CITY COUNCIL PRESS CONFERENCE: SOUTH END BUSINESS DISTRICT

  

Patsy Kinsey Dilworth's city council woman (now Mayor Kinsey!)

Patsy Kinsey, our city council woman here in Dilworth, along with Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon and other council members invited us to lunch and a ride around South End and beyond.

Our morning started out with a press conference at the corner of Camden Road and West Blvd. under the shade trees next to our new solar powered recycling bins, with a talk about how South End will soon be the center of the city with a population of 55,000 stretching from the furniture district running along South Tryon over to South Blvd on one end and from Wesley Heights along West Trade Street up to Wilmore at West Blvd.

Ted Boyd
Director of Historic South End

“Everybody wants high density, and they want proximity to employers, attractions, and transportation,” said Beau McIntosh, Capstone Apartment Partners.

These state-of-the-art BigBelly recycling bins operate on solar power
and contact the city when they are full and ready for pick up.

Our Light Rail running from uptown out to Pineville, a ten mile ride, has given Charlotte the ability to have just that.

Lawana Mayfield
City Council

Member Distinct 3 

The idea is to create business up and down South Blvd. along the rail line with front entrances facing the tracks. A 55,000 square foot Publix Supermarket, set on four acres across from our fairly new Lowes store on South Blvd, will open towards the train for shoppers to have easy access. There will be sidewalks, bike paths and jogging trails covering the entire area.

Apartments being built just about everywhere you look, Camden Centro on West Blvd., Camden South line on South Blvd., Colonial Grand South Blvd. and the list goes on. I count twelve in all including Phase II along South Church Street.

Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon

At the press conference, our Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon said he was standing on the same corner with Larry Pressley, both true visionaries, in 1993, and described their dream of South End being everything it is becoming. I remember Larry Pressley in the 80s being a driving force in uptown Charlotte and its transformation.

Michael Smith, CEO of
Center City Partners

Moira Quinn, COO of
Center City Partners

Moira Quinn of Center City Partners, our hostess, and Michael Smith spoke to us on the bus as we rode through South End painting pictures of how it will be in the near future to live and work as urbanites in Charlotte and how Charlotte will be the dream place to live if it’s not already.

The most recent version of this report and current information about Center City  and South End is always available at charlottecentercity.org.