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.

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.”

New York-based DLC Management Corp. has acquired an open-air shopping center in Charlotte’s Northlake neighborhood.

The center, Perimeter Woods, sits at 10125 Perimeter Parkway, across from Northlake Mall, and is accessible via Interstates 485 and 77, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. The 127K SF retail center is anchored by Best Buy, PetSmart, Burlington and Michael’s. The property spans more than 20 acres along the parkway.

The $36.6M deal for the site was part of a six-property acquisition by DLC, which specializes in open-air shopping center development. DLC owns and operates nearly 100 centers in the U.S., including the 303K SF Pavilion at King’s Grant in Concord, north of Charlotte. The six-property deal adds more than 1M SF to the firm’s portfolio across several states, according to the CBJ.

The Perimeter Woods acquisition reflects continued investor interest in Charlotte’s retail market, despite the challenges the 1.1M SF Northlake Mall across the street has faced. The enclosed mall sold last year for about $39M following a period of financial distress. 

Open-air shopping centers tend to be more reliable assets than enclosed malls, as their mainstream retail anchors, like grocery markets or big-box stores, provide stable shopping traffic, according to investment firm RockStep Capital. Enclosed malls include a variety of tenants to manage, from entertainment to dining to fitness, and often require longer lease terms. Open-air centers usually have lower operating costs, better visibility and accessibility, and are more sustainable than indoor malls, according to a McNeil Engineering report.

In recent years, many retailers have shifted from malls toward “outdoor, non-mall locations such as grocery-anchored shopping centers and strip malls,” The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024.

Among three different mall formats — indoor malls, open-air shopping centers and outlet malls — open-air shopping centers saw the most traffic growth year-over-year, according to the April Placer.ai mall index. Those centers’ visits rose 3.5% in April compared to the previous year, while indoor malls saw a 2.2% increase.

Retail vacancy in Charlotte is among the lowest in the U.S., at less than 2.9%, according to a first-quarter Colliers report. The rate has stayed below 3% for three consecutive years.  

Charlotte has a few more enclosed malls in addition to Northlake, including SouthPark Mall, Concord Mills and Carolina Place Mall. But the metro has many more open-air shopping sites — at least 15 open-air malls, like Phillips Place — as well as walkable shopping-oriented villages.

DLC made the acquisition with a fund managed by investment adviser DRA Advisors, the CBJ reported. The seller was KRG Charlotte Perimeter Woods LLC, affiliated with Kite Realty Group. 

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.

Opposition to data center development has intensified across the U.S.

A fast-growing number of states and local governments have passed or are debating moratoriums on new data center construction. This wave of data center bans spreading across the country threatens to further impede an industry already struggling to secure enough land and power to meet surging demand. 

Bisnow/Jon Banister

Virginia data center opponents protest outside an industry event in 2023.

Data centers have emerged as a major policy concern at the state, local and federal levels. Large-scale projects routinely face heated community opposition due to resident fears about environmental impacts and local quality of life, while broader concerns about these facilities’ massive power consumption generate national headlines. 

These concerns, combined with anxiety about the consequences of the artificial intelligence technologies they enable, have led data centers to become deeply unpopular. Opposition to data centers is proving to be a fruitful position for politicians across the political spectrum and at every level of government.

Over the past three years, efforts to manage or restrict data center development in the industry’s major hubs have risen steadily, but in recent months, many efforts have emerged to impose moratoriums that would pause data center development altogether. These initiatives are gaining traction in hyperscale development hotbeds and locations that draw little interest from data center builders. 

In Congress, Democratic lawmakers Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveiled a data center moratorium bill in March. While it faces long odds of becoming law, similar bills at the state level are inching closer to becoming reality. 

Since the start of this year, 14 different states have considered moratoriums on new data center construction. This month, the New York Legislature passed a bill pausing all new data center development for a year. Should Gov. Kathy Hochul sign it into law, New York will become the first state to have a data center moratorium go into effect. 

New York’s potential moratorium comes on the heels of the Maine Legislature passing a similar data center pause, which was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills in April.

Most state-level moratorium bills propose pausing data center construction for between one and three years while studies are conducted on the facilities’ environmental and economic impacts. Some outliers, like Vermont, have proposed longer bans. The bills generally focus only on pausing the construction of new data centers, although a Wisconsin bill would also halt ongoing operations at existing data centers.

Meanwhile, dozens of county and municipal governments across the U.S. have been passing their own data center bans. Some of these moratoriums have come in areas inundated by large-scale data center projects, like DeKalb County, Georgia, or communities where a proposed data center project proved deeply unpopular, such as in Normal, Illinois. Some towns, like Mansfield, Massachusetts, have passed bans despite drawing no interest from data center developers. 

For many in the data center sector, the political peril facing the industry presents the greatest challenge constraining its growth. Companies are bracing for the possibility that an industry already strapped for developable land may soon find that its options are even more limited.

