SouthPark keeps momentum going

Dillard's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina, proposed new facade (Architecture+)

Planned mall expansion joins changes across neighborhood

MICHELLE CROUCH
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

SouthPark, the region's most upscale shopping destination, will soon give shoppers more reasons to open their wallets.

Dillard's, the last SouthPark mall anchor to retain its original 1970s facade, recently filed plans for a massive expansion and remodeling. And dozens of new stores are opening in the mall and the area around it, evinced by the red earth and construction vehicles dotting the landscape.

The proposed 47,506-square-foot Dillard's addition would complete the mall's transformation into a high-end center that attracts shoppers from as far as Columbia and Virginia. Nordstrom and a new wing of high-fashion stores opened in 2004, and both Belk and Hecht's have completed multi-million dollar renovations. Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is slated to open its first Carolinas store there in fall 2006.

"This is an opportunity to bring Dillard's into step with all of the other anchors," said city planner Tim Manes.

The store's expansion is the latest in a string of new developments in the SouthPark area. About 6 miles southeast of uptown, it's home to some of the city's toniest residential neighborhoods.

The Indianapolis-based Simon Group, which owns the mall, has started grading work at the far corner of the mall site at Sharon Road and Morrison Boulevard. It is building 90,000 square feet of stores with 150 apartments on top. The "town center" project will include green space and connect to a planned parking deck.

The company often includes offices and apartments on its new mall sites, said spokesman Les Morris. But this is the first time the company has gone back and added those elements to an existing mall.

"The idea is to have people live in a community, shop there, eat there, even work there," Morris said.

Other projects under construction in the SouthPark area include:

• Offices, apartments, condos and street-level stores on about 20 acres a block west of the mall, on Fairview Road. Called Piedmont Town Center, it will house the headquarters for Piedmont Natural Gas. It's slated to open at the end of the year.

• About 140,000 square feet of stores, restaurants and office space on the north corner of Sharon and Colony roads. It's called Morrison Place; the first phase is expected to open late this year.

• A 14,500-square-foot Walgreens drugstore on the northwest corner of Sharon and Morrison, where the Goodwill collection trailer used to sit. Garden Secrets nursery will move from Park South Drive to a site next to the drugstore on Morrison, and a Bojangles' restaurant will open on the other side of the nursery.

While some neighbors welcome the changes, others say it's exactly what they feared would happen when they lost a contentious court battle to stop the mall's expansion a few years ago. Traffic is getting worse, they say, and the new retail could force vacancies at older shopping centers in the area.

"The problem is, we are not on a main traffic corridor and our roads are not able to handle the traffic," said LeeAnn McGinnis, who has lived in the nearby Foxcroft neighborhood for 20 years.

She said it took her 11 minutes on a recent day to drive 1.6 miles on Fairview Road, from Colony Road past the mall to Park Road.

Despite such concerns, local real estate observers say there's plenty of demand for the new stores.

"There's pent-up demand because the incomes have increased so quickly in the area," said Jensie Teague, senior managing director at Faison. "There's also very little vacancy."

The proposed Dillard's expansion would grow the store to about 270,000 square feet, making it second in size at SouthPark only to Belk. Further details of the plan were not available. A company spokeswoman declined to comment, and the store manager could not be reached Sunday.

The Charlotte City Council, which must approve the expansion, will hold a public hearing July 18, with a decision in September. Neighbors said they knew of no organized effort to fight it, noting that they have resigned themselves to living near a regional shopping destination.

Several shoppers, meanwhile, said they're looking forward to the change.

"I don't think Dillard's could be too big," said longtime customer Janet Neely of Charlotte. "They have great stuff and their prices are nice and reasonable."

Maggie Bean, 33, agreed, but said there's one other thing the store should update:

Its plastic shopping bags.

"All the other stores here have these great boutique-type bags, made of paper or canvas with nice handles, but theirs are like the ones from Wal-Mart," she said.

"They need to upgrade."