Proposed Future Projects

English village in Locust
Homes, golf, shops in $340 million project

Charlotte Business Journal - June 22, 2007
by Ken Elkins
Staff writer

A $340 million gated community is in the works for Stanly County.

The project, called the Village of Red Bridge, will include 1,100 homes, a retail area, a golf course and two villages for residents age 55 and older.

The English-themed development, which takes its name from a community in London, is expected to feature the county's first $2 million homes. The community, planned for 500 acres off N.C. Highway 24/27 near Locust, also is slated to include a 35-acre commercial center with as much as 300,000 square feet of shops and other businesses.

Gerald Friedman, who is developing Red Bridge with Stephen Content of Charlotte, says the Locust area is the next logical setting for residential growth emanating eastward from Charlotte.

"It's the farthest edge of where water and sewer are available," he says.

It's the second residential community in Stanly County for Content and Friedman, a New Yorker who moved to the South a few years ago to pursue residential development. The duo also developed Locust Valley, a 67-home community north of Locust on N.C. Highway 200.

The first residential lots in Red Bridge are expected to be available next month, with buildout planned over the next seven years, Friedman says.

Retail development will follow residential sales, he says. "We needed rooftops to attract the commercial people."

But several signs of growth are already evident. Among them:

Near the main crossroads in Locust, a group of regional developers is building a New Urbanism-style city center, complete with a city government office, a library and a mix of shops and residences on 120 acres adjacent to the former downtown area. The development, dubbed Locust Town Center, will feature 248 homes and 185,000 square feet of retail and office space.
Stanly Regional Medical Center plans to build a $7 million medical campus to serve the growing area of the county closest to Charlotte and Interstate 485. The facility will be built on 21 acres adjacent to the Crutchfield Campus of Stanly Community College.
Just off the Red Bridge property, a Wal-Mart Supercenter has been approved for construction on N.C. 24/27.
Locust Mayor Harold Greene, who embraces the trend, believes the city will grow to 15,000 residents within 15 years -- more than five times its current population of 2,800.

"We're trying to do things that will take care of the integrity of the town for years out," he says. "Our concern is that we have a decent, functional community 30 years from now."

In Red Bridge, homes will be divided among villages with English names such as Broadmeade, Waterford and Norbury.

About 50 apartments and 170 condominiums are planned in two of the villages.

The community is being marketed by Gramm Marketing of McDonough, Ga.

The golf course is being built by David Postlethwait of Vestal, N.Y., who designed it. Postlethwait also designed Riverwood Golf Course in Clayton, N.C.

The developers expect to offer 475 memberships to the semi-private Red Bridge course, which is scheduled to be finished in October 2008.

Locust Recreation Complex is rapidly taking shape.

Long awaited park improvements have finally come to pass for a west Stanly community. The first stage on improvements of the Locust Park are nearing completion after much hard work. The old city park is rapidly evolving into a modern recreation complex with a $1 million expansion project. The park will have something for every citizen.

STANLY REGIONAL WEST CAMPUS WORK TO BEGIN THIS FALL

Stanly Regional Medical Center has a new design for Phase I of its Stanly Regional West Campus and is scheduled to begin development of the medical campus in early fall.

“We are committed to the Stanly Regional West Campus and are moving forward with the development of our property in Locust,” said Stanly Regional President Al Taylor.

Located beside Stanly Community College’s Crutchfield Center on Highway 24-27 in Locust, phase one of the Stanly Regional West Campus will include new medical offices that provide obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics, family practice and urgent care services. The new design, created in collaboration with YCH Architects of Concord, also includes clinical space for specialists who could provide office hours on a rotating basis.

Pending approval from the State of NC Certificate of Need Section, phase one also includes a state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging center offering patients X-ray, CT, ultrasound, digital mammography and mobile MRI services.

Stanly Regional submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) application to the state for the diagnostic imaging center on July 17, 2006. Earlier in the spring, the state turned down Stanly Regional’s original application.

“We feel good about the new application and believe it demonstrates the need for the imaging center as well as addresses some of the questions the state raised with our first application,” explained Taylor.

A public hearing for the imaging center CON was held on Sept. 18, in the Charles A. Cannon Memorial Library in downtown Concord.

Even though Stanly Regional may not receive a response from the state regarding the diagnostic imaging center until early 2007, construction of the medical office component will still proceed.

“The new design does enable us to start construction of the physician offices, regardless of what happens with the CON,” explained Taylor. “It also offers us more flexibility in the future development of the campus and allows us to better utilize the 21 acres we purchased in 2000.”

Stanly Regional is currently recruiting physicians to serve the new campus which could be operational by spring 2007.

The total size of the medical office and the proposed imaging center is approximately 20,000 square feet.

The modular units currently located on the site will soon be removed so work can begin.

“We believe the Stanly Regional West Campus is something the West Stanly community will be proud of and one that will continue to evolve with the community’s need for more services over time,” said Joel Huneycutt, chairman of the Stanly Regional Medical Center board of directors and a local West Stanly business owner.

stanlyregionalwesthandout.pdf