Below is a list of state and local data center moratoriums that have been proposed this year.

State Moratoriums

New York

Earlier this month, the New York Legislature passed a one-year moratorium on siting, construction or commencement of operations of data centers 20 megawatts and larger. The bill requires the governor’s signature to become law, and it remains unclear whether she plans to sign or veto it.

The bill initially called for a three-year moratorium on new data center development before being amended to just one. It also requires the state’s Public Service Commission to draft new rules regulating data center power consumption. And it mandates an extensive environmental impact report from the Department of Environmental Conservation that would include regulatory and legislative policy recommendations and measure the water and power consumption of data centers already operating in the state. 

Maine

In April, Maine became the first state to have a data center moratorium pass its legislature, with lawmakers approving a bill pausing the development of new data centers in the state larger than 20 MW until November 2027. The governor then vetoed the bill.

Still, a similar bill could be coming in the near future. Despite her veto, Mills has said she supports a temporary pause on new data center construction and would have signed the bill if it had included an exemption for a specific data center project already underway in the state. 

Virginia

A torrent of data center legislation has advanced in the industry’s largest hub, with more than 60 bills introduced in the most recent legislative session aiming to manage its growth across the commonwealth. One of these bills — introduced by Del. Irene Shin, a Democrat representing Fairfax County — aims to implement a moratorium on all new data centers 1 MW or larger. This pause would last until July 2028 or until all data center grid interconnection requests are fulfilled. The bill remains in committee and was pushed into the next legislative session. 

Maryland

In January, Del. Mark Fisher, a Republican, introduced an emergency bill into the Maryland House of Delegates imposing a ban on data center construction and planning of data centers 100 MW and larger. The bill is in committee. 

Vermont

A bill introduced in January by a group of lawmakers in the Vermont General Assembly aims to implement a moratorium on the siting and construction of new data centers until 2030. During that time, the bill requires the state’s Public Utility Commission to report on how data centers impact Vermont’s natural resources and economy. The bill remains in committee. 

Oklahoma

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering a bill from Republican Sen. Kendal Sacchieri to create a moratorium on data center construction until November 2029. Applying to data centers 100 MW and larger, the pause is intended to give the Oklahoma Corporation Commission time to conduct an impact study. The bill is in committee. 

Michigan

Multiple lawmakers in Michigan have introduced bills that would enact a statewide data center moratorium, preventing local governments and the state’s Public Service Commission from approving these facilities to give officials time to evaluate their impact. The moratorium would last until at least April 2027. While these bills remain in committee, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has been supportive of data center development in the state. 

Minnesota

Introduced by Senate Democrats in March, a Minnesota bill would require the state’s Public Utilities Commission to submit a comprehensive report on the impact of data centers by July 2027 and would ban the construction of new data centers larger than 100 MW until a year after the report’s publication. The bill remains in committee. 

South Carolina

A pair of joint resolutions filed by South Carolina lawmakers in April would prevent local and state government agencies from issuing approvals related to data centers until 2028. The bills would also enact a moratorium on applications for new data centers larger than 5 MW until the state government establishes a comprehensive oversight framework. The bills remain in committee. 

Pennsylvania

A bill introduced this month in the Pennsylvania Senate by Democrat Katie Muth would ban the construction of “high impact” data centers 25 MW and larger for three years. The bill, now in committee, also mandates new studies on the impact of these facilities and authorizes local governments to enact their own data center bans. 

Georgia

Georgia lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban data center construction for a year starting in July. Introduced by Democrat Jaha Howard, the bill remains in committee. A similar bill introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives would pause data center construction until 2029 while the state conducts an impact study. 

New Hampshire

Legislation in New Hampshire calling for a one-year moratorium on data center construction was killed in committee in March.

Wisconsin

A bill introduced in Wisconsin would have been among the most restrictive moratoriums under consideration, applying not just to new construction but also to the operation of existing data centers larger than 100 MW. However, the bill was killed in committee in March. 

South Dakota

A House bill in South Dakota would have temporarily banned the construction or expansion of data centers over 50 MW until July 2027. The bill didn’t advance through committee. 

Local Moratoriums

According to datacenterbans.com and local news outlets, more than 100 cities, towns and counties have also proposed or passed data center moratoriums. 

Alabama

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Georgia

• DeKalb County
• Camden County
• Pike County
• Lamar County
• Troup County
• LaGrange
• Clayton County
• Athens-Clarke County
• Monroe County
• Lee County

Illinois

Indiana

• Fulton County
• Starke County
• Dearborn County
• White County
• Putnam County
• Pulaski County
• Indianapolis (proposed)

Iowa

• Dubuque County
• Johnson County
• Clarke County
• Adair County
• Shelby County

Kansas

• Sedgwick County
• Miami County (proposed)
• Harvey County

Kentucky

• Oldham County
• Scott County
• Meade County
• Ashland

Louisiana

Maine

• Bangor
• Wiscasset
• Lewiston
• Scarborough (proposed)

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Michigan is the most active state for data center moratoriums, with close to 50 counties enacting or considering such bans. The total area in which data center construction is at least temporarily prohibited is roughly the size of Rhode Island.

