Park Road Shopping Center sold to Edens & Avant for $82 million

By Amalia Otet, Associate Editor

Park Road Shopping Center has been sold for $82 million to Edens & Avant, one of the nation’s leading retail real estate owners and developers.

The company takes pride in operating community-oriented shopping places in primary markets all around the East Coast; their large portfolio includes five other similar properties in the Charlotte area besides this last acquisition: Atherton Mill, Kenilworth Commons, Mountain Island Marketplace, Davidson Commons, and Franklin Square III.

The retail center is located on the corner of Woodlawn and Park Roads, in a residential area, its long and prosperous history going back to 1956 when it was opened as the first open air shopping center in Charlotte, and the largest of any kind between Washington D.C. and Atlanta. It has successfully served the community ever since and it currently shelters 60 retailers, bringing the occupancy rate up to virtually 100 percent, as reported by The Charlotte Observer.

Park Road Shopping Center has changed hands for the second time this year; a 91-year-old local philanthropist and retired lawyer, Porter Byrum, donated the complex in early June to three colleges he clearly appreciates – Wake Forest University, Wingate University and Queens University of Charlotte. “Education gave me an opportunity in life,” Porter Byrum said in a press release. “It is my privilege to be able to give that same opportunity to others.”

Wake Forest where the public-spirited donor went to undergraduate and law school, will receive approx. $40 million from the sale while the rest will be equally divided between Queens and Wingate, namely slightly more than $20.9 million each. The money will mainly be used by the three colleges for sponsoring scholarships, campus improvements, educational programs, or serving other purposes but all in the best interest of their students.

In other real estate news, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department has approved a rezoning petition filed by Robert W. Burkett allowing the construction of 73 new single-family homes in south Charlotte. The development is planned to break ground on a 20.16 acre tract located within the existing Park South Station along Park South Station Boulevard south of Archdale Drive that is property of J&B Development and Management, a Concord – based company specialized in residential and mixed-use projects.