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Developers plan up to 130 residential units + retail/restaurants on high-profile Eastover site, to be called 'The Manor' in honor of beloved theater
by Ashley Fahey
Hearts were broken across Charlotte when the Regal Manor Twin movie theater in Eastover closed in 2020 after 73 years. It ultimately was the first of several businesses to close at the shopping center it anchored, a property as old as the theater itself.
Questions and speculation across Charlotte have bubbled up in the past five years about what will happen next at the high-profile property, at 607 Providence Road, between Cherokee Road and Fenton Place.
The 3.4-acre site is emerging from a very long fade-out into its next act.
Dallas-based StreetLights Residential, in a joint venture with current and original owner Eastern Federal Corp., is seeking to build a mixed-use development that will include 120-130 residential units and 35,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail at the site, according to the real estate firms. The project is being dubbed “The Manor,” an homage to the former movie theater beloved by so many Charlotteans.
The site includes the property known locally as the “Manor Theatre” shopping center, as well as the buildings that contain Starbucks and Laurel Market at the corner of Cherokee and Providence roads. It also includes a two-story office building on Fenton Place that contains Hilliard Studio Method. In total, there’s about 40,000 sq. ft. of existing retail space today, according to the real estate firms.
The Charlotte Business Journal reported Tuesday that Laurel Market will soon be relocating to Elizabeth after operating at its Eastover site for 35 years.
If it moves forward, the proposed project would represent a dramatic change for the area, as the property sits centrally on the high-traffic Providence Road corridor straddling Eastover and Myers Park. The project’s maximum height will be 80 feet.
About 20% of the site is being sought for rezoning to accommodate the developers’ proposed plans. The back portion of the site is currently zoned Office Commercial, while the rest is zoned Commercial General. The petitioner — SLRH Acquisitions LLC, an affiliate of StreetLights Residential — is seeking Neighborhood Center zoning for what’s currently the office-zoned portion of the site, which will give the developers flexibility on parking, site and unit design. No additional changes on building height, buffers or setbacks are being pursued through the rezoning.
StreetLights Residential and Eastern Federal were not available on Wednesday to further discuss the project. Eastern Federal has owned The Manor property since 1947, across three generations of the Meiselman family.
“Eastern Federal Corporation is excited to partner with nationally acclaimed mixed-use residential developer StreetLights Residential to lead the long-awaited redevelopment of the Manor shopping center at Providence Road and Cherokee Road,” said Carter Meiselman, president of Eastern Federal, in a prepared statement. “Aligned with city plans, The Manor includes best-in-class residential units above ground-floor restaurant and retail uses in a high-quality, pedestrian-friendly design.”
The proposed residential component is expected to include a mix of rental and for-sale units, to be built with steel and concrete versus the wood-framed construction popular in so many multifamily projects across Charlotte, but additional details were not immediately available. The ground-level commercial space is expected to include a mix of retail and restaurant businesses, with options for tenants to add outdoor dining spaces. The project’s parking will be at grade as well as buried, according to the real estate firms.
Businesses, including Starbucks, Pure Barre, Bond Street Wines, Divana Nail Bar and Deejai, are still open at the property, and it wasn’t immediately clear when they might leave the site ahead of demolition.
StreetLights Residential and Eastern Federal told The Ledger ample notice has been given to existing tenants about plans to redevelop the property, and the firms “have supported many of them in potential relocations.” They said once the site is redeveloped, they would be open to discussions with tenants about the potential for returning in the future.
As a rezoning is being sought for a portion of the site, the project still needs to go through numerous steps before anything moves forward, including city planning staff review, a required community meeting, and a public hearing and a separate decision by Charlotte City Council. Rezoning petitions are taking six to eight months, on average, to get from filing to decision. Assuming everything goes as anticipated with the rezoning request, construction is anticipated to start sometime in 2027, according to the firms.
All of the existing buildings onsite would be torn down to make way for the new project.
Ashley Fahey is The Charlotte Ledger’s managing editor. Reach her at [email protected].
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