Charlotte is in the early stages of working toward a new data center policy amid a development moratorium, part of a growing wave of project pauses happening in jurisdictions around the country.

Since its 150-day moratorium began in June, city staff has been doing research, engaging with stakeholders and working to create policy recommendations, Charlotte officials told Bisnow. Part of that research involves looking at how other cities and counties have utilized moratoriums in recent months, City Council Member Ed Driggs said.

The steps the city takes during its moratorium are representative of how more than 100 local governments across the U.S. are grappling with an issue that has sparked escalating backlash, driven by data centers’ massive demand for water and power. The outcome of Charlotte’s moratorium could determine whether major developers like American Tower Corp. can proceed with their projects.

“We are experiencing in Charlotte the same sort of controversy you’re seeing elsewhere in the country, over their impacts and lack of regulation,” Driggs said in an interview.  

Charlotte approved its moratorium following months of heated debate over the build-out of data centers in the city, largely sparked by American Tower’s controversial proposed project that would sit on 58 acres near Reedy Creek Nature Preserve. 

The city hasn’t approved American Tower’s rezoning request to build its data center, and a hearing for the project was delayed from June until at least November. American Tower declined to comment for this story. 

The 150-day pause is slated to end in November, but Driggs said there is a chance it could get extended.

“There’s a possibility, depending on what work gets done during the 150 days, that the moratorium could be longer,” he said.

Charlotte is a hot spot for data center development, housing roughly 40 operating facilities, according to Data Center Map. North Carolina is home to 95 active data centers.

Several cities in North Carolina have approved moratoriums as the issue reaches the state level nationwide. Earlier this month, nearby Davie County passed its own one-year data center moratorium. New York became the first state to impose a yearlong ban on data center construction as a handful of other states consider similar measures.

While supporters of data centers say the facilities will stimulate the economy and generate tax revenue, opponents cite concerns over environmental impacts — especially as North Carolina grapples with a drought — and a potential spike in power costs for consumers. 

Duke Energy said in the spring that 6 gigawatts of data center demand was in its development pipeline in the Carolinas, an amount that could power roughly between 3 million and 6 million homes. Duke last month proposed an 18% electric rate increase for households, but it cut that request to around 9.5%, Axios reported this week.  

Newly sworn-in Mayor Rob Harrington told Bisnow in an email that the moratorium in Charlotte “allows staff the necessary time to consider questions before any additional development moves forward.” He said he looks forward to reviewing the feedback to find the best path forward. 

The site near 8036 Hood Road in Charlotte where American Tower Corp. has proposed a data center

As the moratorium continues, data center projects that were in development before the pause was approved can continue construction. 

Data center projects in Charlotte include PowerHouse Data Centers’ plans for a 122-acre campus off of University City Boulevard and Digital Realty’s plans for a 12 megawatt, four-story data center at 725 E. Trade St. Spokespeople for the two companies didn’t respond to requests for comment on the status of their projects.

On Aug. 20, the city council is slated to hold a town hall on the moratorium, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.

At the end of the moratorium, Charlotte city staff is expected to present its findings to the council, and members will then hold discussions and gauge community input before deciding on policy changes, Driggs said.  

“We found that we could establish this 150-day pause while we look at our policies and consider whether, in light of the rise of AI and the growth and demand for data centers, a more differentiated policy is called for,” he said.

If it extends the moratorium to a one-year period, Driggs said Charlotte could better prepare itself for a future of data center development.

A new nontraded multifamily REIT was born this week as part of a $617M recapitalization of more than 60 properties, including an under-construction apartment tower in Manhattan. 

Grubb Properties’ 8 Carlisle St. multifamily project is expected to top out this month.

Charlotte-based Grubb Properties consolidated several legacy funds into Link Apartments REIT, a newly formed managed REIT with more than 5,600 apartments in its portfolio.

The rollup of high net worth funds and rebranding to create the single entity occurred as Grubb also secured a $240M credit facility for the new REIT and its Link Apartments Opportunity Zone REIT, which was formed a few years ago and isn’t part of the consolidation. 

