Knights former Fort Mill home could be catalyst for high-paying jobs

Cato Corp.’s plans to develop the former Knights Stadium property and 350 adjacent acres could be a “game-changer” for York County, attracting hundreds of high paying jobs, county officials and the developer say.

Cato purchased the stadium – longtime home to the Charlotte Knights minor league baseball team – and 32 acres last year from York County. Since then, the company has assembled the adjacent acreage from multiple land owners – with the intent to build a distribution center for its fashion stores and some offices.

But with the encouragement of county officials and after conversations with possible developers, Cato saw another potential use for the site. It hired Lincoln Harris, a Charlotte developer that specializes primarily in high-end office space, for the mixed-use project.

Lincoln Harris’ master plan calls for 4 million square feet of “Class A” office space, 100,000 square feet of retail space, 300 multi-family housing units and a 150-room hotel.

The numbers could grow as Lincoln Harris has asked the county to allow up to 5.2 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square of mixed-use and 600 residential units – either condos, townhomes or apartments. Lincoln Harris is requesting the larger limits to allow it to respond to market conditions.

County officials are touting the project as Lincoln Harris’ next Ballantyne, a reference to the development that has helped transform south Charlotte.

“We are rewriting all of the rules of economic development as we know it in York County, said Michael Johnson, who represents the Fort Mill area on the York County Council.

“York County is a great place to live and play,” but “not strong on work,” said Tracy Dodson, vice president of brokerage and development for Lincoln Harris. “This project is about jobs.”

While the plan calls for office, retail and residential development, Dodson said the company will focus on attracting one or more corporate headquarters. Development concepts have been offered, she said, but what is built would be dictated by clients’ needs.

The project would be completed in phases, starting with the area off Deerfield Drive and the former stadium site.

Developing the area off Gold Hill Road with top-of-the-line offices has been part of the county’s vision for decades.

Former Knights owner George Shinn once proposed a business park around the stadium, with a hotel, restaurants, retail shops and corporate headquarters.

Corinthian Properties of Charlotte proposed a Charleston-style mini-city around the stadium in 2003.

Both projects never got beyond the talking phase.

This time, Cato and Lincoln Harris, through the Fort Mill Land Development LLC, have filed a rezoning request with the county and are actively talking with local and state economic development officials about clients interested in building a corporate headquarters.

The York County Planning Commission will consider the rezoning Dec. 14. The County Council will have a public hearing on the rezoning Jan. 4.

“We are past the stage of talking; we are moving forward,” said Johnson, who said he has lost track of the number of meetings about the project he has attended.

Lincoln Harris’ reputation “gave us assurance that this will be a quality project,” said David Swenson, York County’s economic development director.

When Cato bought the stadium site and adjacent land, it planned to build a distribution center and maybe some offices in 2012. After the sale, York County officials urged Cato to see a broader vision and build a distribution center elsewhere in the county.

The county appears to have won on both points. Cato has bought 186 acres off the Porter Road exit of Interstate 77 for a new distribution center, company officials said.

From an economic development standpoint, the change to Class A office space off Gold Hill Road is significant. The average pay of distribution jobs is $8-$11 an hour, county officials said.

“Class A office space, based on Lash Group and LPL Financial, that’s about $70,000 a year,” Johnson said.

To help persuade Cato, county officials offered to help with one of the site’s bigger challenges – transportation. To reach its potential, the Gold Hill Road-I-77 interchange will need to be reworked and improvements made to U.S. 21 and Springfield Parkway.

York County’s successful recruitment of LPL Financial and health-services provider the Lash Group to the Kingsley business park – the next exit south of Gold Hill Road – was a deciding factor in the Cato project, Dodson said.

Another factor was the expanding residential housing market in Fort Mill, she said. Officials estimate that 10,000 to 11,000 new homes will be built in the area in the next five years.

If the Cato project is successful, Dodson, Johnson and others say, those residents wouldn’t have to drive to Charlotte for jobs.

The inclusion of multi-family housing is a slight concern of the Fort Mill school board, which has been struggling to keep up with the residential housing boom.

Board chairman Patrick White agreed the plans are a game-changer for York County, adding much needed tax revenue and jobs. But even if the multi-family housing adds 100 to 200 children to the school population, it would affect the district.

One plus for multi-family housing, said White and Superintendent Chuck Epps, is that those projects pay taxes. Single-family homes are exempt from property taxes for school operations under the state’s Act 388.

While the multi-family units are part of the first phase of the project, Dodson said, Lincoln Harris has yet to hire a multi-family development partner.

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Knights former Fort Mill home could be catalyst for high-paying jobs."