Montford Park – More apartments are coming to Park Road, after developer snaps up site for $11 million

Charlotte Observer

July 5, 2017

Pfeiffer University’s Charlotte campus on Park Road has been sold for $11 million, real estate records show, and will be the site of a major new development.

Charlotte-based Crescent Communities is planning to transform the 5-acre parcel at 4701 Park Road into Crescent Montford Park, a development that will include 337 apartments, 17,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, and 580 parking spaces. It’s the latest change in the rapidly evolving area around Park and Montford, where developers are building more than 1,600 new apartments, more retailers are moving in and owners are overhauling longtime staples such as Park Road Shopping Center.

“The Charlotte market continues to remain strong for new development, and Crescent Montford Park is ideally situated to showcase Crescent’s approach of bringing distinctively crafted living opportunities to locations that feature the walkable amenities our residents are looking for in a neighborhood,” said Michael Tubridy, managing director of the Charlotte market for Crescent Communities, in a statement. “We are pleased to expand Crescent’s investment in our home market of Charlotte with the addition of this outstanding new mixed-use development.”

The sale, which had been long planned, closed June 30, real estate records show. CCB Montford Park LLC, affiliated with financial services firm Barings, bought the site, according to Mecklenburg County real estate records.

Crescent Communities has filed paperwork with the city of Charlotte to start grading the site for the new project, and construction is expected to start in the next few weeks. The shops should be open and the first apartments available for lease by spring 2019, the company said.

The university, which had been at its Park Road building since 1996, has leased three floors of the Park Seneca building next door, just north of Mockingbird Lane, where it plans to continue operating in a more modern space.

Charlotte City Council approved the new development in April 2016, when Spartanburg-based Johnson Development Associates moved to rezone the site. Crescent has since assumed the plans.

Crescent Communities is building other mixed-use developments centered around big apartment complexes in popular areas throughout Charlotte, including Crescent Stonewall Station uptown, which includes a Whole Foods, Crescent Providence Farm at Providence Road and Interstate 485, and Crescent NoDa at the 36th Street light rail station.

Those developments total 1,200 apartments and 100,000 square feet of retail space. The company is also planning to develop Tryon Place, a mixed-use project anchored by an office tower, at the corner of Stonewall and South Tryon streets.

Atlanta-based Fortune-Johnson will be the general contractor for Crescent Montford Park, LandDesign is the civil engineer, KTGY Architecture led the building’s design, Ironwood Design group is the landscape architect and Vignette Interior Design is designing the interiors. Broker Mark Miller with Lat Purser & Associates represented Crescent Communities in the land sale. Adam Williams with Legacy Real Estate Advisors has been hired to lease retail spaces in the development.