New restaurant, popular boats gone from major Lake Norman redevelopment. What’s next?

The owners of Charlotte-based BAR ONE Lounge and 800° Woodfired Kitchen have canceled their expansion to Lake Norman, as the fate of the longtime Queens Landing entertainment complex remained uncertain this week.

And couples hoping for a romantic getaway aboard the Catawba Queen and Lady of the Lake dinner cruise boats at Queens Landing are out of luck.

The sightseeing boats were nowhere to be found this week, and the Queens Landing website no longer takes reservations for seating aboard the decades-old attractions.

The Catawba Queen, a Mississippi River paddle wheel boat, and the 93-foot Lady of the Lake luxury yacht have berthed for decades at Queens Landing, located off N.C. 150 (River Highway) in Mooresville.

Fencing and orange traffic cones blocked entry when The Charlotte Observer visited Queens Landing this week. Weeds sprouted from the asphalt parking lot, and large ornaments on the Queens Landing miniature golf course lay toppled over.

Renovations to the two-story Queens Landing building appear to have stopped midstream, with no construction equipment on the grounds.

The complex is beside the McCrary Creek Access Area, a longtime public boat launch.

Officials with Columbia-based developer Arnold Companies, which owns the 6.5-acre Queens Landing complex, didn’t reply to requests for comment from the Observer this week.

The company bought Queens Landing, a Lake Norman landmark, for $7.5 million in August 2022 from the estate of longtime local owner Jack Williams, Iredell County public tax records show. The county values the property at $5 million, according to the records.

Williams died in 2016, according to his obituary. Known as “Captain Jack,” he bought the 149-passenger Catawba Queen in 1992 with friend Bud Lancaster, owner of Big Daddy’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Mooresville. Lancaster died in 1997.

They built what Williams’ obituary called “the largest complex on Lake Norman,” with a restaurant, two miniature golf courses, bumper boats, tennis courts, a floating dock bar and marina.

Queens Landing development

BAR ONE and 800° Woodfired Kitchen intended to time their openings this winter with the developer’s planned Queens Landing renovation and expansion, Steven Jensen, who co-owns the concept with food industry expert Kyle O’Brien, told the Observer Wednesday.

The developer’s plans include apartments and a new dock and wharf, Jensen said.

“We decided to unwind our transaction with the Arnold Companies on the Lake Norman project,” Jensen said in a phone message. “The timeline simply didn’t work for us, and we didn’t feel that they would be able to get the apartments done on time, or the dock and the wharf and all the surrounding construction in time for us to open.”

“So, sadly — because they’re such great people — we had to decline and unwind that transaction,” Jensen said, referring to the Arnold family. “We’re doing some other locations, in uptown, and we still have our South End location under construction.” The restaurant and lounge opened in early 2021 in Phillips Place.

The Lake Norman lounge and restaurant were expected to open this winter in a two-story, 15,000-square-foot space, Charlotte Five previously reported.

Plans included the lake’s only floating, boathouse-style bar, Charlotte Five reported.

Lake Norman boat trips

The latest updates on the Queens Landing website and voice mail appear to be months old.

“Ahoy, mates!” a woman says cheerily on the Queens Landing answering machine. “You have reached the Lady of the Lake and the Catawba Queen. We’re closed for extensive renovations to make everything brand new for you when we tour the lake again.”

The message says the complex will be closed in January and February.

Finding Lake Norman’s two most famous boats was like following Bigfoot sightings this week, when the Observer asked workers at nearby boat-rental and other watercraft businesses.

The most plausible tip came from a woman at an outdoor boat-rental stand who said she passed the anchored Catawba Queen while riding on a boat near Stutts Marina, located off Stutts and Brawley School roads in Mooresville.

The Observer stopped at the marina hoping to snap a photo of the boat, but the Catawba Queen was nowhere in sight. It’s way farther out from here, a worker said, too far to see.

The woman’s sighting was no mirage.

The boats are tied together and anchored near an unnamed island south of Stutts Marina, said Morris Sample, executive director of the Lake Norman Marine Commission who said he’s a former Catawba Queen dinner captain.

No government rules prohibit the anchoring of a boat of any size anywhere on the lake, Sample told the Observer Thursday.

Deborah Harwell, a Mooresville and Myrtle Beach resident whom public documents say is the executor of Williams’ estate, owns the boats and had them moved when the developer told her the company wasn’t interested in them, Sample said.

Harwell is Williams’ “sister-like” cousin, according to Williams’ obituary.

She didn’t return messages left by the Observer Thursday on phone numbers listed in public records for her in Mooresville and Myrtle Beach.

“We miss you so much”

According to the Queens Landing website, renovations “continue slowly, and no contract for docking has been negotiated with the new owner of the property.”

“We continue the renovation process on the boats and cross our fingers for dockage prior to the season kicking in,” according to the site.

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional kick-off of the boating season, and Queens Landing has provided no further updates.

Sample said the boats neither need nor are under renovation. Queens Landing is the only place on Lake Norman large enough to accommodate the boats and parking for passengers, he said.

The boats remain anchored but adrift as the fate of the development lingers.

“The Catawba Queen and The Lady of the Lake love our customers to the moon and back!” the message on the Queens Landing website says. “We miss you so much.”