GGP, Partner Planning NC Center

MINT HILL, NC-General Growth Properties is teaming with Childress Klein Properties to build the 1.3-million-sf Bridges at Mint Hill, an open-air, retail-entertainment center about 15 miles east of Charlotte. A 150,000-sf Belk and two other similar-sized stores are planned to anchor the development, to open in the spring 2007.In addition to the anchors, the developers are planning specialty tenants, upscale restaurants, a book store and a movie theater. Executives compared the project with Chicago-based General Growth's Streets at Southpoint, a center in Durham with five department stores and a lifestyle center. Mint Hill will be General Growth's sixth center in the state.Atlanta-based Childress Klein owns about 1.1 million sf of retail, 11.5 million sf of offices and 7.6 million sf of industrial in the Southeast. On the retail front, the company owns community centers and retail outparcels in the Charlotte area, as well as Wachovia Center, a 2.6-million-sf mixed-use downtown development that spans three city blocks.Mint Hill is not the only major retail project going up in the Charlotte area. Taubman Centers is building the 1.2-million-sf Northlake Mall in the northern part of the city and expects to complete that project in the fall.General Growth also is developing major retail projects in Chula Vista and Elk Grove, CA; Maumee, OH; Rogers, AK; and San Antonio and Westlake, TX. In November, General Growth completed the acquisition of the Rouse Co. and its 47 retail properties for $12.6 billion. That deal gave it a number of high-profile centers, including Faneuil Hall in Boston, Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas and Water Tower Place in Chicago.