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Charlotte’s boom draws national brands, but there’s not many places to put them.

National retail developer Edens — which turned Atherton Mill in South End into a $140 million shopping hub — is trying to find opportunities to build out a larger retail portfolio here.

Lyle Darnall, managing director at Washington, D.C.-based Edens, says the company has a wish list of properties that includes two sites for ground-up developments.

Welcome to the club.

Retail developers and investors from around the country are focusing on Charlotte as limited new development, rising per-capita income and soaring population growth have put the city on every national operator’s map for expansion.

Darnall says he would like another 50,000 square feet of shopping and restaurant spaces at Atherton Mill, which is now 96% leased.

“This is a good problem to have,” he says. “There’s such a huge desire to be there.”

Charlotte’s overall retail vacancy rate is just 3.5%, after peaking at 8.1% in the first quarter of 2010, says Chuck McShane, senior director of market analytics for CoStar. That rate skews even lower — to 2.8% — within a 2-mile radius of households with a median income of $100,000 or higher.

“There are a lot of brands that want to break into the Charlotte market that are facing a lack of space,” McShane says.

CoStar data shows 1.4 million square feet of retail construction started across the Charlotte metro over the last year. That is up from an average of 1 million square feet of annual starts between 2020 and 2024 but down from 1.7 million square feet from 2015 to 2019.

CoStar reports the average retail lease rate in Charlotte was $27.03 per square foot— a 6.8% annual jump — in the first quarter of 2026. That topped the national average of $25.85, which represented a 2.2% increase.

Large-scale expansion will be hampered by preleasing requirements and rising construction costs. Over 85% of retail space under construction is preleased, with half tied to grocery-anchored properties in suburbs like Huntersville and Rock Hill.

“There’s just no magic wand that you can use when it comes to retail supply,” says Adam Williams, principal at Rebel Rebel Urban Retail Advisors and Legacy Real  Estate Advisors.

He classifies Charlotte as a tertiary market, not yet on par with New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta or Nashville. But Charlotte has evolved from its corporate steakhouse roots on a path toward a more metropolitan city, spurred by diversity, interesting opportunities and offerings.

“The bottom line is Charlotte’s on a different type of list than it was even three, four, five years ago,” Williams says of the kinds of tenants he’s seeing interest from. He anticipates the city and suburban corridors will grow more sophisticated in the next five years.

“I think there are concepts that are still not ready to look at Charlotte, but our city is becoming what they need,” Williams says.

Development of new retail space remains tough. Charles Thrift, partner at Thrift Commercial Real Estate Services, lists costs, financing and permitting as three issues. In some scenarios, construction prices are up by 100% over the last five years.

His Charlotte firm leases key projects such as Cotswold Village, Brooklyn & Church in uptown and Commonwealth in Plaza Midwood.

Thrift expects to see more new food-and-beverage concepts open here, along with everyday service offerings.

“As much as our city and region has grown, the supply has not kept pace. I don’t think a challenging market is going to turn somebody away,” Thrift says.

Increased competition for limited space has driven rents to an all-time high and eliminated prime areas such as uptown, South End and SouthPark for some retailers.

Operators are forced to look farther out in the community, says Phil Corriher, retail specialist at Colliers. “The challenge with getting more supply is construction costs and interest rates are high,” he says. “I don’t know that anybody necessarily sees those coming down.”

No other development here reflects the growing demand for space in Charlotte —and the rising prominence of the market — than SouthPark mall, owned by Indianapolis-based national powerhouse Simon Property Group.

Nash Morris oversees the Southeast for Simon as senior vice president of leasing. That includes SouthPark, The Village at SouthPark and Phillips Place, which Simon acquired for $144.8 million
last fall.

SouthPark is 100% leased, while occupancy at Phillips Place is 95.4%. That allows Simon to effectively curate and merchandise its SouthPark properties. Morris is already writing deals for occupied spaces that have two to three years remaining on leases.

“There’s effectively a waiting list. There are people we’re in discussion with constantly,” Morris says.

Simon has secured SouthPark’s position as a destination for luxury retail. Global brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton and more are filling high-profile spaces. Morris balances those with contemporary brands, emerging retailers and direct consumer offerings, as well as elevated food-and-beverage experiences.

