Wilmore to get office condos

by Doug Smith, Charlotte Observer
04/2002

One of Charlotte's oldest inner-city neighborhoods is getting a boost in its effort to revitalize and overcome blight.

Developers plan to remodel the old Charlotte Linen Supply Building at South Mint Street and West Summit Avenue in Wilmore for commercial condominiums.

The building is across Mint from the 76-year-old Joseph Sykes Brothers Building, which Axiom Creative Group, a graphic design firm, bought 1 1/2 years ago and restored for its offices.

Vision Ventures, which was involved with that makeover, acquired the 35,000-square-foot linen supply complex through South Mint Street LLC with Charlotte lawyer Jameson Wells.

They plan to demolish an addition constructed after the building opened in 1939 to create parking for tenants on the nearly one-acre site.

Doug Stephan of Vision Brokerage Group said that after demolition the owners will have about 17,700 square feet available for sale to commercial users.

Charlotte's Liquid Design, project architect, has conceived a dramatic transformation that preserves skylights to create 30-foot atriums, adds lofts and incorporates steel trusses, salvaged from demolition, into a new exterior.

The $2.3 million project will soften a rough edge on the Mint Street-Cliffwood Place drive from uptown into Wilmore, bounded roughly by West Summit, South Tryon and Interstate 77.

And it has potential to spur more redevelopment nearby.

Stephan said Vision Ventures also owns the nearly half-acre corner and 15,000 square feet of buildings across Summit from the old linen supply building.

Plans aren't complete, but he said the owners envision an office project that saves the facade of a building Wilmore residents patronized over the years as a soda shop and restaurant.

That redevelopment wouldn't start, however, until the linen supply building makeover is completed at 1430 S. Mint, probably not before early 2003.

Mint Street's rebirth began about five years ago when developers restored Industrial & Textile Supply Co.'s 1922 warehouse for offices in the 1300 block, about three blocks south of Ericsson Stadium.

Behind the industrial supply building, the former Charlotte Manufacturing Co. warehouse, also built in 1922, was refurbished for offices.

Mint Street doesn't have the density and commercial/retail diversity of South End, but some real estate watchers see parallels to one of the city's most successful restorations of an industrial strip.

Over the past 12 years, old warehouses and factory buildings along South Boulevard between uptown and Ideal Way have been converted to South End offices, shops and restaurants.

In fact, the momentum from that growth is spilling over into Wilmore at South Tryon, where MECA Properties is developing a seven-acre expansion of its Design Center of the Carolinas.

Wilmore is trying to restore blighted houses and encourage residential development across Tryon from the project, near the West Boulevard intersection.

Charlotte developer F.C. Abbott launched the suburb of Wilmore in 1914. It was connected to the center city by an electric streetcar line along Mint. The line made the factories there accessible to a large labor pool.

At the old linen supply building, developer Vision Ventures is tapping into an office market that has showed resilience despite the economic slump.

Encouraged by low interest rates, many business owners are choosing to control monthly costs through fixed mortgage payments rather than lease from landlords who can raise rates.

Stephan, who is handling sales for Vision Brokerage Group, said the developers are asking $137 to $145 a square foot for what he calls "warm" shell space.

That means bathrooms, concrete floors and about 400 square feet of loft space are finished, leaving interior walls, any additional flooring and other details to be completed at the owners' expense, he said.

Unit sizes range from 3,600 to 10,000 square feet.

The owners are replacing the roof as well as the electrical, plumbing and heating/air conditioning systems.

Vision Construction Services, the general contractor, plans to start work in about 60 days. Stephan said the first units should be ready for occupancy about nine months after that.

Doug Smith