"I think this will put Harrisburg on the map," Jimmy Flowers, a principal in The Nichols Co., tells GlobeSt.com. "It will fuel more office development."
Flowers says, "You don't really have any office space in Harrisburg, though there are a few pockets of strip centers, and it will help bring in retail to an area that now has only one grocery, Food Lion."
The developer predicts the area will eventually have 450,000 sf of retail and 300,000 sf of office, phasing it in over the next several years. His Charlotte-based commercial real estate company is working to sell and lease the Town Center project.
Flowers says the concept for the project is "an open air lifestyle center, a sort of new urbanism with a main street that encourages residents to walk to shops and offices."
Flowers, who grew up here where his father owned a furniture store directly across the street from Town Center, says the area, about 14 miles northeast of Downtown Charlotte, has long been known as a rural community in the shadow of a fast-growing urban center.
"There's a lot of raw land there, and a lot of the big builders in town have been subdividing areas for homes from $185,000 to $400,000," he says. "A lot of people see opportunities here because it's within a stone's throw of Charlotte, but it has a sort of higher quality of life."
The parcel that will make up Town Center is 97 acres at the corner of the town's major intersection at NC 49 and Roberta Road. The two new office buildings will also offer retail. The retail space will rent from $18 per sf while office will be $14 per sf, Flowers says.
Nichols is also marketing pre-graded pad sites that are being sold at an average cost of $400,000 an acre. Plans also call for 430 or so town homes and condos. Prices have yet to be determined, but Flowers says they will probably be in the mid-$150s range.
Flowers' partner, John Nichols, points out that population estimates say there will be 40,000 people living within a five-mile radius of Harrisburg in just five years.
Joint venture partners in the project are the Concord-based J&B Development and Management and Charlotte's JDH Capital.
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David Wilkening
David Wilkening began his long journalism career as a police reporter for Chicago-area newspapers. He became a writer-editor for major newspapers in Chicago, Washington, Detroit and Florida. He has been a business editor, political editor and travel editor for newspapers and magazines. He tried for a while to be a political operative but did better as an adjunct college professor teaching English and journalism. He is the author of several books, both ghost-written and under his own name. He is also a widely published freelance writer who currently lives in Orlando.