Grubb also secured a $300M senior construction loan from Maxim Capital Group and a $77M mezzanine loan co-originated by GreenBarn Investment Group, Skylight Real Estate Partners, Axonic Capital and Meadow Partners that fully capitalizes its Manhattan multifamily project called 8 Carlisle. 

“The REIT was created partially to have a vehicle with a bigger balance sheet that’s going to allow us to get bigger financing. But at the same time, it was also a move towards simplicity and efficiency,” Emily Ethridge, a spokesperson for Grubb, said in an interview Tuesday morning. 

Grubb values the new 45-property REIT at roughly $1.9B. It includes 8 Carlisle, a 64-story tower with 462 apartments that is set to top off construction this month, Ethridge said. The OZ REIT, which was also created through the merger of several funds a few years ago, has a 17-property portfolio, and fewer than 10 of Grubb’s other assets are still individually owned outside either entity, Ethridge said. 

The fund isn’t open for new investment, and there are no plans to pursue a public listing, she said. 

Grubb collectively secured the $617M in financing across the portfolio recapitalization with help from several teams at JLL, according to a release from the global brokerage. 

“By coordinating our M&A, Corporate Banking and Debt & Equity advisory expertise, JLL was able to sequence the series of transactions appropriately to ensure a seamless structure,” JLL Managing Director Stephen Van Leer said in a statement. 

Grubb’s refinancing move comes as the multifamily sector broadly emerges from a supply-driven malaise, with second-quarter apartment absorption hitting 124,600 units, among the highest in 25 years, and helping to push vacancy lower. 

A slowdown in new housing construction adds another tailwind to the back of multifamily developers. But the sector is also facing a demographic challenge, with the pace of U.S. population growth rapidly declining as President Donald Trump cracks down on illegal immigration. 

UPDATE, JULY 22, 10:23 A.M. ET: This story has been updated to clarify what assets are covered under the new $240M credit facility. 

Lincoln Property Co. has purchased Charlotte-based developer The Spectrum Cos. in a deal that Lincoln says will help it grow its footprint across the Carolinas.

Dallas-based Lincoln will combine its Carolinas platform with Spectrum and will also include Spectrum’s northern and central Florida multifamily business, Lincoln said in a Tuesday press release. The companies say the move will help boost the combined firm’s development and acquisition pipeline.

The companies’ portfolios will merge well because of Spectrum’s strong focus on multifamily development, executives from both firms told the Charlotte Business Journal, which first reported the news. Spectrum has developed almost 7,000 multifamily units since its founding, according to the release.

The sum of the sale was not disclosed.

“Lincoln has been focused on growing and investing in the Carolinas for many years, and Spectrum presented a unique opportunity to accelerate that strategy,” Johno Harris, senior executive vice president at Lincoln, told Bisnow.

He added that Spectrum’s “exceptional team” complements Lincoln’s existing platform well.

“As we looked at the next phase of growth in the region, it became clear that bringing our organizations together would create a stronger business, expand our capabilities and position us to better serve clients and pursue new opportunities across the Carolinas,” he said.

A spokesperson for Spectrum didn’t comment in time for publication.

Spectrum’s 43 employees will move from a 5K SF office into Lincoln’s two-floor, 200K SF headquarters at Piedmont Town Center in SouthPark, which already employs 260 people, CBJ reported. No job cuts are expected.

Executives told CBJ that Spectrum’s name will soon change to Lincoln.

Lincoln’s global portfolio spans 720M SF, according to the company’s website. It manages 27M SF in the Carolinas. The developer’s Charlotte-based work includes the 3M SF Legacy Union office tower complex.

Spectrum’s 4.4M SF portfolio will now become “a significant expansion of Lincoln’s regional footprint,” according to the press release. The company’s local assets previously included Vantage South End, a 635K SF mixed-use development that it sold to Cousins Properties in 2024.

