Home » Lincoln Harris, Cato plan major mixed-use project on former Knights Stadium site

Lincoln Harris, Cato plan major mixed-use project on former Knights Stadium site

Lincoln Harris and Cato Corp. plan a mixed-use community dominated by office development on the former site of Knights Stadium in the Fort Mill area.

The 350-acre development, called Southbridge, is expected to eventually contain 4.5 million square feet of office space in dozens of buildings that would be mixed with apartments, retail and at least one hotel.

John “Johno” Harris III, president of Lincoln Harris, describes the plans for the Cato property.

Tracy Dodson, vice president of brokerage and development at Lincoln Harris, says the two companies want to create an employment hub that could eventually employ close to 23,000 at the site off Exit 88 on Interstate 77.

“It’s got all the workings to be a great employment center,” she says in her first interview about the project since the two companies joined forces for Southbridge in 2014.

Also important to Dodson and others involved in the project is to provide services, housing, retail and jobs in a community so as

lincoln-harris-mk002*750xx5510-3105-0-273residents “you feel connected to other parts of your life.”

It’s the same general guidelines that Lincoln Harris used to create SouthPark and Ballantyne as live, work and play centers, says Johno Harris III, president of Lincoln Harris. For Southbridge, though, the demands by residents and employees in the community will be different as planners include walking trails and biking areas to serve a healthy lifestyle.

“Health and wellness” will be a theme at Southbridge, Dodson says.

Harris adds that S.C. corporate incentives and existing infrastructure at the site were important reasons why Lincoln Harris got involved in the project. He called for both Carolinas to cooperate in the development of Charlotte’s satellite communities like the Fort Mill area.

“We’re a region now,” he says, speaking in an interview that included Dodson. “There needs to be a common sense solution to this.”

The joint venture partners may pursue another I-77 exit at the site, located about midway between the Gold Hill Road and S.C. Highway 160 exits. A good location would be where Coltharp Road crosses under I-77, Dodson says.

“It’s been discussed,” she says.

Road and bridge work in the area is being planned as part of York County’s Pennies for Progress program. But more roadwork is needed as both Southbridge and Kingsley Village come online. Kingsley, located one exit south of the Southbridge site, has Lash and LPL as major new tenants there.

Harris says the partners haven’t yet signed on any tenants for the site but there has been keen interest in plans for Southbridge.

“We have strong interest for the multi-family and hotel areas,” Dodson says.

Plans show almost 16 acres reserved for a corporate campus at Southbridge but Harris says decisions on what goes where on the land will be determined by clients who pick their locations on the site.

Phase 1, which will kick off when tenants are identified, would include 500,000 square feet of office, 100,000 square feet of retail, 240 apartments and a 150-room hotel.

Eventually, through two more phases of development, office space will reach 4.5 million square feet, 600 residential units and up to 400,000 square feet of retail.

Lincoln Harris and Cato (NYSE: CATO) formed the joint venture in 2014 to develop the site, which at the time was unnamed.

Those plans acknowledge that Sunbelt Rentals, Fort Mill Schools and the Daimler Trucks North America office would retain their sites on separately owned locations on the periphery of Southbridge.

Plans for the joint venture to create Southbridge has been close to three years in the making and received a boost in 2016 when York County approved zoning for the site. Cato had bought 300 acres that excluded the baseball stadium in 2012 and first planned a Cato distribution center on the site. Later, Cato bought the actual stadium land and razed the structure.

The Charlotte Knights minor league baseball team ended its 24-year run playing at the I-77 stadium in 2013 with a move into the $54 million BB&T Ballpark in uptown.

Dodson says the fate of the baseball-shaped water tower on the site hasn’t been resolved yet. The iconic tower once gave that interchange its “baseball exit” name, but the structure isn’t shown on Lincoln Harris’ site plans for the community.

 

Ken Elkins