Pappas Pays Rouse Affiliate $10 Mil for 25-Acre Near-Downtown Mixed-Use Site

CHARLOTTE-Pappas Properties has taken the first step in developing a 25-acre, near-Downtown site into a mixed-use village offering 875,000 sf of retail and office, 200 hotel rooms and 500 residential units at an estimated build-out cost of $100 million.

Pappas paid a Rouse Co. affiliate $10 million or $400,000 per acre ($42.74 per sf) for the existing 234,000-sf Midtown Square mall bordered by South Kings Drive, Independence Boulevard, Baxter Street and Kenilworth Avenue.

The deal has been rumored for months. Home Depot Co.’s Expo Design Center division, new to North Carolina, will be one of the project’s anchors. In a prepared statement, Pappas Properties president Peter A. Pappas, predicts the Expo retail effort and the village will rejuvenate the entire area. “We believe it will be a tremendous opportunity for the Center City,” Pappas says.