CHARLOTTE — What was once a golf course has become one of Charlotte’s hottest destinations.
More than $1 billion has been invested in Ballantyne over the past six years, paving the way for new businesses, homes and stores.
Ballantyne is now home to what some consider a culinary destination, Wegmans. But some of the grocery store’s most avid fans remember when that part of Charlotte looked much different.
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“I lived in the area for a little over 13 years now, and it’s boomed since the time I got here untill now,” resident Mike Lewis said.
“I remember this whole strip used to be nothing. Literally, this all used to be land. The apartments, they all used to be trees and forests,” resident Bryn Belttari said.
That development is bringing in a different kind of green: Cash.
What was once a golf course behind the Ballantyne Hotel is now The Bowl at Ballantyne.
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It’s all part of the Ballantyne Reimagined project, Charlotte’s newest work, a live-and-play development. Northwood Office owns 535 acres of Ballantyne, including where The Bowl is located.
CEO John Barton said the company recognized the area needed more restaurants and green space.
“We had a lot of green space, but green space aggregated around the restaurants, and that provides a lot of amenities to the future apartments we wanted to build, to the office customers. It was a critical piece of really creating this really walkable, bikeable, enjoyable environment,” Barton said.
The Ballantyne Reimagined project was made possible with $42.5 million from Charlotte City Council, $103 million for infrastructure and $1.5 billion from the private sector.
The funding of infrastructure helped build two new roads, sidewalks, 3.4 miles of greenways, new parks, and TD Amphitheatre. There were also 100 acres of land preserved.
The Bowl at Ballantyne now has restaurants, businesses and luxury apartments.
“There’s a lot of that kind of stuff that I think really appeals to a broad range of people, and as we continue to develop and enhance The Bowl, making that sort of base of people who want to come in is a real priority,” Barton said.
The investment in Ballantyne has also created jobs.
Wegmans, for example, employs 450 people and is widely regarded as one of the best places to work.
In just the past year and a half, nearly 2,000 new corporate jobs have been announced for Ballantyne, including at Citi, TD Bank, Daimler Truck Financial Services and SoFi Technologies.
Charlotte City Councilman Ed Driggs, who represents Ballantyne, said the area now has a life of its own.
“I’ve been here 20 years, and it used to be if you wanted to go out, you probably went to SouthPark. And I used to be able to ride my bicycle south from where I lived, just north of 485. And so, it’s very different now,” Driggs said.
Driggs and Barton both said investment in Ballantyne will continue into the next decade, with Barton predicting more housing, office space and retail.
“We will continue to develop and enhance the bowl over time, as capital markets permit. I think that’s the most challenging thing now: Is capitalizing any development project, regardless of where it is and what it is, in this environment,” Barton said.
Between The Bowl at Ballantyne and Charlotte’s first Wegmans, some residents said they are now putting down roots instead of looking to live elsewhere.
“That’s one of the reasons I decided to stay down here or not to a different part of town,” Belttari said.