“The entire market shops SouthPark. So, we are very mindful not to jump the shark,” Morris says. “If you start to over-index one way you may alienate certain consumers.”

SouthPark’s small-shop sales — meaning stores under 10,000 square feet — were about to eclipse $1,000 per square foot in 2019. Since then, 70% of that space has turned over, with sales topping $1,500 per square foot, he says.

Those figures land the 1.6 million-square-foot mall in the top 10 of 212 properties Simon owns. It has over 12 million visitors annually.

“It’s one of the first properties that comes out of a retailer’s mouth — luxury or not — if they don’t have representation or a door in the Carolinas,” Morris says.

Edens’ Darnall says retail space scarcity presents opportunities. It constantly massages the tenant lineup at its properties such as Atherton Mill, Myers Park Center and Park Road Shopping Center to suit community needs. Done right, the efforts will drive trips to those properties. Encouraging people to linger translates to sales.

Sales differ by center, but Darnall says the broad goal is to push sales above $600per square foot across an entire property. “That’s pretty productive. We havecenters that do more than that.”
Still, it can be shockingly difficult for new brands looking to enter the market, says Darrell Palasciano, senior vice president of CBRE’s Retail Service Group.

His 20 years in retail real estate has taught him to push through as he works with tenants and landlords. He sets expectations early, telling clients they will need patience. It could take one year — or 10.

“It’s self-fulfilling prophecy. As long as the fundamentals of our market continue to improve and we have expendable income, the lack of space only increases their desire to be here,” Palasciano says.

National retailers want multiple stores in every market. That makes timing less important — and flexibility a must. A five-store plan that targets SouthPark may require a strategic shift to consider other submarkets first, for example.

Darren Wood, principal at the Providence Group, tracks bankruptcies to helpidentify pockets in core retail markets. He focuses on strong landlordrelationships to gain an edge in prime markets.
Suburban areas are seeing more development of grocery-anchored centers with ancillary shop space. Over time, bigger players such as Target and Costco arrive, setting the stage for junior anchor tenants, Wood says.

“We’ve got plans for when we hit a roadblock, or there’s no space,” he says. “We know what our Plan B is, what we’re going after.”

Northwood Retail focused its attention on Charlotte, tagging its potential as a high-growth market over Atlanta, when it added Blakeney in southeast Charlotte and what’s
now The Alley at Latta Arcade in uptown to its portfolio.

“We could see the growth early on, and I think that’s what gave us the conviction to get bigger,” says Ward Kampf, president of Northwood Retail.

It has since divested those resources, pivoting with a $1 billion acquisition in Ballantyne. Northwood has transformed the 535-acre site home to Ballantyne Corporate Park into a destination.

The Bowl at Ballantyne has 70,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. Kampf says further development is possible, and he sees potential for it to be the next hub in Charlotte.

“I think there’s still plenty of opportunity,” Kampf says. “We like to expand in markets that we’re already in. You have an awareness of where The Bowl’s going, and you can see it in real time.”

The strong leasing, rising square footage rates and well-told demographics story is also translating into growing investor interest, particularly with institutional money.

Marc Ozburn, vice chair of retail investments for Colliers, expects a high number of transactions over the next two years, with a focus on necessity-based retail such as grocery-anchored development and strip centers that cater to local communities.

“In a place like Charlotte, retail has never been stronger. I think the markets are really moving to generate and deploy capital because it’s been on the sidelines for the last two years,” Ozburn says.

Texas-based commercial real estate giant Hines purchased Birkdale Village for$237.9 million last fall — its second property in Charlotte following build-to-rent community Blu South in Pineville. It is planning a mixed-used redevelopment in SouthPark as well.

Paul Zarian, managing director for Hines, says the company has been actively investing in North Carolina for years. It sold the Carillon and Charlotte Plaza office buildings in uptown about a decade ago.

“We’re pleased to be reestablishing and expanding our presence in Charlotte — a market we view as both compelling and durable,” Zarian says.

Birkdale sits at the center of one of the region’s most desirable submarkets, supported by strong demographics, accessibility and mix of uses. It’s the social heart of Huntersville and Lake Norman with strong merchandising, active programming and a walkable community.

“Destinations and assets that deliver that experience are attracting significant attention,” Zarian says.