In Southwest Mecklenburg, the Developer of Berewick Envisions a True Community
 Call it Brigadoon on the Beltway.
A Scottish-themed hamlet is rising at Interstate 485's newest interchange, with the promise of becoming an idyllic place to live, play, work and shop. And given the track record of developer Pappas Properties, it's more than just a fairy tale.
Pappas' Berewick development is being launched on the cusp of a building wave in southwest Mecklenburg 's Steele Creek area - where a new stretch of I-485 is expected to open within weeks - and on the heels of Pappas' success at its Birkdale Village development in Huntersville.
As in Birkdale Village and its residential counterpart, Birkdale, Pappas hopes to create a community with a town center of shops, offices and other amenities surrounded by homes.
At Berewick, the formula is changed to fit the demographic. While the 250,000 square feet of retail space slated for Berewick is comparable to Birkdale Village 's, don't expect to see national "destination" retailers such as Williams Sonoma and the Gap there. Elizabeth Lord , vice president for marketing at Pappas Properties, expects neighborhood retailers, like a grocery store, gift shops, dry cleaners, restaurants and possibly a movie theater to be drawn to Berewick.
Berewick is zoned for 1.2 million square feet of office space, dwarfing what's at Birkdale Village . The town center is also zoned for 750 townhomes, though a builder for those has not been announced.
Work on the town center will follow home construction, which will start by the end of the year, with four builders setting up sales trailers in the next few months to draw takers of some 1,200 homesites.
Berewick part of a boom
Berewick is part of a trio of major residential developments gearing up in the Steele Creek area, which hasn't been among the hottest of Mecklenburg 's residential markets in the past two decades. But with new roads and sewer and water lines in place, it's the area's turn for a building boom.
Just south of Berewick, Crescent Resources is offering 200 homesites at its Sanctuary development along Lake Wylie . Rhein Investments is planning 2,000 single-family homes and townhouses at the Palisades . Together, the three developments represent nearly 4,000 acres of development.
"It's pretty incredible to have three properties of that substance all getting started around the same time," said real estate consultant Charles Graham of Newton Graham Consultants. "And these are all pretty savvy, intelligent people. I can't imagine them all being wrong at the same time."
Graham says Berewick's niche will be among mainstream homebuyers. While homes in Palisades will start at $250,000, and lots at the Sanctuary range from $100,000 to $1 million, homes in Berewick will start at $140,000 and top out at around $300,000.
About 80 percent of all homes sales in Mecklenburg are below $250,000, Graham says.
The biggest hurdle for all three developers will be getting people to look in southwest Mecklenburg for a home, which has largely been regarded as a place for office and industrial parks, Graham says.
Lord acknowledges that challenge. "It's not that this area has had a bad reputation in the past," she says. "It's just has no reputation. People haven't thought of it when they were shopping for a home."
Amenities are key. Lord says Pappas hopes to attract people by offering amenities unparalleled in its price range in Charlotte.
Architecture in commons areas and the town center will be consistent with the development's Scottish hamlet theme, adopted to reflect the area's Scottish heritage. Entering the development on Shopton Road West , visitors will be greeted by a landscaped roundabout and stone gatehouse.
Berewick Commons Parkway will lead to a 4,600-square-foot manor house, with a social room, catering kitchen, meeting room and exercise facility. The six-acre site also will include an event lawn, two swimming pools, and play fields and courts. Membership in the clubhouse will be included in homeowner's fees, which could range from $700 to $800 annually.
The development will include 10 miles of trails and sidewalks connecting to the town center. Pappas also has sold 195 acres at the site to Mecklenburg County for a future district park and elementary school, though taxpayers haven't yet funded those developments.
First among the four builders to start home construction will be M/I Homes, which plans to have a sales trailer on site by Nov. 1. M/I will offer five models from about $200,000 to $275,000, with features such as stone accents, designed specifically for Berewick to reflect the community's Scottish theme.
MDC Homes plans to start selling in December, offering homes from the $150,000s to the $170,000s with partial brick, stacked stone and shingle accents.
KB Home, which will offer homes from the $140,000s to the $190,000s, will be onsite in January, and Shea Homes plans to be there in early 2005, with homes beginning in the $200,000s. Development in Southwest Mecklenburg County .
In addition to 1,050-acre Berewick, southwest Mecklenburg is home to two other big developments. The Palisades plans some 2,000 homesites on 1,500 acres; the Sanctuary plans 188 "private preserves" on 1,300 acres.
- 1,200 homes to be built in Berewick
- 250,000 square feet of retail space planned for Berewick's town center
- $140,000 to $300,000 range in home prices at Berewick
- 10 miles to uptown Charlotte
- 5.5 miles to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport
4 builders in Berewick:
- M/I Homes $200s to $275s
- KB Home $140,000 to $190,000
- Shea Homes $200s to low $300s
- MDC Homes $150s to $170s
By Jen Pilla Taylor, Charlotte Observer |