Developer Wants To Create Student Main Street in University City

UNIVERSITY CITY — Mallard Pointe Shopping Center sits in a “Goldilocks zone” of sorts for Charlotte students. It lies on the northwest edge of campus, just across North Tryon from the football stadium and the LYNX Blue Line. But a lot of its space remains empty. Tobe Holmes wants to breathe new life into it.

“Early next week, we’re going to have some groups in town to think what this place can be.”

The idea is to create a walkable area near campus for students to unwind and mingle with peers in a safe setting. These empty storefronts here at Mallard Pointe are a blank canvas to do just that.

“Right across from campus, it’s important to have a place that students can go let their hair down, buy a book, a slice of pizza, meet their friends,” Holmes adds. “They work hard, too, and need a place to relax, and that’s what Student Main Street is about. It’s a place you make the relationships, and a place you come back to over and over again even after you graduate.”

Students and staff are certainly receptive to the idea.

“The light rail is pretty easy, I guess, but it’s what, 25 minutes to get to Uptown?” A staff member told us. “So, it would be nice to have something close by.”

“I do think that we need something here,” says a student we talked to. “I don’t think there are too many niche things around here like there are at other places. I think that over here would be a great place. All the student activity and stuff, I think it would be great.”

That said, Rome wasn’t built in day, and Student Main Street won’t be, either.

“Doing the design for it is one small piece of giant puzzle that includes financing and regulatory barriers, economics, and so many other things,” warns Holmes. “I want to see it tomorrow, the students want to see it tomorrow, and I think we’ll see change here within the next two years, but it’s just so hard to commit to a timeline when so many other pieces of the puzzle have to come together.”

It’s a plan that’s taken seven years to get to this point, and Holmes is ready to break ground as soon as he can.

“The university here is our town pipeline for our city, so it’s important that we invest in University City, and invest in the students that go here because they are the future.”