This Huntersville project will welcome three new restaurants in the upcoming months — and efforts are ongoing to lock in the final retail tenants.
Expect First Watch and Summit Coffee to open at Birkdale Landing by this summer. Firebirds is targeting a late summer opening.
That retail and office project is located across from Birkdale Village, at the intersection of Sam Furr Road and Birkdale Commons Parkway in Huntersville.
Those restaurants join Shake Shack and Inizio Pizza Napoletana, both of which recently opened there.
“Our focus is now on rounding out the project with complementary users for people to shop and walk around before or after a great meal,” says J.D. Yearwood, of Park Commercial Real Estate.
He represents Fairway Investments on the retail leasing.
Alabama-based Fairway purchased the 8.5-acre property for $7 million in 2017. It also owns the Shoppes at Birkdale Crossing next door, which it purchased for $13.8 million in 2016.
Construction on Birkdale Landing began in fall 2019. The project includes a two-story, 28,000-square-foot office building, which is 100% leased — though the tenant has not yet been named.
Three additional retail buildings added another 44,734 square feet to the project, with outdoor plazas and additional parking as well.
“We just really saw the opportunity to create a lot of open spaces with endcaps and visibility,” says Paul Darden, senior development manager with Fairway.
He says Covid slowed efforts to fill Birkdale Landing. Interest has picked back up and a roster of local, regional and national tenants will help drive traffic to the center.
“We’ve been able to bring in some concepts that are best in class,” Darden says.
The commercial component of that project is now 89% leased, with just 5,000 square feet remaining, Yearwood says. He sees an opportunity for soft goods, beauty or wellness concepts as well as specialty and to-go food purveyors such as a butcher store, cheese shop or dessert concept.
“I think we’ve been very intentional about offering a wide variety of options. We continue to try and identify both national and local concepts for those spaces,” he says.
The goal is to name those final tenants by early summer.
Darden says Fairway is already looking for future redevelopment opportunities in the market. The firm also does multifamily projects.
“We’re currently looking for our next project. We don’t have anything lined up yet,” he says.
From Charlotte Business Journal