Charlotte ranks among “the most attractive markets for investors” in the country, according to CBRE’s 2026 North America Investor Intentions Survey. Charlotte’s multifamily market is “maintaining stronger demand fundamentals than most peer markets,” a first-quarter Matthews report said, with a 6.2 percent vacancy rate a signal that demand has absorbed new supply.

PPR Capital Management just began investing in the build-to-rent housing sector last year, and now it is looking to pounce on a market it sees as benefiting from the new federal housing law. 

The Wayne, Pennsylvania-based firm this week is launching the PPR Keystone Housing Growth Fund, its first-ever fund focused on build-to-rent housing. PPR executives tell Bisnow it has a fundraising target of $100M. 

Courtesy of PPR Capital Management

A build-to-rent property PPR acquired in the Nashville metro area

The fund is designed to buy build-to-rent communities from the developers that constructed them. This type of sale was ultimately allowed by the 21st Century Road to Housing Act after months of debate over a proposal that would have required these types of homes be sold to individual buyers. 

The lengthy period of uncertainty froze the BTR market and caused financial distress that PPR is looking to capitalize on.

“There’s a lot of product available across the markets we’re targeting that has been built to rent but that the builder, their original take-out isn’t there anymore,” PPR Chief Asset Officer Craig Johnsen said. “So we are targeting build-to-rent properties, but also taking the development risk out of there and buying from distressed sellers.”

He named 10 regions the firm is targeting: Dallas, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago, Raleigh, Denver, West Palm Beach and Richmond. 

The fund is raising money from accredited individual investors, and its minimum check size is $50K. It is looking to buy properties with between 150 and 250 units, and with its $100M fundraising target, Johnsen said he anticipates that would yield six to eight deals. 

Founded in 2007, PPR is a private equity firm with $1.5B in assets under management. It has historically focused on acquiring nonperforming loans and residential mortgages. The firm began buying some multifamily in 2022 before entering the BTR sector last year. 

Johnsen said there were distressed BTR situations popping up early last year even before Congress disrupted the market. An overbuilding of units in some markets made it impossible for some developers to achieve the rents they needed to hit their return projections. 

An estimated 68,000 build-to-rent housing units began construction in the U.S. last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders, below the 2024 peak of 84,000 units but above most other years this century. 

BTR housing starts soared after the pandemic and became a larger share of the single-family housing market.

Some developers that have been unable to hit their rent projections have decided to cut their losses and sell, Johnsen said. 

This was the case for the first BTR deal PPR closed in March 2025: the $87M purchase of the Highline at Knoxville in Tennessee.  

“That happened to be one where the first phase of construction was totally complete and the second phase was underway, and they were looking to get out of the deal — they could see how the economics were going,” Johnsen said. 

While these conditions existed early last year, the lengthy Road to Housing debate made it much more difficult for BTR developers to sell their assets, as prospective buyers didn’t know how the rules for the market would be rewritten. 

Now that the bill became law Saturday at midnight — without President Donald Trump’s signature — the market appears ripe for a rebound. Hunter Housing Economics President Brad Hunter told Bisnow this week that BTR “could absolutely be one of the biggest winners” of the legislation.

Johnsen described the BTR market as being “over the hurdle.”

“We’re not anticipating any additional headwinds from a regulatory standpoint for build-to-rent going forward,” he said. “So that makes it a great time, especially given one reason a building might be under distress or needs capital to take them out was because of this three- to six-month period where there was a pause.”

Much of the debate over the bill had centered on lawmakers’ concerns about large companies buying up single-family houses and pricing individuals out of the market. The law ultimately kept some restrictions for institutional investors buying single-family homes, but it included a carve-out for build-to-rent properties. 

Developers that built single-family home projects intentionally for renters did so with the plan of ultimately selling to another landlord, rather than individuals, so Johnsen said the economics wouldn’t work for them to sell homes one by one.

And he said these properties don’t present an attractive investment for homebuyers compared to renting, given the elevated interest rates and homeownership costs like association fees and maintenance. 

