Creative Deal Of the Year

The City of Charlotte’s search for a new CMPD helicopter hangar was hindered by strict zoning, airspace, and operational constraints in a scarce, overpriced market for ML-2 zoned properties. André Collins, SIOR, CCIM, took a creative approach, identifying and assembling an off-market 11.8-acre site buffered by a railroad and major parkway, strategically incorporating an adjacent office building to meet additional CMPD needs. Through innovative negotiations, including a quick-close strategy to secure an uncooperative seller’s parcel and a creative option agreement to bypass bureaucratic delays, an overlooked site was creatively transformed into a mission-critical public safety facility.  

• André Collins, SIOR, CCIM, First & Early Partners

Foundry Commercial leases Ballantyne Village, which includes a 55,000 SF creative office space with high ceilings and larger floor plates that was previously the Regal Ballantyne Village movie theater. Clifton Larson Allen, being represented by Savills, was in the market looking for space for a connection center to train and educate their employees traveling in from around the company, and it was important for them to be in close proximity to hotel and retail amenities, but they also needed to accommodate a very dense occupancy. Due to Ballantyne Village’s previous zoning from the movie theater, the space checked many of CLA’s boxes and CLA ended up leasing the entire 55,000 SF space for both the connection center and a relocation of their corporate office from Uptown. 

• Meredith Ball, Nicole Edmonds, Keely Hines, and Claiborne Mulhern, Foundry Commercial
• Tommy Beecher and Taylor Ferguson, Savills

Marty Wilcox McCarthy represented a seller on a multi-parcel assemblage that included 2 mobile home lots, a 1970s SFH, and a commercial lot. The highest and best use of each property was selling it all together for a multi-family development, but that meant a lengthy rezoning process with the city of Charlotte that included last minute requests and delays. In order to keep both parties happy and to avoid additional extensions or a price reduction, I proposed a creative solution where the seller accepted a $50,000 reduction at closing with a personally guaranteed promissory note, allowing the buyer to pay the remaining balance in six months which ensured the seller received the full price, but allowed the deal to close on time and preserved the property's future development with the buyer. In the end, protecting both parties’ interests and getting the deal done!    

• Marty Wilcox McCarthy, Lake Norman Realty, Inc.