Shoppes at Huntington feature condo spaces for retailers

A Charlotte developer is planning a $5.5 million shopping center in Rock Hill that's designed to offer some of that community's first condo retail space.

SCRE Properties principals expect to have the first owners in the Shoppes at Huntington by spring 2009. Grading starts in August or September, says Hershel Fogleman, SCRE principal.

He estimates he has commitments for up to 8,600 square feet of the 32,000-square-foot center, to be built on South Herlong Avenue near Heckle Boulevard. Those include space for a sushi restaurant and a dry cleaner.

"A lot of small-business owners are insistent on buying instead of leasing," Fogleman says. "You get all the benefits of ownership."

Fogleman would like to see an upscale restaurant, a wine shop, a coffee shop and an insurance office.

The shopping center could hold from 15 to 22 units. Sales to investors who then would lease space to tenants in the shopping center are being limited to 40% of the complex, Fogleman says.

Prices start at $175 per square foot for unimproved space. Lease rates will likely be $24 per square foot.

Architect John Urban of Urban Architectural Group of Matthews designed the building in what he and SCRE principals call an Old World style of architecture that will blend in with the area.

The 3-acre site must be annexed into Rock Hill and rezoned to accommodate the shopping center.

SCRE also assembled the land for The Fountains retail and office complex at Ardrey Kell and Tom Short roads in south Charlotte. The company plans other projects in Mint Hill and Indian Trail.