BK Partners LLC invites public to kickoff meeting on Thursday, Aug. 4
Charlotte, N.C., Aug. 02, 2016 — BK Partners LLC, the selected developer for the 17-acre Brooklyn Village project in Charlotte’s Second Ward, announced that a series of community meetings will launch with a kickoff meeting Thursday, Aug. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center in Room 267.
In June, BK Partners LLC — which includes Charlotte-based developer The Conformity Corporation (Conformity), The Peebles Corporation and Stantec — was selected to develop Brooklyn Village through an extensive RFP process by Mecklenburg County.
Open to the public, the first community meeting will include an introduction of the development’s key players, an overview of the site’s history, concepts, timeline and schedule of upcoming community meetings over the next three months. Each meeting will have a particular area of focus. For the most current information and schedule of the community meetings, visit www.facebook.com/brooklynvillageclt/.
The community meetings will alternate between evening and daytime to optimize public attendance. Between each community meeting, BK Partners will be working to interpret feedback from the previous meeting to make future meetings more comprehensive and impactful. The development team will use the public engagement process facilitated by Gwendolyn Jackson of Urbane Environments to prioritize goals, work toward funding and execution of those goals, and create an instructive and inclusive place that Charlotte and its visitors can enjoy.
The Plan
BK Partners LLC proposed purchasing two parcels from Mecklenburg County for $33.7 million requiring no public subsidy for the master plan. The team plans the majority of infrastructure delivering in Phase 1. Demolition would start immediately after the transaction is complete. When asked how the developer would develop the 17-acre tract, the proposed master plan included:
The overall master plan is projected to deliver over a 10-year horizon with the majority in Phase 1 being delivered within five years. The community outreach process will listen to and balance community priorities to adjust this plan.
The design team is led by Stantec, a global design firm with a Charlotte office, who will provide architecture, engineering, site planning, permitting and project oversight. They have partnered with local design experts Perkins + Will and Cole Jenest & Stone with parking advisory services provided by The Car Park and Preferred Parking.
The lead national developer, The Peebles Corporation, has developed countless urban hotel projects throughout the country including the top-performing Courtyard by Marriott in the nation.
The residential component will include market-rate and workforce apartments indistinguishable from each other, as well as for-sale condominiums. The lead local partner, Conformity, is known for innovative local residential and mixed-use developments such as Southborough, Steelhaus and The Williamson, as well as its preservation work.
BK Partners is planning to develop an iconic office tower along Stonewall Street to give a distinct sense of arrival to Uptown Charlotte and to help connect Midtown to Uptown. The majority of retail and restaurants will be located in Brooklyn Village North in a more walkable “village” environment which will surround the park. The team seeks to provide a diverse mix of boutiques, stores and eating establishments.
Minority Participation
The team’s minority participation efforts are projected to achieve a goal of at least 35% participation by historically underutilized minority or women-owned small business enterprises.
The team intends to transform this community by ensuring that local businesses and the youth have the ability to learn leadership and management skills associated with the hospitality industry, and plans to establish an Entrepreneurship Institute. The model for the institute is the Peebles Entrepreneurial Academy within the D.C. Hospitality High School in Washington, D.C., which has been adopted as the hospitality model by the National Academy Foundation.
Public Space & Art
Brooklyn Village North is an urban respite organically anchored by park space and public art that will be curated through a series of outreach efforts and strategic partnerships with community organizations, local government, nonprofits and other NGOs.
Myers Passage is an essential part of how Brooklyn Village North and South “communicate” with each other and also an important reference to the Brooklyn that once was. Myers Passage also creates opportunities to translate the history of Brooklyn through art, installations and other tools, all while connecting the North and South sites to each other, to First Ward and to ultimately Morehead and Dilworth beyond I-277.
BK Partners has committed to 3,700 SF of cultural space which includes an iconic building to be designed by Phil Freelon and Zena Howard of architecture firm Perkins+Will, local designers responsible for the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, as well as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
About Conformity Corp.
The Conformity Corporation (Conformity) is a real estate development company with over 20 years of experience putting capital to work in real estate. Conformity’s focus is on real estate that is off-market, intrinsically valuable and underutilized. Its specialties are urban office, housing and retail, routinely integrated and often located on complex sites requiring assembly, entitlements and other value additions.
Conformity actively seeks to capitalize on properties with key features such as historic architecture and proximity to mass transit, public parks, retail buildings and office buildings. Spaces and buildings that every member of the community can benefit from are a hallmark.
Incorporated in 1993, Conformity has delivered more than $250 million worth of development and $2 million in federal preservation tax credits. For more information, visit www.conformitycorp.com.
About The Peebles Corporation
The Peebles Corporation is a privately held national real estate investment and development company specializing in residential, hospitality, retail and mixed-use commercial properties. Founded in 1983 by R. Donahue Peebles, the company has become an industry leader with a portfolio of completed and current developments totaling 6 million SF and more than $5 billion in key markets including New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston, Miami and Miami Beach. For more information, visit www.peeblescorp.com.
About Stantec
The Stantec community unites more than 15,000 employees working in over 250 locations. We collaborate across disciplines and industries to bring buildings, energy and resource, environmental and infrastructure projects to life. Our work — professional consulting in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management and project economics — begins at the intersection of community, creativity and client relationships.
Stantec is traded on the New York Stock Exchange at STN. For more information, visit www.stantec.com.