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A look at construction for Charlotte's river district

The large community is being built just west of Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The river district, a 1,400-acre master-planned community, would sit on largely undeveloped land between Interstate 485 and the Catawba River not far from Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The location in Charlotte's Dixie-Berryhill neighborhood is one of the largest areas of undeveloped land remaining in Mecklenburg County.

The community, first proposed in 2016, is expected to be a mix-used development featuring housing, shops, and other businesses, including hotels and medical offices. 

 “Tremendous amount of employment opportunity. A tremendous amount of residential growth," Chase Kerley, managing director for Crescent Communities, said.

The community, which is expected to rival developments like Ballantyne, is being built in phases by multiple companies including Crescent Communities and Laurel Street. Construction of the entire community could take upwards of three decades to complete.

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“A project of this size it will go through a number of different cycles,"  Kerley said. 

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Residents in the area have mixed feelings about the development. 

“Charlotte right here this was considered true country, true country," Dixie-Berryhill resident Jonathan Bankhead said. 

“I would love to see the River District come in and see the value of the houses go up," Dixie-Berryhill resident Erik May said. 

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misidentified an item on the agenda of the Charlotte City Council Zoning Committee Monday. The item, also helmed by Crescent Communities, was identified as part of the river district. It is a separate community also in west Charlotte.

    

AFFORDABLE HOUSING COVERAGE 

WCNC Charlotte is part of seven major media companies and other local institutions producing I Can’t Afford to Live Here, a collaborative reporting project focused on solutions to the affordable housing crisis in Charlotte. It is a project of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative,ken which is supported by the Local Media Project, an initiative launched by the Solutions Journalism Network with support from the Knight Foundation to strengthen and reinvigorate local media ecosystems. See all of our reporting at charlottejournalism.org. 

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