Group behind Summit Coffee eyes 57-acre expansion in Davidson

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Mayor Rusty Knox graduated from high school in the ’70s, but if you ask him, little has changed in Davidson since he was a kid.

“You still rode your bike to town, you still ate at the soda shop, you still played baseball at McEver Field,” Knox told Channel 9’s Erika Jackson.

But a big change is on the way. Soon, you won’t have to go downtown to shop or eat.

The group behind Summit Coffee, which has locations dotted around the Charlotte area, is weeks away from breaking ground on a new development called Summit Farms.

“This is one of those things that will put Davidson on the map in a different manner, because it’s such a different, such a vibrant, such a unique development,” Knox said.

Summit Farms will be built on 57 acres along the Rocky River, near the Cabarrus County line. At least 45% of the land will stay as it is and become an open green space.

“What we don’t want to do is turn this farm into any old neighborhood. The first engineering spec we had for this had 180 homes, and it was just the traditional neighborhood. But we wanted to sort of build something on the land that we fell in love with,” said Brian Helfrich.

Helfrich is the chief executive officer of Summit Coffee and a partner with Summit Farms. He told Channel 9 his team prioritized nature’s beauty instead of new buildings.

He says some of this green space will be used as a multi-acre garden, with the produce to be sold at Summit Farms’ greenhouse market and used at the café.

“We’ve tried to do it as intentionally as possible along the way, maximizing open space, centering it around a farm,” Helfrich said.

The site will be home to Summit Coffee’s headquarters and 55 single-family homes.

Eventually, it will have more than 50 apartments, 12 of which will be affordable housing.

“It’s college grads that have their first jobs. It’s young families that say, I want to call Davidson home,” Knox said.

“You’ve lived here your entire life. What do you want to say to the fellow long timers who don’t want to see Davidson change?” Jackson asked.

“I think it’s going to be very complimentary. It’s different than downtown,” Knox said. “I tell people all the time; our Davidson, when you talk about townies that grew up here, our Davidson is still here. You might have to look a little harder, but it’s still here.”

The developer hopes to open the retail shops in the summit farms “village” by next summer.

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