Charlotte Business Journal
From the May 30, 2005 print edition
The Fountains to mix village shops, offices
J. Lee Howard
Senior Staff Writer
B.L. Patch and Associates has launched a $14.2 million, 95,000-square-foot mixed-use development at Ardrey Kell and Tom Short roads, with the project designed to look like a European-style village plaza.
The development, dubbed The Fountains, will feature courtyards around custom-designed fountains, heavily landscaped areas and streetscapes.
Even though the first units will not be ready for occupancy until November, more than 73,000 square feet of the retail and office space already has sold, says Bransen Patch, company president. “We believe that the plazas and fountains will be landmark features for many years to come,” he says.
Companies taking space in the development include a dentist, a chiropractor, an insurance office, architectural firm Carolina Design Group, home building company Unique Builders and Palone’s Italian Restaurant.
Space is available for lease at $18 to $26 per square foot, but it also may be purchased for $165 to $220 per square foot.
Features include a single-story, cottage-like office building measuring 3,200 to 5,000 square feet, as well as single-story retail space with internal parking and pedestrian walkways. Patch is also building two-story, elevator-served condominiums, with the ground floor reserved for retail use and the upper floors for offices.
The office market in the Ardrey Kell-Tom Short area suffered from high vacancy in recent years, hitting 21.55% at the end of the first quarter, according to real estate research firm Carolinas Real Data. But that vacancy rate has been driven largely by the volume of speculative development in and around Ballantyne — space that typically fills quickly.
The retail picture is much rosier. Because the southeast Charlotte retail market is still mostly virgin territory, vacancy is a scant 1.5% — the lowest in the city.
“It’s becoming attractive to specialty retailers who may once have looked at the Pineville market and are now following the rooftops,” says Chris Jeltrup, a senior associate at commercial real estate consulting firm Warren & Associates. “Now they’re looking at Ballantyne and the Ardrey Kell areas as well.”
Patch is developer and general contractor of The Fountains. The project is being designed by Overcash-Demmitt Architects.
Site Solutions is the land planner and civil engineer. Terrence Llewellyn of Llewellyn Development provided consulting and planning services.
Space in The Fountains is being marketed for sale by Chuck Lickert and Hershel Fogleman of ReMax Metro Realty and for lease by Denise Browning of Divaris Real Estate.