Crosland Has Helped Build Charlotte For More Than Six Decades

BY JOHN CROSLAND, JR.
Chairman, The Crosland Group, Inc.
(For The Business Journal, Dec. 23, 1999)

Travel in any direction in Mecklenburg County, and you can find single-family homes, apartments, retail and office complexes built by The Crosland Group. As each emerged, our communities improved, and we demonstrated my father's guiding principle of creating value in real estate.

The roots of our company date to 1924, when John Crosland, Sr. began building single-family homes in Myers Park and Eastover. He also constructed a four-family apartment building which still stands on Royal Court off E. Morehead.

The 1929 stock market crash interrupted my father's development career, but in 1937 he started again by founding the John Crosland Company. That year he began building Club Colony, North Carolina's first FHA subdivision, near the Myers Park Country Club. He also developed a Selwyn Avenue commercial property that housed a grocery, Deal Fine Foods, and Park Place Pharmacy, later called Hardee's Pharmacy.

During World War II, my father moved to eastern North Carolina to build housing for shipyard workers, and in 1945, he returned to resume single-family home construction here.

During summer vacations, I began working with the company as a laborer and a framer. After graduation from Davidson College, I started my own development career. The Korean War soon interrupted, and shortly after the truce, I arrived in Korea. Although I was an artillery officer, the Army put my construction background to use in rebuilding South Korea. I returned in 1955 and joined the John Crosland Company.

In commercial development from the beginning, the company chartered John Crosland Realty Company in 1956 to develop shopping centers. Among its developments are Sharon Corners, Quail Corners, and Foxcroft East.

We also have developed many of Charlotte's better-known neighborhoods, among them Beverly Woods, Fairmeadows, Spring Valley, and Huntingtowne Farms. In 1987, we sold the single-family homes division to Centex so the company could concentrate on commercial real estate, apartment communities, retail and land development.

Over the decades, we have been associated with more than 12,000 multifamily residential units, more than 13,500 single-family homes, 30 retail centers, 13 commercial complexes, and 110 master-planned communities and neighborhoods in Charlotte and other cities.

When I became President in 1965, I continued building on the principle that guided my father. In 1986, I became chairman of the board and still hold that position. We have a new CEO, Todd Mansfield, and a talented, experienced management team to guide The Crosland Group into the new millennium.