Check out the plans for 55-acre Charlotte property to transform into Iron District

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Over the years, neighborhoods across the Queen City have continued to expand and grow.

South End, Plaza Midwood and NoDa are just a few to see development booms in the last decade. Now, a new neighborhood could soon be added to the list of transformations.

Last year, one of the city’s oldest companies, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry, relocated its operations out of Charlotte, leaving the future of a 55-acre plot of land in limbo.

After debating over whether to sell the prime real estate near uptown, the company decided to turn the property into a district where people can live, eat and work.

“Our thoughts originally were we could sell the property,” Charlotte Pipe and Foundry CEO Hooper Hardison said. “We could redevelop it. We could redevelop it. But we aren’t real estate guys. We don’t know anything about real estate. We know how to make pipe and fittings.”

Making pipe and fitting is what Charlotte Pipe and Foundry has been doing on the property off West Morehead Street for more than a century.

Last year, after expanding as much as its property lines would allow, the company decided to relocate its operations to Stanly County.

“We came to realize that there was a better use for this property,” Hardison said.

The property, now called the Iron District, recently welcomed its first tenant. Blumenthal Arts converted a former Charlotte Pipe and Foundry warehouse into an event space.

Opening day for Blume Studio was Friday.

“It’s a way to start bringing people to the site because if you didn’t work at Pipe and Foundry in the past, you had no reason to come to this area,” Hardison said.

The welcoming of Blume Studios is being seen as just the beginning of reimagining the Iron District. Over the next two to three decades, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry plans to redevelop the entire property.

This month, the company selected the Trammell Crow Company as the developer to begin working on Phase One. It will take place on about 12 acres of land facing Morehead Street and will include apartments, retail space, offices, restaurants and a possible hotel.

“It will be a place where we hope people will live work and play,” Hardison said.

Hardison says the district will also be a place to remember one of Charlotte’s oldest companies, which employed thousands of workers over 100 years.

“One thing that we want to do with this area is somehow preserve our company’s legacy and the legacy of all of the people that have worked for Charlotte Pipe at this location,” he said. “So, we hope over time as this area develops that we see remnants here and there that are referencing thee past.”

Construction of Phase One is expected to start next year. Hardison says once that happens, they will begin to plan Phase Two.

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