Blaming ‘a few vocal residents,’ developer kills plan for 300 Lake Norman jobs

Joe Marusak
·2 min read
36

A Maryland developer withdrew its plans Monday night for a 36-acre Lake Norman office park the company said would have created 200 to 300 jobs.

Cornelius Business Park on Bailey Road is dead, an official with Greenberg Gibbons said in an email to The Charlotte Observer and other media late Monday.

The developer planned five single-story, Class A office buildings across from Bailey Road Park totaling 203,000 square feet, town planning documents show.

But “a few vocal residents” prompted the Cornelius Board of Commissioners to vote Monday against giving the developer more time to present new information the board requested about the park, said Drew Thigpen, vice president of development for Greenberg Gibbons.

Annapolis-based Greenberg Gibbons is a 50-year-old commercial developer with more than 6 million square feet in its portfolio, according to its application to the town of Cornelius for Cornelius Commerce Center.

On Jan. 31, 2022, the developer broke ground on its first Charlotte-area project, CLT Commerce Center, according to its website. The project includes three industrial buildings totaling 121,440 square feet off West Boulevard and Billy Graham Parkway.

At Cornelius Business Park, “the combination of our large windows, integrated brick, and premier landscaping will deliver a business park that the Town of Cornelius can be proud to display,” according to the developer’s application.

In Monday’s statement, Thigpen said his company is “both surprised and disappointed by the Cornelius Town Board’s decision. The company has worked with Town staff for years to create a project that best served the Cornelius community.”

Cornelius designated the property for use as a “business campus,” and the project fully complied with the Cornelius Land Use Plan, Thigpen said. The Cornelius-based Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce endorsed the project, he added. And the developer hosted numerous information sessions about its plans, Thigpen said.

The board voted after residents spoke against the project for 1 1/2 hours at Monday’s town board meeting, Cornelius Today reported. Most were from the Bailey’s Glen community near the site, according to Cornelius Today.

The citizens’ group “Friends of Bailey Road” gathered 680 signatures on a Change.org petition against the rezoning.

The office park would have added 960 car trips and 88 truck trips to the already busy two-lane road each day, according to the petition.

“The rezoning for this project does not fit the rural and peaceful character of our area,” the petitioners wrote. The park would add “noise, air and light pollution that does not fit our health and recreational values.”