“The levered return on buying a townhome for a homeowner is not actually good anymore,” he said. “When I look at it in terms of PPR wanting to supply housing to people, it’s more cost-effective for a company like ourselves to experience economies of scale.”

While PPR isn’t building new housing with this fund, Johnsen said allowing developers to exit their prior projects frees them up to build more.

More build-to-rent housing is needed across the country because Americans are increasingly renting for longer periods of their lives, but some still want the comfort of a single-family home with a yard. 

This creates strong demand for BTR housing, and Johnsen said he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. He said that is part of why PPR decided to focus on BTR with its new fund.

“Going forward, rents in build-to-rent properties — or properties that mimic single-family housing, whether it’s a townhome or detached single-family — are going to significantly outperform rents at your more traditional garden-style, podium-style multifamily property,” he said. 

“But right now, especially given some of the supply surges that have happened in these Sun Belt markets, that’s not really reflected in their valuations,” he added. “So we think there’s a great opportunity for our investors to get in with relatively low downside.”

It’s not just New York and California — the office market is getting healthier across the country.

Bisnow/created with ChatGPT

National office vacancy rates declined 10 basis points in the second quarter, with more than half of the 92 markets tracked by Cushman & Wakefield notching a dip in vacancy rates. The second-quarter results reinforced an uptick at the start of the year that has been building despite macroeconomic volatility. 

Vacancy has declined for two consecutive quarters as tenants fill the highest-quality buildings, leading some demand to trickle into the Class-A tier as the worst office space is being taken out of commission, with more than 90,000 apartments in the office-to-residential conversion pipeline. 

“The first half of 2026 reinforced that the office recovery is no longer confined to a handful of leading markets or trophy assets,” David Smith, the head of Americas insights at Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement. 

Vacancy declined in 49 of the 92 markets tracked by Cushman, or 53% of cities. Tech firms building artificial intelligence tools continue to drive leasing activity, and the best-performing markets continue to be tech-centric hubs. San Francisco, Orange County and Midtown Manhattan recorded the largest year-over-year declines in vacancy, according to Cushman.

Other areas around New York City are well represented in the top 20 markets for vacancy declines, joined by secondary markets including Kansas City, Missouri; Charlotte; Jacksonville, Florida; Austin; and others. Many of the markets are bouncing back from cyclical vacancy highs, with San Francisco gaining 364 basis points of occupancy but leaving overall vacancy elevated at 30%. 

The wide representation of markets seeing vacancy dips suggests that office leasing activity is more broad-based and not solely reliant with tech tenants.

Total U.S. office inventory also contracted by 33M SF over the past five quarters, and 20 markets have had at least 1% of their office space taken off the market, as more conversions are proposed. 

Among markets moving in the other direction, vacancy climbed the most year-over-year in Cleveland, although the city’s vacancy rate is below the national average of 20.1%.

Boston, Oklahoma City, Puget Sound’s Eastside outside Seattle and Los Angeles’ central business district round out the five markets where vacancy has grown the most year-over-year. Boston’s vacancy rate is still below the national average, and neighborhoods outside Downtown Los Angeles have seen vacancy plateau over the last three quarters.

Tenants vacated a net 300K SF of space during the second quarter, but absorption for the rolling 12 quarters totaled 14.3M SF after revisions to previous quarters’ totals pushed move-ins higher and suggest that this quarter’s total could also shift upward.

Sublease availability has also declined 15% year-over-year to 96M SF, its lowest point since early 2021, and continuing a downward trend that Cushman says historically precedes a broader market recovery. 

More conversions will be announced, helping support gradual occupancy improvement across the sector as it benefits from healthier supply-side dynamics, Smith said. 

Charlotte-based Atrium Health is seeking to build its first hospital in Metro Atlanta.

Atrium is proposing to build an acute care general teaching hospital on a 40-acre campus in Fulton County, according to a filing with the Georgia Department of Community Health, first reported by Axios.

