Jim McNally | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Nov. 15, 2007

Larkin.

The name or word or concept or whatever it is may not seem like much now.

But within a few years, it will be on the lips of most people in the region and the minds of many more from points north. By then, Larkin will be what marketing experts call a brand.

That was the message that emerged from a lunch meeting of city and community leaders on Wednesday.

About 150 Statesville movers and shakers gathered at Mitchell Community College to break bread and discuss Larkin, a multi-pronged development planned for an area near Exit 45 off Interstate 77. It is likely the largest and most comprehensive construction project in Iredell County’s history.

Tom Scott, of the developing firm GS Carolina, is the overseer of Larkin, which derives its name from the Scotch-Irish roots of people in the area. He said Larkin will likely reach 1,000 acres and involve a total investment of about $1 billion.

“We develop communities, not subdivisions,” he said.

Scott compared Larkin to the Birkdale community near Exit 25 off I-77 or Ballantyne in Charlotte.

Like these communities, Scott said, plans for Larkin include several different types of housing units, parks, walking trails, shopping malls, “a full-blown gymnasium,” an aquatic center and other amenities.

He said the project already has resonance in places like New York, New Jersey and Ohio.

“Most people who will live in Larkin are not from Iredell County,” Scott said. “Whether you like them or not, they’re coming, and they’re not good ol’ boys.”

Scott said people relocating here from the North “are very discriminating about their homes and their communities and their restaurants.”

His company has purchased almost 909 acres so far from 40 different sellers for about $40 million.

“We already have a lot invested in this, and my goal is to sell to those Yankees and get some of my money back,” he said.

Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Bradley said the Larkin project has had a positive effect on the efforts by many city leaders to revitalize Statesville’s central business district.

“We want to do to downtown what Tom (Scott) and his people are planning for Larkin,” Bradley said. “We have had a spark downtown for years, and Larkin has turned that spark into a fire.”

But Terry Holliday, superintendent of Iredell-Statesville Schools, said just the hint of Larkin has been costly for the school system.

“I know you’ll help us in the long run,” Holliday said to Scott. “But there will be challenges for us at first.”

He said prior to Larkin development, the school system had been planning to purchase property in an area near the proposed Larkin site. Holliday said he was quoted a price that averaged about $6,000 per acre.

“Now we would be lucky to get it for $35,000 an acre,” Holliday said.

Scott said he would work with the school system and the city government “any way we can.” He said having a good school system is important to his company for practical reasons.

“People who move here want good schools,” he said. “If the schools are overcrowded, we can’t sell houses.”

By the time the project is finished - in some 15 years - Scott and his group will have sold about 5,000 houses.

“This is a major project,” Scott repeated.

And its name is Larkin.

Comments

I remember when Irdell county was fields along 115, been here from Wv. for 34 yrs. I beleive growth can be good but to much is not good , I call Mooresville little Charlotte,I live not far from exit 42 in country , I would like for it to stay that way before we ran out of country.

Posted by Mary Terry on 05.15.2008 at 09:15 pm

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