Old neighbourhood, new beginning: Charlotte's vibrant South End enclave has luxe apartments, craft beer, street cred and corporate HQs.

• Author: Leggett, Page

Chuck Barger used to be the mayor of South End. Not the literal mayor, but lots of residents and frequent visitors to the formerly industrial, now exploding Charlotte neighborhood agree he was the figurehead. Even some staffers at Charlotte Center City Partners, a nonprofit that promotes the area, concur.

Barger, former co-owner of the Common Market, is gregarious, quick-witted and fast-talking. From 2008-16, his sundries/coffee/deli/wine-bar hybrid was the epicenter of one of Charlotte's fastest-changing neighborhoods. You had to walk down an alleyway--past a naked mannequin--to reach the front door. It felt clandestine, maybe even a little dangerous, at least by the standards of a buttoned-up bank town then rattled by recession. "You got edgy points for coming there," says Barger, who acted as a happy-go-lucky maitre d'.

Fast forward to 2019: Common Market's former Camden Avenue location is now the East Coast headquarters of Dimensional Fund Advisors, one of the world's largest money-management companies with more than $580 billion in assets. The office houses more than 250 employees with annual wages averaging more than $145,000. The curvy nine-story tower signals South End's emergence as perhaps the hottest office and residential submarket in one of the nation's most sought-after business cities.

What was mostly a warehouse district 20 years ago is now home to 11,000 residents with an average household income of $65,000, many of whom are young professionals who work as bankers, accountants and systems analysts less than 2 miles north in Charlotte's central business district. It's nearly impossible to find an apartment renting for less than $1,200 a month--the average is about $1,600--or prime office space for less than $34 per square foot.

Barger isn't impressed by the 280,000-squarefoot Dimensional building, designed by Durham's Duda | Paine Architects and developed by Atlanta-based Cousins Properties Inc. "It doesn't feel like it belongs," he says. "It feels like a downtown building that doesn't really address the street."

But that viewpoint hasn't stopped hundreds of millions of dollars from flooding into the neighborhood, reflecting a soaring demand to work and play without a significant car commute. More than 1.6 million square feet of office space and nearly a half-million square feet of retail projects are under construction or planned. The district has six craft breweries and nearly 200 restaurants and shops --including the iconic Price's Chicken Coop, the cash-and-takeout-only site that opened in 1962.

Fortune 100 giants including Allstate Corp., Ernst & Young and Lowe's Cos. are leasing big chunks of space, pushing rents at or above those of Charlotte's downtown. On most nights and weekends, the neighborhood bubbles with energy as one of the city's most popular spots for drinking, dining, running, biking, dog walking and many other activities.

In 2010, property in the South End district had an assessed value of about $757 million. Five years later, it was about $1.1 billion, a 41% increase. Since then, construction and population have accelerated, and Mecklenburg County has reassessed property values. By next year, total valuation --which includes residents' cars and other personal property--is expected to reach $2.7 billion, more than tripling in a decade.

'COULDN'T AFFORD TO LIVE THERE NOW'

South End's shifting landscape impresses George Dunlap. The Mecklenburg County Commission chairman sees its remarkable transformation as entirely positive. He grew up in Wilmore, which is what the neighborhood was called before architect Terry Shook and developer Tony Pressley coined the name South End in 1996. Dunlap's family bought their simple bungalow in the early 1970s for $26,000. It now has an appraised value of $339,500, which mostly reflects the land cost. Small condos and homes adjacent to the condos now often fetch $400,000 or more, while newer, larger properties sell for $500,000 and up.

"I couldn't afford to live there now," Dunlap says. But he's not complaining. "All the development--the condos and retail--has made it a much more desirable place to live than when I was there."

He rejects concerns over gentrification, contending that no one is being "forced out."

"If I lived in a home valued at $70,000 or $80,000 and someone came to me and said, 'Your house is really worth $300,000,' I'd say, 'Give me $300,000."'

BUILDING BOOM

South End's residential boom started with the 2002 opening of The Arlington, a 23-story condo development that many locals label The Pink Building. By 2010, South End had about 3,000 housing units and 5,000 residents, according to Charlotte Center City Partners. By 2015, there were 4,700 housing units and 8,000 residents. Today, there are an estimated 11,000 South Enders, nearly half between ages 20 to 34.

The city's official definition of South End covers 592 acres, or about 1 square mile, stretching from Interstate 277 on the north to New Bern Avenue on the south with South Boulevard as the eastern boundary. In 2000, the area had about one resident per half-acre. Now, there are 11 per half-acre and within five years, it's expected to be 17.

Millennials crave "places of texture and authenticity," says Charlotte architect Terry Shook, who is considered one of the neighborhood's...