• Meridian Township 
• Northville
• Soringfield
• Pontiac
• Sterling Heights
• Detroit (proposed)
• Ypsilanti Township
• City of Ypsilanti
• East Lansing
• Howell
• Mason 
• Armada
• Dundee
• Grand Blanc
• Green Charter
• Hayes
• Lenox
• Lodi
• Manchester
• Pittsfield
• Saginaw
• Saline
• South Lyon
• Sylvan
• Taylor
• Tyrone
• Ann Arbor
• Erie
• Delta County (proposed)
• Washington

Minnesota

Missouri

• St. Charles
• Jackson County (proposed)
• Columbia

Nevada

New Jersey

• Princeton Township
• Phillipsburg

New York

North Carolina

• Charlotte
• Chatham County
• Orange County
• Canton
• Boone
• Gates County
• Brevard
• Clay County
• Kings Mountain
• Apex
• Swain County
• Rowan County
• Boiling Spring Lakes
• Hillsborough

North Dakota

• Morton County
• Mercer County
• Dunn County

Ohio

• Jerome
• Lordstown
• Muhlenberg
• Massillon
• Plain
• Vienna
• Washington
• Ashville
• South Bloomfield
• Ironton (proposed)
• Yellow Springs (proposed)

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

Tennessee

• Nashville (proposed)
• Washington County

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Wisconsin

• Port Washington
• Madison
• Manitowoc County
• Cassville Township
• Waterloo Township

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.

Asked what Uncommon Developers seeks to bring about with its mixed-use and multifamily projects, co-founder Ryan Hekmat replied, “job creation.” More broadly, Hekmat told Connect CRE that the goal is to grow the local communities surrounding the projects. “Our focus is to create environments that strengthen communities economically and socially through housing, opportunity, public spaces, and experiences that elevate quality of life,” he said. 

Hekmat will be among the experts taking the stage for the “Development: Block by Block, Project by Project” panel discussion at Connect CRE Los Angeles 2026, scheduled for Thursday afternoon at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown. As a preview of the panel, he provided insights into his company’s community-building approach. The company is a vertically integrated real estate platform that handles acquisition, entitlement, design, construction, and property management in-house across an LA–focused portfolio of multifamily, mixed-use, and large-scale development projects. 

A case in point is The 24, built on the site of a former Los Angeles Times printing facility in Chatsworth. “On the 24-acre campus, nearly five acres are dedicated to outdoor living, including dog parks, a community garden, four pools, walking paths, basketball and pickleball courts, a citrus grove, outdoor movie theater, and expansive community green spaces,” Hekmat said. “Every day, the campus comes alive with families gathering, neighbors connecting, and residents enjoying an active, vibrant lifestyle together.

“And the news gets even better—we are currently working on opening an on-campus preschool to truly offer a one-of-a-kind live, work, play, and grow experience,” he continued.

Beyond the outdoor amenities, The 24 offers elevated spaces for work, collaboration, and connection, including dedicated work lounges, conference rooms, and reservable event spaces designed for productivity, community, and modern living.

Development can require reserves of patience, fortitude and persistence, and it’s not a coincidence that both city and state governments have sought to streamline the approvals process in recent years. However, Hekmat believes such initiatives are undercut by red tape and a lack of coordination elsewhere in the system. “It’s not the straightforward things that these entitlement and new legislative rules account for; it’s the ancillary things that need to be dialed in,” he said. 

Take fee schedules, for example. “The changes in costs, like impact fees or the school fees, create instability and destroy underwriting for projects,” said Hekmat. “If we have that underwriting from the beginning of the project, we can see if the deal makes sense. But even a dollar-per-square-foot change in the school fees can destroy a project. So that stability is something that is tantamount to success” in a development project. 

Conversely, the company is positioned to capitalize on dislocations in the market. “We look at the turmoil and the difficulty in financing these projects and all the instability in local and state codes as an opportunity for us to grow,” Hekmat said. “We have been doing everything that we can to keep our eye on the markets and look for deals based on other people’s inability to make things work and we’re very disciplined. We’re able to take advantage of being vertically integrated and developing with modular [construction], which enables us to grow at a basis that makes sense even when there is turmoil in the market.” 

On May 28, Connect Los Angeles brings together 600+ high-level owners, investors, developers, brokers, and lenders shaping the region’s market for a full day of insights and networking. Be in the room with decision-makers driving deals across LA, SoCal and the nation—register now: www.connectLA26.com