Birkdale Village: Artist rendering of expansion plans

Oct. 6. As first reported by Business Today on Sept. 6, Birkdale Village is planning a major expansion that would include a 125-room “lifestyle” hotel, 350 multifamily units and 150,000 square feet of office space.

The $275 million plan was shown to the Huntersville Town Board this week.

Background

The nationally known lifestyle center is completing a $20 million overhaul that included removing the roundabout at the center of the complex and new stand-alone retail units called “jewel boxes.” There’s also a performance stage with concerts scheduled for the rest of October.

Details

DDRTC Birkdale Village, owned by Nuveen Real Estate and North American Properties (NAP), is also asking for the town’s OK to build 25,000 square feet of commercial space.

The expansion on 8.82 acres located at the intersection of Townley Drive and Lindholm Drive could virtually double the size of the 250,000 square foot mixed-use development. That said, the Barnes & Noble structure would be torn down and new parking structures added after existing ones are torn down.

There would be four or five stories of offices over retail. All said and done, there will be “a small net loss” in retail space.

New development would go up in the parcel, which includes Barnes & Noble, outlined in green at Lindholm and Townley

Retail trends

Conceived as a modern-day interpretation of the shopping mall, lifestyle centers are characterized by outdoor settings and multiple uses, including office, multi-housing and hospitality in addition to upscale, national-chains and specialty retail.

Looking ahead: Zoning

The Town of Huntersville would have to amend its zoning ordinance to allow hotels and commercial use structures within a pedestrian-oriented development of the highway commercial zoning district to exceed the permitted building height up to 145 feet with a special use permit. The Planning Board meeting is scheduled for October 25th at 6:30pm at Town Hall located at 101 Huntersville-Concord Road.

View the town board meeting

To view the meeting click here. The Birkdale discussion begins around 1:24, with the applicant speaking at 1:30.

Rendering of new Birkdale