Birkdale Village is the first project of its kind to be built in North Carolina, in which multiple housing choices are coupled with even more varied lifestyle opportunities for recreation, entertainment, shopping, leisure, dining and neighborhood services. Now in it’s 20th year of operation, Birkdale remains as one of the most studied and copied mixed-use projects by developers and municipalities alike.  

Birkdale Village is a gathering place, bringing together people to partake of a variety of uses in a main street development. The scale of the buildings, the streetscapes, public greens and merchandised storefronts create a pedestrian-oriented, urban environment that is both a highly-visited regional destination and a home for hundreds of people. Patterned loosely after New England seacoast towns, the community aptly lies nearby one of North Carolina’s largest inland lakes.

Birkdale Village has proven to be consistently desirable as a place to live, to gather, to shop and to play. And, unlike many lifestyle centers, Birkdale Village has from its opening day been a highly valued real estate asset for its owners.

More than a shopping center designed as a Main Street, the streets of Birkdale actually go somewhere, connecting through public streets to a large neo-traditional neighborhood and conventional golf course community developed independently. As a result, the planning and design principles established for the retail, entertainment, housing, hospitality and office uses represent genuine expressions of town building and urban living.

Public and resident parking is provided in attractive, low profile decks, “back stage.” Amenities include an interactive fountain in a linear park with inviting gardens, water features, and pleasant seating areas, and a multi-family clubhouse with a pool. Cafes, shops (including many national lifestyle retailers), restaurants and entertainment abounds. A 16-screen theatre anchors one end of the development. The Main Street has a 1.65-acre green linear park running down the middle of the street. Within that linear park, there is a series of seating areas, fountains, and gardens.

The park fosters a welcoming atmosphere where activities both scheduled and spontaneous occur, with many becoming place defining rituals. These involve residents and patrons alike. A full-time, onsite marketing director stages year-round events at the project, which are enjoyed by residents and visitors. An information center offers materials on nearby residential offerings and entertainment options, and a career center provides retailers’ employment applications.

The result is an entertaining place, and not a place for entertainment. Consumers increasingly are discovering the difference, and that such communities and developments have longer, sustaining value. This model was so successful for the nearby bedroom community and the greater Charlotte area that it served to fuel similar projects in other suburbs in and around the city, Birkdale Village is noted nationally for both its planning and architecture, having won numerous national awards from the Urban Land Institute, The International Council of Shopping Centers, The National Association of Home Builders, and the retail tenant world.