Lake Norman home on former Belk family estate selling for $6.5 million. See the inside

Joe Marusak
·3 min read
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A Lake Norman waterfront home on the former estate of Charlotte’s Belk family is for sale for $6.5 million, according to its listing by the Mooresville office of Trump International Realty.

The home with “incredible views” at 166 Iron Gate Circle in Mooresville is on a peninsula where Belk family members still own property, according to a search of Iredell County property records by The Charlotte Observer.

The home at 166 Iron Gate Circle has nearly 4,900 square feet of living area.
The home at 166 Iron Gate Circle has nearly 4,900 square feet of living area.

Longtime local developer Rex Welton and his wife, Linda, have owned the home since it was built in 2005, property records show. The home is about 25 miles north of uptown Charlotte.

he home at 166 Iron Gate Circle has nearly 4,900 square feet of living area.
he home at 166 Iron Gate Circle has nearly 4,900 square feet of living area.

BNN, a Hong Kong-based international news outlet, reported last week that the Weltons’ home was for sale.

Pier, main-floor bedrooms

The Weltons’ gated home has 300 feet of shoreline, five bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms and nearly 4,900 square feet of living area, according to its listing by Realtor Micaela Brewer of Trump International Realty.

The primary suite and two other main-floor bedrooms have adjoining bathrooms.

The home also has a dock and an expansive screened-in porch, according to its listing.

The home at 166 Iron Gate Circle in Mooresville has 300 feet of shoreline.
The home at 166 Iron Gate Circle in Mooresville has 300 feet of shoreline.

Perched on an acre lot, the home has a total assessed value of nearly $1.8 million, Iredell County public records show. That includes $882,380 for the home and $840,000 for the land.

Who is Rex Welton?

In the early 2000s, Rex Welton helped develop one of Mooresville’s largest mixed-use communities, the nearly 400-home, Harris Teeter-anchored Morrison Plantation development at Brawley School and Williamson roads.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Welton declined to say why he and his wife are selling their home and what they like about it. Their primary home is in Charlotte, public records show.

“We’re rather private and would rather not comment,” Welton told the Observer.

Brewer didn’t reply to an email from the Observer.

Belk ties

Descendants of the founder of Charlotte’s Belk department store chain still own property near the Weltons’ home. The couple’s lot was once part of the Belk family’s landholdings on the peninsula, BNN reported.

Charlotte’s iconic department store dates to 1888, when 26-year-old William Henry Belk opened a small bargain store called The New York Racket in Monroe, the Observer previously reported.

Belk has grown to nearly 300 stores across the Southeast with over 17,000 employees.

Carl Belk, the founder’s grandson, and a trust in the name of Carl Belk’s late wife, Anne Reynolds Belk, own 13 acres on Camino Real Road near the Weltons’ home, according to county property records reviewed by the Observer.

Carl Belk’s property, including land and home, have a total assessed value of about $4.1 million, county property records show.

Anne Belk, whose name is on a theater at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, died of cancer in 2008.

Carl Belk is the son of the late Irwin “Ike” Belk, longtime Belk Stores executive and a four-term state legislator. Irwin Belk introduced the legislation that created UNC Charlotte as part of the University of North Carolina.

Irwin Belk, who died in 2018, was the son of William Henry Belk.

The home includes this dock at the tip of its gated Lake Norman peninsula in Mooresville.
The home includes this dock at the tip of its gated Lake Norman peninsula in Mooresville.
This bedroom in the home at 166 Iron Gate Circle includes lots of natural light.
This bedroom in the home at 166 Iron Gate Circle includes lots of natural light.