build the town center, which will include shops, restaurants, 2,000 apartments and even an amphitheater.

“It’s all about unlocking the opportunity here to create a really urban, walk-able environment,” said John Barton, President of Northwood Office. “I think it’s a great opportunity to really freshen the area up.”

The town center would be built on the land between the Ballantyne and Aloft hotels and connect to the Greenway system. The first phase means building over the 18th hole of the Ballayntne Golf Course.

“That’s where the real opportunity lies here – is the conversion of the golf course,” Barton explained.

Below are some renderings of the area now and what it is projected to look like once the center is complete.

But some in the Ballantyne community say they’re sad to see the golf course change in the process.

“I’m really sad to see the area get turned into shops,” said resident Laura Gallagher, who frequents the golf course. “I mean theres shops all over Charlotte.”

“I think it’s a little unfortunate,” said another course user, David Sebranek. “I understand, based on the economic climate of things, to bring in revenue – that’s understandable. However, I think from a golf perspective it’s disappointing because for this area this is the nicest golf facility besides the country club.”

Barton said the goal is to re-imagine Ballantyne, transforming it into a more urban community, and to hopefully boost the Ballantyne economy similar to what’s happened with Charlotte’s South End.

“It needs to be a little bit of everything,” Barton said. “We have scooters coming to Ballantyne in about a month, so well have that, we already have 19 miles of hiking, bike trails and we’ve been in discussion with CATS about a light rail, so we would be on board with that.”

The developer says this summer they’ll submit a rezoning request and they plan to start construction of the first phase of the project by early 2020.

To learn more about the project, click here.

Copyright 2019 WBTV. All rights reserved.