Tomorrow, Saturday, November 26, 2011 is the second annual “Shop Small“, a national effort to turn holiday shoppers’ focus on small businesses.  I say, let’s not only think small but also local!  What better way to support our Lake Norman communities than shopping at our many locally owned and operated business?

Need some inspiration?  Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Check out the list of members of the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce  or the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce!

Another great resource is Yelp Charlotte  where you can find reviews and information about shopping, restaurants, events and more.

Here are a few of my favorites as well:

Mooresville:

• Lavendar Boutique  (Great designer jean selection in Mooresville Town Square)
• Landmark Galleries (Cotton Ketchie’s gorgeous art, photography as well as pottery, frames and his latest books)
• The American Classic Antique Mall  in Downtown Mooresville
• La Patisserie  (See my Business of the Week review)
• The Daily Grind  (see my Business of the Week reviews)
• The Prickly Pear
• Carolina Ribs on the Run
• Joel’s and JJ Wasabi
• The Meat Center (New on Williamson Road)
• Epic Chop House (Downtown Mooresville)
• Mint (Great Indian restaurant in the Best Buy Shopping Center on Hwy 150)
•  Joe Fish Casual Seafood (Mooreville)

Davidson:

• Davidson Chocolate
• Monkee’s of Lake Norman Boutique
• The Wooden Stone Gallery
• Flat Irons Restaurant
• Toast Restaurant
• Red Mango Frozen Yogurt
•  North Harbor Club
• The shops along Downtown Main Street

Cornelius:

• 131 Main Restaurant
• Ferrucci’s Italian Market
• Marrakesh Morroccan Restaurant

Huntersville

• Birkdale Village
• Wild Birds Unlimited
• Dearness Gardens
• Red Mango Frozen Yogurt
• The Bradford Store

These are just a few that come to mind but please feel free to add more in the comments and I will add them to this list!

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Mooresville’s 67th Annual Christmas Parade is being held Tuesday, November 22nd (2011) on Main Street in Historic Downtown Mooresville kicking off at 3:30pm!

What, Mooresville’s Christmas Parade is before Thanksgiving?  It is a long story, but I guess each town around Lake Norman and Charlotte was designated a different week for their parades and Mooresville ended up with the Tuesday before Thanksgiving!

Every year our annual Mooresville Christmas Parade just keeps getting bigger and better  yet organizers work hard to make sure it retains its ‘home town’ feel.

With 160 floats, bands and vehicles (3500 participants in all) this year’s parade will be the longest in Mooresville’s 67 years!

The Parade, as always, will be on Main Street in Historic Downtown Mooresville beginning at Statesville Avenue and ending at Mills Avenue at the former Burlington Mill–a block farther than in previous years.

You really must stay until the end, not only to see Santa but, according to parade organizer Ron Johnson, “The float preceding the bearded fellow’s — sponsored by a business called Keeping it Green– will contain a small forest of lighted Christmas tress engulfed in blowing snow.  It’s pretty incredible!”

The Mooresville Christmas Parade is put on by the Mooresville Convention and Visitors Bureau.  For more information, call 704.662.8210.

THIS JUST ADDED 6/30/11: North Carolina is ranked as the #3 best state for businesses by CNBC!

Yes, as shocking as this may be, I actually have some very good news to share with you all; mostly related to our Lake Norman area economic present and  future. 

Probably the most exciting news this past week was the announcement that California water bottling company Niagara Bottling LLC  plans to build a $45 million plant in Mooresville to serve as their Mid-Atlantic distribution center.  The plant will be built on 60-acres in the Mooresville Business Park and will employ 66 people when it opens in early 2012.  Mooresville was chosen over sites in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and West Virgina according to an article in the Mooresville Tribune.  In a second article in the Mooresville Tribune they focused on the “huge” revenue expected to be generated from this facility including $425,000 per year in water revenue as stated by Mayor Pro Tem Chris Carney.

Another good news item is this week’s unveiling of Mooresville’s Campus of Mitchell Community College’s $5 million classroom addition.   This addition is the third in recent years reflecting the growth in our greater Mooresville and Lake Norman communities.  According to the Mooresville Tribune, this building will include “two science labs, a cyber cafe, 12 staff offices, 14 classrooms and a multi-purpose auditorium/lecture hall allowing the center to seat another 1200 students.”  70 parking spaces were also added. 

As excitement grows for the 25-diamond baseball complex America’s Park being built in Mooresville, the Town of Mooresville is looking at expanding the original Cornelius Road Small Area Plan including an emphasis on “service” businesses, restaurants, hotels, and most importantly plans to create an I-77 interchange at Cornelius Road.

Land clearing  has begun at the long anticipated Langtree at the Lake development.  You can see it from the south bound lanes of the I-77.  Construction is now slated to begin this fall.  We’ve heard this before so we will have to wait and see!

