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Serving The Arboretum, Ballantyne, Blakeney and SouthPark communities
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Volume 15, Number 1 • Jan. 2 to 8, 2015
Real estate firm buys building in SouthPark, plans to make major renovations by Ryan Pitkin ryan@thecharlotteweekly.com
experienced sewer spills due to heavy rain. The current sewer system is not meant for rain, but solely for water flow from households, Coley said.
Charlotte-based real estate firm HM Properties will be moving into a larger office in the SouthPark area, about a mile down the road from where the company began in 2006. The company will be moving into a two-story, stand-alone building in the Colony on Fairview II office complex near SouthPark Mall, Valerie Mitchener, owner and broker-in-charge at HM Properties, announced in December. Mitchener, who founded the company in the midst of a recession that was affecting the real-estate market in debilitating ways for those in the field, has watched her firm grow rapidly since its inception. HM started with six brokers and two staff members in 2006 and now employs 62 brokers and 10 staff members. “I’m not surprised at our growth now, but I was during those first three years,” Mitchener said. “There was lots of speculation that smaller companies couldn’t survive and would be merging with larger, franchise firms, which was something I was not interested in. I’m very happy that people believed in us and wanted to come here.” It became evident to Mitchener about two years ago that the firm’s current home in the Piedmont Row
(see McAlpine Creek Park on page 4)
(see HM Properties on page 5)
Courtney Schultz/SCW photo
McAlpine Creek Park closes until August for sewer project by Courtney Schultz courtney@thecharlotteweekly.com
Area residents will have limited access to the trails at McAlpine Creek Park until the beginning of August due to a county relief sewer improvement project. The McAlpine Creek Relief Sewer Project is a $53 million investment for the CharlotteMecklenburg Utility Department (CMUD) to enhance sanitary systems, provide increased sewer capacity and protect McAlpine Creek water quality, according to the CMUD’s website. The trails will be closed for the next seven months as contractors install a long sewer pipe underneath the existing trails. “We already have a sewer system in place (at McAlpine) and this
will be to improve the sewer pipes that serve communities so that when (the sewer pipes) become 75 percent full the (new) pipe can alleviate the flow,” said Cam Coley, spokesperson for CMUD. CMUD and Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation (MCPR) have worked closely for multiple years to develop this project, and held several public meetings to inform residents of the improvements. Greenways are typically built around sewer lines because the spaces are already clear, Coley said, so MCPR and CMUD have to work together to help maintain the pipes in McAlpine, as well as have greater surveillance on sewer pipe quality. In the early 2000s, McAlpine
Courtney Schultz/SCW photo
INDEX: News Briefs, 6; Crime Blotter, Scores, 7; Education, 12; Honor Rolls, 14; Rev. Tony, 16; Culinary, 18; Calendar, 20; Sports, 24; Classifieds, 27