By Ken Elkins • Charlotte Business Journal

A Rock Hill developer wants to bring a bit of Birkdale Village to an Interstate 77 interchange about 20 miles south of Charlotte.

The mixed-use project will include shops, restaurants, hotels, office space and apartments or condos on a 190-acre site adjacent to the Rock Hill Galleria mall on Dave Lyle Boulevard.

Warren Norman, principal at development company Warren Norman Co., expects the Gateways at Galleria development to total 1 million square feet when completed by 2016.

Gateways at Galleria will mix uses -- including big-box stores -- in a village-type setting similar to Huntersville's Birkdale Village, which also is adjacent to an I-77 interchange.

The first tenants could be in stores in the $150 million project by summer 2009.  There is space designated for two eral junior-anchor retailers.

The first tenants to sign on are hotels: a Holiday Inn and a Marriott Towneplace Suites.

Gateways at Galleria would connect to the commercial elements of the 1,000-acre former Celanese plant site, which is being redeveloped as a combination of uses that include a business and industrial park and residential community.

Already at the I-77/Dave Lyle interchange are the 850,000-square-foot Rock Hill Galleria mall 165-acre Manchester Village.

"There are a lot of retailers that aren't in the Rock Hill market," Norman says.  He has not signed leases with any tenants but says he's targeting national chains such as Old Navy and Circuit City.

In comparison, Birkdale Village, a 700,000-square-foot residential, office and retail project along I-77 north of Charlotte, has become the standard against which other Charlotte-area mixed-use developments have been judged.

The Norman family has owned the land since the 1960s.  Among its developments in and around Rock Hill, Warren Norman Co. has developed the Shiland Hills shopping center and several residential projects.

The Gateways at Galleria design by architect Childrey Robinson Associates of Charlotte incorporates elements of Rock Hill's textile mills and downtown.

Up to 300 apartments on 20 acres would be added in a later phase.  "We would love to see an urban infill there," Norman says.  "Over time, we expect to be able to do something like that."

The city of Rock Hill may chip in about half the cost of a $7 million to $10 million road system to connect Dave Lyle Boulevard to nerby Cel-River Road.

"The reality behind this project is it produces an enormous return for the city," Norman says.  "We cannot do this project the way we want to do it without the help of the city."

Stephen Turner, executive director of the Rock Hill Economic Development Corp., says the city and Norman are "ready to pull the trigger" to begin the Gateways at Galleria development.