SouthPark

Built around SouthPark Mall and a cluster of office towers, with quiet ranch streets a block off Sharon Road and new mid-rise condos going up along it.

SouthPark is Charlotte’s second downtown. It grew around the SouthPark mall, which opened in 1970 on the Morrison and Barclay farms six miles south of Uptown. The mall is still the anchor, but the district around it is office towers, hotels, apartments and the restaurant row that makes it the city’s second business address.

Where it is

• Fairview Road, Sharon Road and Carnegie Boulevard
• Piedmont Row and the office towers along Fairview
• Symphony Park behind the mall, where the summer pops concerts play
• Barclay Downs, Foxcroft and Beverly Woods, the single-family neighborhoods around it

If you’re moving here

SouthPark proper is condos and apartments, from the towers on Carnegie to the mid-rises along Fairview. It’s a car-based life with everything within two miles: the mall, the specialty grocers, the medical offices, the gyms and the restaurants. It suits someone who works in the Fairview towers, or anyone who wants Uptown-level dining without Uptown. Fairview at 5:30 is the main complaint.

If you’re visiting

• Stay here when your meeting isn’t Uptown; the business traveler guide explains why
• Eat on the Fairview and Sharon restaurant row with the where to eat guide
• Bring a blanket to Symphony Park for a summer concert, the district’s one free lawn event
• Take a class at one of the boutique studios in the fitness guide