Crescent's Huge New Development Cycle Includes Major Charlotte Mixed-Use
Crescent Communities is wrapping up one big wave of multifamily development primarily in the Southeast (20 communities, 6,000 units) and it’s barely taking a breath before starting an even bigger one.
We caught up with chief marketing officer Tyler Niess and president of multifamily Brian Natwick at ULI’s Spring Meeting in Houston this week. They tell us they’re raising partner equity capital now for its next development cycle. They’re hoping to find strategic partner(s) to co-invest with the equity that Crescent freed up when it contracted for the sale of nine newly built properties to Berkshire and UBS for approximately $700M last year.
Crescent plans to start 10 new developments this year and 10 more next year, Brian tells us, for a total of 7,000 units and $1.4B of construction. Crescent isn’t turning off its Southeast tap—Brian’s particularly excited about Crescent Stonewall Station, a 450-unit luxury property in Charlotte (rendered here). It includes two distinct products, a 350-unit mid-rise and 100-unit high-rise, both over and around a new Whole Foods and on a light rail stop. Crescent also has plans that would allow for two hotels on the site, and it controls a site half a block away where it’s building Tryon Place, a large commercial development with one hotel, large public space, an office building (at least 600k SF) and ground-floor retail. The two projects will complement each other, and Brian feels they’ll transform this part of Charlotte and serve as a gateway into the energized South End.
Otherwise the cycle will focus heavily on the Southwest, an initiative it kicked off with the groundbreaking on Crescent Scottsdale Quarter. (That 275-unit property, rendered here, opens this summer.) The company's also planning groundbreakings in Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Dallas and more—metros that weren’t in vogue when the firm started lining up sites five years ago. They’ve shown great long-term value though, and Brian is confident those markets have more room to run.
