A Columbia, South Carolina, developer has begun work to revive the long-dormant Queens Landing dining, boating and entertainment complex on Lake Norman, a Mooresville town official said.
Arnold Cos. has permits to renovate the two-story restaurant-event space and the docks and parking lot at the landmark site on River Highway (N.C. 150 West), Erika Martin, Mooresville Planning & Community Development director, said in an email to The Charlotte Observer.
The Observer contacted Martin after a neighbor emailed the newspaper inquiring about construction work that he and neighbors have observed for months.
The property has been graded, and the exterior of the two-story building appeared to have been renovated when The Charlotte Observer visited the site on Sunday, Jan. 26. A front-end loader and other construction vehicles were in the lot.
Gone are the decades-old bumper-cars area and miniature golf course.
Board rejected condos, marina plan
In a split vote in April 2024, Mooresville commissioners rejected the developer’s plans for a marina, restaurant/commercial building, floating bar on the lake, 108 for-sale “luxury” condos and a public greenway and multi-use path with access to the lake, the Observer previously reported.
The restaurant would have featured Italian, American and sushi selections, Carl Nalls of Charlotte-based project consultant Housing Studio told the board before its vote. The town previously approved plans for a restaurant, officials said.
The condominiums would have faced the lake and been in two buildings, one six stories and the other four stories.
The Observer first reported about the developer’s plans, which originally called for 172 multifamily units in two six-story buildings.
Buildings would have included elevators, large windows and high-end finishes, developer Ben Arnold told the Mooresville Planning Board in October 2023. “It’s a Class A-plus multifamily project,” he said.
“We’re not a flipper builder,” Arnold said. “If this is built, we’re here to stay.”
An art plaza also was planned, and more shrubbery and other vegetation planted along the waterfront and as a screen along N.C. 150.
Commissioners said the project was too immense for an area where only one or two homes per acre are called for under the town’s land-use plan, and no affordable-housing units were proposed.
Residents also cited the already intolerable traffic along N.C. 150, where Queens Landing opened in the early 1990s. The development is beside the McCrary Creek Access Area public boat launch, near the Iredell-Catawba county line.
Bumper cars, miniature golf
For decades, visitors enjoyed dining and drinking at Queens Landing’s restaurant and bar, riding its bumper cars and playing tennis and miniature golf. They booked dinner and sightseeing cruises aboard its Catawba Queen and Lady of the Lake boats.
Despite the commissioners’ denial vote, the developer can “by right” build 78 multifamily units on the property under its current zoning, a town planner said at the time.
Plans for the multifamily units were unclear this week. Arnold hasn’t responded to multiple messages from the Observer since last year. The developer’s website mentions nothing about Queens Landing or its plans for homes.
Also unknown is what’s planned for the interior of the existing two-story building.
Arnold Cos. bought Queens Landing for $7.5 million in August 2022 from the estate of longtime local owner Jack Williams, The Charlotte Observer reported, citing Iredell County public tax records. The county values the property at $5 million, according to the records.
Williams died in 2016, according to his obituary. Known as “Captain Jack,” he bought the Catawba Queen in 1992 with friend Bud Lancaster, owner of Big Daddy’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Mooresville.
Famous Queens Landing boats
The waterfront site was most notably known for its 149-passenger Catawba Queen, a Mississippi River paddle wheel boat that offered sightseeing and dinner cruises. Queens Landing later added the 93-foot Lady of the Lake dinner cruise boat.
Deborah Harwell, a Mooresville and Myrtle Beach resident who owns the boats, had them moved and anchored together elsewhere on the lake when the developer told her the company wasn’t interested in them, the Observer reported.
They remain floating on an inland sea of uncertainty.
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