Exclusive: Camp North End Brings In National Investor Shorenstein For Next Phase
Camp North End developer ATCO Properties & Management has announced a partnership with Shorenstein Properties for the development of five buildings.
At 1M SF, Camp North End is one of the country’s largest current adaptive reuse projects. ATCO is transforming a historic 75-acre site where workers once manufactured Model T cars and later assembled Hercules missiles.
In the companies’ first joint venture, Shorenstein will serve as a strategic capital partner on the redevelopment and leasing of these creative office and retail buildings.
“Camp North End is picking up speed. We have a significant national group excited to participate in executing on the vision,” ATCO Properties & Management co-President Damon Hemmerdinger said.
Shorenstein is a privately owned real estate firm, with national projects and offices in San Francisco and New York. Shorenstein has adaptive reuse and large-scale creative office redevelopment experience, including Market Square in San Francisco and The Reserve and Ford Factory, both in the Los Angeles area.
“Shorenstein is pleased to be in partnership with ATCO on this multi-phase project,” Shorenstein Properties President Charlie Malet said in a statement. “We have completed a number of successful creative office redevelopments around the country, and we look forward to working with ATCO to transform Camp North End into a vibrant, mixed-use project that will benefit the Charlotte community for years to come.”
The redevelopment of Camp North End opens up new doors for creative office space in Charlotte, Hemmerdinger said.
“There are companies all across the U.S. that view employee recruitment and retention as their biggest challenge. A set of those companies choose to put their offices in a certain kind of building and a certain kind of neighborhood all around the U.S.,” Hemmerdinger said. “Until this project, there really have been no opportunities in Charlotte for a large office tenant to provide that experience to their employees. That’s what’s most important from the tenant perspective.”
The next two buildings to open will be the Gama Goat Building and Building 3, which faces The Mount, an area that includes outdoor seating and games, the former Army General’s Office and Hygge Coworking.
With the Gama Goat Building, at 1701 North Graham St., development plans include the creation of pedestrian passageways that will cut through the building to connect with the Lockwood neighborhood. The building will have a 140K SF creative office property along with retail, dining and outdoor patio options along the pedestrian walkways.
The plan for Building 3, at 1720 Statesville Ave., involves redeveloping the 25K SF property into Class-A creative office space. Tenants will have individual entrances, and local artists will be asked to create murals on the property.
Camp North End’s epicenter, a community space featuring a courtyard called The Boileryard, is open every Friday evening through October. The area includes a fire pit, outdoor games, food trucks, live music and murals showing “innovation in Charlotte” created by local artists; and the Boileryard Building at 1824 Statesville Ave., which houses several businesses in addition to Camp North End’s event space.
Tenants include Ally Financial’s Innovation Studio; BLKTECHCLT, a community initiative supporting technologists and entrepreneurs of color; Junior Achievement of Central Carolinas; Goodyear Arts; Hygge Coworking; Hex Coffee Roasters; Wily design consulting firm; Black Market interactive gallery and creative studio space; Silver Eye Studios multimedia collective; Alchemy: The Workshop hair salon; DUPP&SWAT creative studio and art gallery; Umbrellamindz music studio; and Prism Supply, a custom motorcycle parts company. The campus also houses a set of industrial users.
“The quality of life and high-caliber workforce in Charlotte make our community attractive for business growth, expansion and relocation," Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones said in a statement. “Camp North End offers an exciting and unique opportunity in our city: a place employers can find creative industrial office space and employees can enjoy a dynamic campus environment that features inspiring workspaces, art, retail, food and community gathering areas.”
The Gama Goat Building and Building 3 will be completed in early to mid-2019.