The proposed facility would help provide care to underserved patients who previously went to WellStar Atlanta Medical Center and its affiliate WellStar AMC South, which both closed in 2022, according to the filing.

The hospital would include an emergency department and could provide other services, such as perinatal and neonatal care, diagnostic imaging and surgeries. It would start out with 50 beds and be affiliated with the Morehouse School of Medicine, Axios reported.

Atrium, which is part of Advocate Health, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proposed hospital would anchor a mixed-use campus at 675 Metropolitan Parkway SW that is intended to include office, retail, residential and medical facilities. It would be located about half a mile from Morehouse School of Medicine’s main campus.

Atrium bought the 40-acre campus near the West End MARTA Station in 2024. It hadn’t previously revealed its plans for the land — home to MET Atlanta, a 1.1M SF historic warehouse — since the purchase. But one city council member predicted at the time that it would mean a new hospital for Atlanta.

In May, city officials unveiled that Atlanta was teaming up with Morehouse and a nonprofit health system to build an $800M hospital, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The officials didn’t disclose the nonprofit or where the hospital would be located. 

Atrium Health has two other health facilities in Georgia: Atrium Health Navicent in Macon and Atrium Health Floyd in Rome, according to Atlanta News First.

The Charlotte City Council has approved a 150-day pause on new data center development, the latest locality to implement a moratorium amid rising national pushback against construction of the facilities.

The council late Monday voted unanimously in favor of the temporary moratorium. The aim of the pause is to allow the city to study data centers’ infrastructure and analyze the environmental impacts they might have on the area.

“We’ve got to dig deeper. We’ve got to really understand not only the legal framework but also the technical information, whether it’s the data itself or the scientific basis behind the impacts to our communities,” Council Member Victoria Watlington said before the vote. “When we can agree on the facts, then we can talk about good policy, and I think that’s exactly what this 150-day moratorium will do.”

The moratorium won’t apply to projects that have already been approved. Projects that are exempt from the pause include those with a valid building permit and those that have a complete application for developmental approval, according to City Attorney Andrea Leslie-Fite.

The city’s vote adds to the growing list of data center moratoriums around the country. Last week, a city in Southern California passed the nation’s first permanent citywide data center ban. New York state is poised to put in place a one-year moratorium.

Charlotte has been considering a moratorium for months. In May, citizens packed a city council meeting for a public hearing where most speakers pushed for the moratorium, citing negative impacts and increased energy costs stemming from what they called excessive water and power usage. Last week, local activists, politicians and an environmental lawyer held a press conference calling on the city council to approve the moratorium, The Charlotte Observer reported. 

American Tower Corp.’s proposed data center in east Charlotte is one controversial project that many have rallied against. The 40K SF project would be off of Hood Road, near a nature preserve. A public hearing on the developer’s zoning request is scheduled for June 15. 

Moratoriums have become common in recent months across the Carolinas, with Durham passing a 60-day moratorium in May and Apex passing a one-year moratorium in April.  

There are more than 90 data centers in North Carolina, according to Data Center Map, and 40 in Charlotte, according to WCNC. 

Council Member Joi Mayo said before the vote that the conversation around data centers “is not about being for or against innovation.”

“Rather, it’s about taking the time to understand the potential impact of a rapidly growing industry and ensuring our policies keep pace with that growth.”

Charlotte investors are bracing for potential changes to the build-to-rent space.

Charlotte has emerged as one of the strongest BTR markets in recent years, driven in part by population growth and rising housing costs. But some investors are pausing sales as a federal housing bill moves through Congress. The latest version of the bill retains protections for the BTR industry, but its fate remains uncertain.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Jason Esposito, CEO of South Carolina-based homebuilder Center Park Group, which specializes in BTR. “It’s got to go back to the Senate and pass.”

Esposito was speaking at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference on May 19 at The Union at Station West in Charlotte. Eric Speckman, co-founding principal of investment and development firm Beauxwright, noted a “lack of transaction volume” in the Charlotte BTR market as companies await the bill’s final passage.

