Westside`s Second Chance- Public and private support help launch business park and possible Wilkinson rebirth

It’s been 55 years since a teen-aged John Crosland Jr. spent his summers helping his father’s company build houses on Charlotte’s westside. The 72-year-old developer remembers those times fondly.

“I did all types of summer work,” Crosland recalls. “I was on the truck as a strong back. I also did some framing, some masonry and later some trimming, and I finally became involved in staking and setting level points for homes in Ashley Park.” The Ashley Park and Wesley Hills subdivisions that Crosland’s father built in the ‘40s and ‘50s consisted of good, solid middle-class homes, and most are still there today.

Crosland’s memories of those days when he was young and strong are a major reason he agreed in October 1997 to become the first chairman of the non-profit Charlotte-Mecklenburg Development Corp. The group’s goal is to remake the westside into an attractive place to do business and to restore its liveability.

The corporation, formed by the Charlotte Chamber, was looking for a strong leader to head the revitalization of the blighted westside corridor between Charlotte/Douglas International Airport and uptown.

Chamber President Carroll Gray explains, “We went to John because we knew that his dad and his dad’s company, and John as a teenager, had worked on some houses in Wesley Heights and some of those other subdivisions on the westside. We hoped that John had some interest in helping us out, and he did. He has given us some passion and leadership and focus.”

For his part, Crosland said he took the job because not enough attention had been focused on the westside corridors.

“We don’t want deteriorating areas leading to uptown,” he said. Eventually values will rise to such a point that the land in those corridors will be developed by private enterprise, Crosland says, but meanwhile the westside needed a jumpstart.

The John Crosland Co. built more than 20,000 houses in 80 neighborhoods before selling the John Crosland name in 1987 to Centex Homes and agreeing not to compete against the buyer for seven years. John Crosland Jr. created The Crosland Group in 1987 and re-entered the single-family home construction business in 2000, using the name Lillian Floyd Homes, after his mother’s maiden name.

So far restoring the westside has not been an easy task, but the corporation took its first giant step on May 18 when members broke ground on the 33-acre Wilkinson Park Business Center. Now the corporation is seeking tenants for the 500,000 square feet of available space in the center, located on the south side of Wilkinson Boulevard between old Steele Creek Road and Morris Field Drive.

Also on May 18, the corporation started its renewal effort of the old Westover Shopping Center at Remount Road and West Boulevard. The 4.6 acres were seized by the federal government as part of a drug raid in 1991. Usually the government would have sold the property, but the government agreed to turn over the site to the city if a nonprofit group could be found to redevelop it. The Charlotte City Council turned over that restoration to the development corporation in 2000. Seven businesses have expressed interest in moving to the $3.4 million project.

The back-to-back ceremonies on May 18 were the culmination of a $4-million effort that the Charlotte Chamber launched to renovate the westerly corridors leading into the uptown area. The city, county, state and federal government chipped in to buy the land for the business park as a can opener to kick off other development on the Westside.

Crosland says the area’s potential is growing every day because of its strategic location — near the uptown area and the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport and major highways such as I-85, I-485, I-77 and Billy Graham Parkway.

“It’s a key location,” Crosland says. “Wilkinson Boulevard is an ideal gateway to the airport and downtown or vice versa. Right now the economics just don’t work — what people are willing to sell their property for and what it costs to clean it up and redevelop it. We are having to put in a lot of government dollars in the way of grants to make it happen, but eventually we will get some momentum going and the value of the property will rise.” Crosland sees a possible parallel between the Westside and Charlotte’s Southend. “That’s a prime example. Look what happened in the Southend,” he said.

“Those values have gone up dramatically. Somebody took some risks to make the improvements to make it available and eventually it really caught on. Now it’s too expensive for anything like moderate-priced office and totally out of reach of moderate-priced residential.”

Not too many years ago, the Southend looked like a deadend, but today the area along South Boulevard just southwest of uptown has exploded with high-end restaurants, new and restored office space, growing residential and even high-tech firms. Tony Pressley, whose MECA Properties spearheaded conversion of many old Southend industrial buildings to offices, shops and residences, says there are 15 to 20 technology-related companies among Southend tenants.

Crosland is confident that the westside will achieve its potential in time. He says, “The long-term view, particularly of the Wilkinson Boulevard corridor, is very positive and eventually it will be a place that some businesses will seek because of its close-in location and also because it is close to major roads and the airport.”

Asked what the westside needs most of all now to achieve the goals, he replied, “It needs some new development or redevelopment. It needs some futher road improvements. The city has made substantial road improvements along Wilkinson, but there are still a number of others, particularly some of the arteries that empty into Wilkinson.”

In addition, the westside needs a facelift, he says. “Before the corridor will create momentum of its own, we must enhance the environment so it feels like a place you want to live, work and play. In addition to street improvements, (we need to) add more landscaping and remove the blight and bring in new businesses.”

Crosland says the development corporation’s president, Bob Sweeney, has identified several prospects to locate in the business park, but it’s too early to name any.

The corporation is working with 10 prospective buyers interested in using the park for office, warehouse, manufacturing and distribution space, Sweeney said. Construction should begin this summer.

City leaders say the project will attract new business investment to the westside while creating jobs near the neighborhoods most in need of job opportunities.

“It’s a corridor that we think has really reached a tipping point,” Sweeney said. “It’s not declining, it’s gaining in value.”

[by Marion A. Ellis, as appeared in the July 2001 Charlotte Real Estate Record]