Today’s Real Estate Whispers is sponsored by NiceDay - A creative branding and placemaking partner for commercial real estate and hospitality in the SouthEast. NiceDay helps teams build relevance through culture, community, and brand strategy—because places succeed when people come first.
Welcome back to our weekly look at Charlotte real estate and development news. Charlotte Commercial Real Estate Whispers is the best way to get the latest dirt on transactions, rezonings and projects happening across the Queen City.
You can add and drop newsletters from The Charlotte Ledger — including this one — on your “Subscriber Preferences” page.
I’d love to hear your Charlotte commercial real estate gossip or tips. Send me a note at [email protected].
In today’s edition:
Developers are building a few affordable-housing projects in high-opportunity areas like south Charlotte, but the developments are still tough to get done
Three Charlotte projects get low-income housing tax credits
Simon Property Group rumored to be filing a rezoning petition soon
Historic Dilworth home sells — and what’s next for the property
How uptown architecture can light up your life
And a wrap-up of land deals and real estate news from us and other sources
Affordable housing is starting to get built in prosperous areas like south Charlotte. But the path to realizing these projects remains challenging.
This rendering depicts the upcoming 85-unit affordable-housing development by DreamKey Partners at 3924 Weddington Road. (Rendering courtesy of DreamKey Partners)
by Ashley Fahey
In 2013, DreamKey Partners (known at the time as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership) filed a rezoning petition to allow 70 affordable housing units at 3924 Weddington Road, a growing area of south Charlotte.
The rezoning received vociferous backlash from nearby neighborhoods that even spurred a lawsuit, said Julie Porter, president of DreamKey Partners. The project was tied up in litigation for years, so nothing got built.
DreamKey filed another rezoning for the site in 2022, for a slightly larger project, and only one person spoke in opposition at its public hearing, Porter said.
“It was like night and day from our experience in 2013,” Porter said. “I can’t tell you what the difference was other than, I think, there’s a much wider acknowledgement that affordable housing is needed everywhere.”
It’s been a stated priority of local elected officials to get more low-income housing built in high-opportunity areas that are close to schools, jobs, amenities and services. Beyond some “naturally occurring affordable housing,” or units that rent below market rate because of age or condition, areas like Ballantyne have a dearth of affordable units.
But building these projects is tough — land values are higher, affordable-housing developers don’t qualify for as many tax incentives to build there and, at least historically, it’s been politically difficult to get affordable housing built in wealthier enclaves.
Subscribe to The Charlotte Ledger's paid version to read the rest.
Become a paying member of The Charlotte Ledger to gain access to this post and other subscriber-only articles. (Paying Ledger members: Log in under "sign in" at the top of this page — no password required)
Upgrade