Downtown Charlotte added nearly as many new apartments in the past five years as it did in the entire previous decade — a surge that places it 5th nationwide for downtown apartment construction, just behind Atlanta.
While many developers have shifted focus to the suburbs, some cities are bucking the trend. Our Downtown Construction Report highlights where urban cores are still growing — through new builds, adaptive reuse, or both.
Here’s what’s happening in Charlotte:
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11,031 new apartments were added to downtown Charlotte over the past five years — placing it 3rd among major cities in the South, behind only Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. These units account for 29.7% of all new apartments built in the city during that time, putting Charlotte on pace to exceed the 36.4% downtown share from the previous decade. Notably, all new units are from ground-up construction.
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How does Raleigh compare? The city ranks 17th in the U.S. for downtown apartment construction, having added 6,243 new units to its core this decade. Today, 40.1% of Raleigh’s apartment stock is located downtown — a significant jump from 24.5% in the previous decade.
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National trends tell a different story. The share of new apartments built downtown has dropped from 39.2% last decade to 34.7% today, while adaptive reuse projects have declined from 10% to just 6% over the same period.
