Brooklyn & Church Office-to-Residential Conversion, Charlotte

Brooklyn & Church in Charlotte is a residential conversion that began by throwing away a quarter of the building. Balfour Beatty has cut about 250,000 square feet out of Duke Energy’s former headquarters at 526 South Church Street and stripped 1,800 precast panels off what remains, clearing the way for 448 apartments in a 1970s office block.

The contractor marked the end of demolition on May 28, 2026. Delivery is targeted for late 2027.

Project Scope

Asana Partners and MRP Realty bought the vacant building from Duke for $35 million in 2022, after the utility moved to a new tower on South Tryon Street. Rockefeller Group joined as a partner. Multi-Housing News reported in March 2025 that Bank of America provided a $140 million construction loan against a total cost of $251 million. Other outlets round that to $250 million.

Morris Adjmi Architects and SK+I Architecture share the design. The plan keeps a pair of connected 13-story wings and converts them to one- and two-bedroom lofts averaging about 880 square feet, with exposed ceilings, a rooftop pool and two levels of underground parking, according to Axios Charlotte. The removed portion makes room for a three-story retail building of roughly 30,000 square feet on Church Street, a plaza and a pedestrian walk toward Bank of America Stadium.

Published numbers don’t agree. Axios put the retained tower at 562,197 square feet and the demolished area at 215,000; Balfour Beatty says 250,000 came out. Multi-Housing News and What Now cite 460 units, while the contractor and Connect CRE say 448. Total retail is given as 50,000, 55,000 or 57,000 square feet depending on who’s counting.

Why It Matters

The cut is the whole idea. A 1970s corporate floor plate is too deep to light apartments from the windows, and most conversions solve that with light wells or just accept dark interior rooms. This team removed the problem floor area outright and sold the hole as retail frontage and open space. It costs rentable area. It also turns a full-block fortress into something a pedestrian can walk through.

The salvage figures are worth a line. Balfour Beatty says 576 tons of furniture and equipment were kept out of landfill and 142,000 pounds were donated for reuse.

The schedule has slipped about a year. Axios reported a late 2026 finish when renderings came out in May 2024; exterior demolition didn’t start until spring 2025. At $251 million for 448 units and a block of shops, the partners are betting that Uptown renters will pay new-construction rents inside a recycled frame. Balfour Beatty calls it the first conversion of this scale in North Carolina.

Project Team & Details