Ballantyne | A South Charlotte Neighborhood

Ballantyne is a suburban middle class neighborhood in South Charlotte, NC. It's a place to settle down and start a family once the party life of Uptown or Southend wear thin. Just within Charlotte city limits, Ballantyne is a city within a city. Mostly woodland only twenty years ago, rapid growth and well planned aggressive development, it became a premiere South Charlotte experience.

Quick Stats and Data

• Founded in 1996 by H.C. "Smoky" Bissell
• Population almost tripled from 9466 in 2000 to 27342 in 2020
• ~2/3rds of Ballantyne has at least a Bachelor's degree (2020)
• Median Household income is $107,578 (2020)
• ~73% of all students, elementary to high, are proficient in End of Grade Testing (2019)
• Has 80% less violent crime than the Mecklenburg County Average

Ballantyne Corporate Park

Ballantyne Corporate Park is a 535 acre office park with over 4 million square feet of office space. The spiritual center of the neighborhood, it's a white collar hub, hosting medical, financial and even (corporate) manufacturing offices. A source of high paying jobs, the office park is the reason why the Ballantyne experience is quintessentially suburban.

Taking pride in it's mixed use development, the park takes an expansive view of what is needed for corporate offices and their employees. When the land was first developed, half the area was dedicated to rolling golf course, keeping office tower density low. Today, that golf course has been repurposed into a community park. While employees can no longer pull up for 18 holes, they can (along with the rest of the neighborhood) enjoy a scenic stroll along winding paths from building to building.

With the opening of the park to the public, Ballantyne residents and guests alike, it has played host to many Ballantyne and Charlotte events. Most prolific is Markets at 11, an open air pop up market which features many Charlotte small business hawking their wares. Larger Charlotte events like the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival have moved from locations in Uptown or Southpark down into the Ballantyne park.

Events flock to the South Charlotte business center because it's low density aesthetic provides the perfect backdrop for hosting. The wide open parking lots, vast open green space and the occasional hotel (yes, the corporate park even has it's own hotels) make it ideal for hosting events. Business suburbia.

And it's this business suburbia aesthetic which permeates the rest of Ballantyne. Most housing is low density development with winding roads and lanes and big chunks of nature preserve. Even the multifamily or townhouse developments still keep room in their layout to provided forested backyards and slow curving roads and avenues.

Origins

Originally, the sprawling office and park space which now pierce South Charlotte's skyline were (mostly) hunting woodland on the outskirts of Charlotte proper. Johnny Harris, a grandchild of Governor Cameron Morris and developer, recognized the potential in the land and began the process of rezoning the property. Eventually, his brother in law H.C. "Smoky" Bissell decided to take over the venture and bought out the land from Johnny. Smoky envisioned a vast corporate park and by the mid-90s his construction project off the ground. He would name the ambitious project after his great aunt, Barbara Ballantyne.

Build it and they will come and come they did.

People came in quickly and what was once just office space soon became a full fledged neighborhood. The new neighborhood would take its name from its central attraction, giving Smokey Bissell's great aunt a form of immortality she may have never dreamed of. By 2020, would see their small exclave of 9466 residents in 2000 evolve into a vibrant community of 27342. All thanks to the vision of Johnny Harris and his brother in law H.C Smokey Brissell.

Ballantyne Village

Ballantyne Village is a mixed use dining and retail space located right across Ballantyne Corporate Park. The Village features many of Ballantyne's and even Charlotte's best local restaurants and businesses. You have Italian favorite Zinicola sitting side by side with tapas bar Fiore Cocktail and Tapas. Men can get a haircut and shave over beer at Shear Excellence, while women interested in brightening up their homes can peruse gift store Fable.

Most of the businesses are higher end and cater towards the affluent white collar households (with a median household income of $$107,578 as of 2020, it is well above Charlotte's average) which predominate in Ballantyne. Zinicola and Fiore take advantage of Charlotte's main night scene being centered around Uptown and bill themselves as a Ballantyne alternative to night life for an older and more settled crowd.

The complex itself is more high density than you would expect out of Ballantyne, creating a sense of urbanity in suburbia. But the site still manages to somewhat keep the suburban spirit of Ballantyne alive by carving out a central plaza for general loitering and events. A pop up market occasionally comes and takes over the space once a quarter.

Though much smaller in size than its sprawling office complex cousin(it only has 171,000 square feet), good use of restaurant and retail space and occasional events help make Ballantyne Village a destination in South Charlotte and plays a part in creating the Ballantyne experience.

Final Thoughts & The Future | Ballantyne Reimagined

Today in 2023, Ballantyne is still growing. The inspired vision of Ballantyne Reimagined wants to double down on what makes Ballantyne great by building new high end restaurant and retail space while taking care to maintain the beloved green space and low density aesthetic integral to Ballantyne. The decades long construction project intends to add new landmarks and monuments to Ballantyne, including an amphitheater and public park interwoven with a new restaurant, bar and retail scene.

Detractors will say it's more of the same. Just another expansion to endless suburbia. There is something to the argument that Ballantyne is too suburban. A cutout of Americana with no real personality of its own. Perhaps they are right. But Ballantyne isn't for them. It never was.

Ballantyne is defined by the suburban life. The dream of Johnny Harris and the brainchild of his brother in law Smoky Bissell, what started out as a plan to build a corporate park in Mecklenburg County woodland, became the center piece of a thriving community.

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