Harris sinks more than money in Saks project.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: TAR HEEL TATTLER

Most Charlotteans who live around Quail Hollow Country Club know their Saks from a hole in the ground. In a tale with twists befitting a store that once hoped to sell them $2,000 Louis Vuitton handbags, they thought they were getting the former. They got the latter instead.

What happened? Developer Dee Dee Harris says things went awry when a letter she sent to city officials, suggesting the public kick in some of the $200 million cost, became public. "I don't even put notes on my refrigerator now."

The city balked, financing fizzled, and Saks bolted. So, instead of a Saks, a five-star hotel, shops and an underground parking lot camouflaged by formal gardens, neighbors have an 18-acre moonscape. Land was excavated in February 2004. "It's just a big ugly hole, and now they've put a big ugly fence around it," says Dan Marks, who lives nearby.

Village at Seven Eagles, where the Saks was to have been, was no hasty concept. Harris is the wife of insurance executive Cameron Harris, whose grandfather--Cameron Morrison--was governor from 1921 to 1925. She formulated the plan more than 10 years ago. The Harris family has a long track record in Charlotte's retail development, including SouthPark mall. In April, though, city officials released a letter in which she suggested that her company might need public help to finish the project. The...