The sound of bulldozers fills the air, and the MCB Bar & Foundation Center will soon have neighbors. After four years at the Greenway Business Park, new construction is underway. The site next door to the MCB will be home to a 17,000 square foot health club/office building. The first floor will be a Crossfit Health Facility and the second floor an office complex rumored to house a juice bar. A recent update from RJS Properties provides more exciting news. They tell us that the immediate area has been named #1 in the “Top 10 Charlotte Zip Codes to Invest In.” What a difference four years makes. We were lucky to have built our building when we did!
The neighbors on the other side of the Bar & Foundation Center, across from Judson Avenue, where our MCB Annual Meeting and BBQ has been held the last two years, are not yet identified but will be housed in two brick office buildings totaling 6,000 square feet that feature curved-roof architecture known as bowstring-style. If ground is broken before May, we will update you on our Annual Meeting location. Mattie’s Diner, a retro-style, partly stainless steel, 70-year-old diner, has been in storage since its lease ran out at the Music Factory a little more than two years ago. Mattie’s is reopening its doors at the corner of Judson Avenue and Rozzelles Ferry Road – one of the two main entrances to the park. Fried chicken, mac n’ cheese and other comfort foods are planned for the menu. It’s a good thing that gym will be next door. Other building plans at this same entrance include a Greenway Village office building, four shops, and a restaurant, totaling 11,000 square feet.
The main park entrance closest to the Greenway will be home to JUSTCK, LLC, a mechanical design engineering company. This multi-tenant office building will be 5,000 square feet. We are told that every lot in the park is sold. Even the two ponds on the property are stocked with fish and used for recreational and drainage purposes.
The area surrounding the Greenway Business Park is also rapidly developing. If you haven’t driven around the neighborhood lately, I encourage you to do so. Over 500 homes have been built or recently renovated. A 100-plus multi-family residential project is planned across from the Greenway Park on Rozzelles Ferry Road. Camp Run-A-Mutt, a national franchised doggy daycare is currently under construction - 11,000 square feet. The Five Points intersection at Johnson C. Smith University is also experiencing change and growth. Over the next few years, a food market, more restaurants, and office buildings should arrive. And, historic West End will be connected by the Gold Line Trolley to uptown. The line is currently under construction.
When the Future Bar & Foundation Center Committee decided to build our new home at its current location, some people questioned the choice. Although the Bar Center is as close to uptown now as it was from its Myers Park location, it somehow felt farther away. But, as I look out of the Bar & Foundation Center’s office windows and see the uptown skyscrapers, see the construction and read about the plans for future development, I offer my thanks to the members of the committee and the leadership who had the vision to see the potential. Hard hats off to the Committee and this Bar! We chose well.
Bob Sweeney, President of RJS Properties, has agreed to talk to our Bar about development in our community. He will have the maps and the plans for the area available to view. Please stay tuned for the date announcement.