The heart of Historic West End is getting a major investment on its potential

Historic Biddle at Johnson C. Smith University

The heart of Historic West End is getting a major investment on its potential.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced a three-year, $1.5 million grant to create a business development initiative along the CityLynx Gold Line on the Beatties Ford Road. Charlotte Center City Partners is leading the effort to spur economic growth in neighborhoods surrounding Johnson C. Smith University.

“This announcement is basically a turning point that will allow us to begin to materialize that vision in a much more assertive way,” JCSU President Ronald Carter said. “The grant the Knight Foundation has made to Center City Partners will allow us to simply be more focused and have day-to-day processes in place to make happen what we have been struggling to do over the past eight years.”

The grant is a milestone for Historic West End, which historically has lagged in business development. However, recent investments by JCSU such as Mosaic Village and the Arts Factory as well as the Gold Line have sparked new interest in the area.

“We don’t see this as a three-year initiative,” CCCP President Michael Smith said. “We see this as an extension of our work and part of our work over the next three years will be that we create sustained funding to be able to continue this beyond year three.”

Historic West End has been identified by the city of Charlotte as a potential growth area, resulting in $20 million in public funds over the next five years for infrastructure through the Comprehensive Neighborhood Improvement Program.

“We think this initiative on the West End building actually on the Gold Line as a catalyst and an actually physical connector, can help us leverage new economic opportunities and make good things happen,” Knight Foundation Program Director Susan Patterson said. “We’re building on years of work by the neighborhoods there. We’re not starting from scratch here.”

The Knight Foundation grant, which will be spread over three years, will support revitalization efforts outlined in the Center City 2020 Vision Plan and the Urban Land Institute’s corridor report.
“We’ve been having conversations about this initiative literally since the first time we broke bread together,” Smith said of meetings with Carter on expanding Historic West End’s ties to Center City. “This grant from the Knight Foundation is enabling. It creates capacity to serve the west side and better connect the dots. We have a big opportunity with a lot of new public investment both from bonds over the next four years – another $20 million – plus the investment in the extension of the streetcar. When done properly, large public investment stimulates and shapes private investment.”

A director for the Historic West End program will be hired to lead the program, who will report to CCCP Neighborhood Development Vice President Allison Billings. The initiative, like efforts in South End anchored by Lynx Blue Line, will be tailored in conjunction with neighborhood input. The first community meeting is Aug. 20, which launches the strategic planning process.

“We think it’s a unique point in time to be able to form this partnership and activate active community building,” Smith said. Carter, who has long advocated Historic West End as an economic engine, said the partnership won’t be one-sided with the foundation or CCCP dictating terms.
“Charlotte cannot and will not be the city it wants to be until it builds in concert with the folk in the Northwest Corridor the sustainable assets,” Carter said. “We’ll be very rigorous about that and we’ll use our bully pulpit to make sure that stays intact.”