Crestlight Capital wraps $20M overhaul of Towers at SouthPark office property

Crestlight Capital has wrapped its $20 million renovation project at one of SouthPark’s most prominent office properties.

The Detroit-based commercial real estate firm delivered this week on 10 months of work to overhaul the Towers at SouthPark, formerly SouthPark Towers, located at 6000 and 6100 Fairview Road.

In an effort to breathe new life into the 26-year-old office property, the lobbies of both buildings were completely gutted, expanded and retrofitted with larger windows, soft woods, neutral colors and modern finishes. A new, 4,000-square-foot tenant lounge on the second floor of building 6100 includes a conference and training room for 30-plus people, board rooms, common areas and a coffee bar. Building 6000 is home to a 1,500-square-foot fitness center with new showers and upgraded equipment.

Charlotte-based Redline Design Group was the project architect; Charlotte-based Barringer Construction was the general contractor; Charlotte-based DPR Design did the exterior design; and Playbook Management Co. was the project manager.

Joe Franco, vice president at CBRE, said everything was done with intention, from the design elements to the color schemes to the location of each new amenity. Franco, along with CBRE’s Stephanie Spivey and Chris Westmoreland, handle office leasing at the property.

“We had to create a new sense of arrival, otherwise it would’ve just felt like every other modest renovation that you see,” he said. “This was the type of project where we couldn’t do it without doing it … People would be able to tell we cut corners, so the Crestlight guys just went for it.”

Franco said the buildings were already highly sought after in one of Charlotte’s most active submarkets, commanding top-of-market rent. The renovations only serve to increase their attractiveness.

“Our retention rate is really high, and it’s because everybody could tell we were really doing what we said we were going to do,” he said. “We have tenants that have been here literally 25 years, and this is just the cherry on top that they now get to have a more modern, more amenitized property.”

Franco said while the property has traditionally attracted fee-for-service and financial services groups, recently it has drawn in more diverse user types — such as sports agencies and tech companies — with younger demographics.

Crestlight paid $192.5 million for the Towers at SouthPark in May 2022 and later announced plans to renovate and update the property’s amenities, lobbies and shared spaces.

Current office tenants include Paycom, Lincoln National Insurance, Providence Law, AECOM, UBS Financial Services, RKW Residential and Nacelle Solutions. The property is about 80% occupied.

In November, Charlotte City Council approved Crestlight’s request to rezone the 9.9-acre site from office flex campus to mixed-use development district. The change will allow Crestlight to eventually add up to 300 multifamily units, 112,000 square feet of medical office uses or a hotel with up to 224 rooms, and up to 38,000 square feet of retail space.

Franco said that, for now, Crestlight is not actively planning any new development, but the rezoning sets the site up for the future.

“When you have a site that is basically ‘Main and Main’ in the submarket, it gives you a tremendous amount of future optionality, so right now we’re going to enjoy what we have, see where that goes, and there will be additional phases down the road,” he said.