“We’re seeing this in real time, particularly on build-to-rent,” Speckman said. “So it’ll be nice, once the legislation gets worked out, to remove some of this uncertainty that investors have.”

In March, major investors mostly stopped buying and financing BTR sites due to the uncertainty of the the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. “Now, it’s kind of a wait-and-see game,” Esposito said. “We have a lot of projects that are at the starting gate that are ready to go.”

On May 20, the House of Representatives passed an amended version of the housing bill that eliminated a controversial BTR provision. That provision, found in a previous Senate version, would have required BTR operators to sell properties after seven years of ownership. The latest bill heads back to the Senate, where a fresh showdown is expected.

Esposito said the provision, if restored, would “completely eliminate additional supply.”

Last year, demand for BTR residences was on the rise in the Queen City, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. As of mid-2025, the Charlotte metro area had more than 4,100 BTR single-family homes under construction, according to a 2025 report by interior building supplier Best Supply, and was ranked second in the space behind Phoenix. 

But the report noted that some national investors had been “slowing new acquisitions after years of aggressive expansion.”

Alex Barroso, executive vice president of Portman Residential, said at the event that BTR is currently facing a lack of tenant demand. 

“Charlotte’s seen a ton of build-to-rent, but some of those have been difficult to lease up,” Barroso said. “They’re a lot slower, which perhaps a lot of developers didn’t assume when they underwrote them.”

Though the space remains “viable,” he says “money is slowly moving away from it.”

But factors like high housing and land costs continued to draw developers to BTR opportunities in Charlotte last year to meet local demand. Among some of the notable deals was Progress Residential’s $27.3M purchase of BTR community Harmon Five Points in October. Barroso said that just a few years ago, BTR was “all everybody and anybody was looking to invest in” in Charlotte.

David Lee, director of land acquisition at JPI, added that “the reason we saw a lot of those deals” is because they are “easier to capitalize.”

Charlotte is still listed among the major markets where “employment diversity, household growth, and suburban expansion continue to support build-to-rent demand” in 2026, according to a recent report by Catalyst Capital Partners.

But the forecast is dependent on what happens with the housing bill. Esposito said investors will continue to pause operations until they see “closure and certainty on the bill.”

BWE has secured $38.92 million to refinance 194 units of Woodland Park by the Lake, a 240-unit gated condominium community in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

Ryan Morris, vice president, and Max Miller, analyst, both in BWE’s Chicago office, originated the five-year Freddie Mac loan on behalf of the sponsor, a joint venture between a Chicago-based property management firm and a Chicago-based investor group. The joint venture originally acquired 170 units in the property in 2019 as part of a fractured condo deal, and since then, they have purchased more units and substantially renovated those homes. The refinancing accounts for 194 of the total 240 units.

“With its recent stabilization and the strong Chicago rental market, it was the ideal time to refinance so that our client can continue to acquire and renovate additional units in the property,” said Morris. Located at 3423 S Cottage Grove Avenue, Woodland Park by the Lake is a gated, seven-acre residential community.

Crescent Communities opened its latest build-to-rent community, this one in Lawrenceville. The 151-unit project will be Crescent Communities’ 13th multifamily investment in the greater Atlanta market. Its the first under its Harmon brand.

Harmon Cedar Run includes a mix of new townhomes and single-family houses with three or four bedrooms, none of them for sale. Rents for two-story townhomes at Harmon Cedar Run start at $2,545 monthly. That gets three bedrooms and two and ½ bathrooms in 1,663 square feet. 

Rents for standalone houses start at $3,025 for an option with three bedrooms, two and ½ bathrooms, and 2,210 square feet. All townhomes and houses include two-car garages. 

Communal amenities at Harmon Cedar Run include a pickleball and basketball court, a large pool, a playground, pet spaces, and EV outlets in each garage. 

The HARMON portfolio is supported through its joint venture partnership with an account managed by Heitman LLC, which recently increased its commitment from $235 million to $345 million.