Taking a glimpse into the future of our Lake Norman area,  Charlotte/Gastonia/Concord metropolitan area is ranked 10th in the “Top 10 real estate boomtowns: 2020″ in the country according to census data projections form the data analysis firm Proximity One.

Yes, our Lake Norman real estate market is still struggling but it is nice to share some signs that the future is bright!

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A Glimpse Into Post-Recession Lake Norman Real Estate

Lake Norman Relocation Resources 

Lake Norman Participation Sports Resource Guide

How to get the Lastest Lake Norman News, Events and Coupon Savings!

After hearing increasing levels of frustration from so many of my Lake Norman friends, neighbors and past clients who, like me, live down Brawley School Rd. in Mooresville I started seeking out concrete information about the current work and completion date.  The North Carolina Department of Transportation was not helpful nor were the Facebook pages dedicated to Brawley School Road.

So, I turned to my friend and Mooresville Town Commissioner Miles Atkins for assitance and he came throough for us!

Commissioner Atkins, 

Per our phone conversation yesterday, I spoke with John Cook, the construction engineer for NCDOT that is assigned to the Brawley School Road project. Starting next week, the construction crews will be applying the top coat (1 inch) to the Williamson Road approaches as well as Brawley School Road. NCDOT’s ultimate goal for this project is to have two lanes each way, four lanes total in operation from Chuckwood Road to Williamson Road by July 15, 2011. The construction crews will continue to work during the day to complete the project. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

 Neil Burke, AICP

Transportation Planner

Town of Mooresville

PO Box 878

Mooresville, NC 28115

(704) 663-2891

nburke@ci.mooresville.nc.us

So there you have it!  I imagine it will be a bit crazy as they move our lanes around but with Lake Norman schools almost out for the summer we might actually be able to say the worst is behind us.  (Yes, I am choosing to be optimistic). You heard it first here on Lake Norman Real Estate’s blog!

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Lake Norman Relocation Resources

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How to get the Lastest Lake Norman News, Events and Coupon Savings!

Living in Lake Norman presents some interesting challenges regarding keeping up with local news and events because the 520 miles of Lake Norman shoreline fall in 4 counties and 10 towns.  Before doing research for this Lake Norman Real Estate blog post I was actually contemplating creating a Facebook page for “Breaking News” and special coupon deals just for Lake Norman.  What I discovered was that there were a number of resources online already available, you just need to know how to find them!

Many of you may not use or even care to use Twitter or Facebook.  But, if I provide you with a how-to guide and links it will be easy for you to keep up with Lake Norman news, events AND even coupons and special savings:

Twitter can be overwhelming and almost useless unless you narrow your focus on what you really want to learn.  However, it is absolutely the best way to keep up with what’s happening from events to sales/coupons to news in the Lake Norman Area.  I use Hootsuite.  This lets you set up any number of searches with real time feeds which are displayed in individual columns.  I have one column set up for Lake Norman but you can also set searches up for towns or any subject of interest.  Here are the most recent Tweets of interest:  Lake Norman Buzz posted an update a few minutes ago that Lake Norman is going to get 177, 500 bass with a link for more info. Cornelius Today wrote about the North Rail Line from Charlotte to Lake Norman.  There are many Tweets about recent sports as well.

Facebook does not offer as wide a variety and quantity of news but here are some pages worth checking out.  You can search for all Lake Norman pages at the top of your homepage.  Here are a few good ones:

• Lake Norman  This is a pretty good source for everything from businesses posting sales and coupons to jobs and local news.  With almost 4000 friends it offers a nice variety of hyper local news.  For instance, this week JR Motorsports has a Race Week sale going on, and last weekend Rusty Rudder had a special ”end of the world” discount on special drinks.
• Lake Norman Fan Page   Another Facebook resource with 8450 fans.
• Downtown Mooresville Learn about upcoming events and sales at local businesses!

Coupons and Savings are all the rage right now.  Of course, Groupon is huge, but there are many local options as well:

• LKNSavings.com will email you special “deals”  just for the Lake Norman area and provide quite a few more on their website.  Today I received one about their “Deal of the Day” which is an “In Home Wine Tasting”.
• LKNFun.com is a site dedicated to restaurants and special events and they include a number of special deals at Lake Norman area restaurants.  They even have a separate tab for “Coupons”.
•  360 Lake Norman offers coupons in the greater Charlotte area but you can search by town.
• Groupon Charlotte
 
 
• Creative Loafing

 

Events can be found on Twitter and Facebook as well as our local magazines like Lake Norman Magazine and Currents.  However, there are a few dedicated sites and email updates as well:

• Trumba’s Lake Norman Events Calendar
• 704Events.com
• Creative Loafing
• Vist Lake Norman has a calendar of events page.  The is the Lake Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau website
• Lake Norman.com

Breaking Lake Norman News is most readily available using Twitter.  However, there are several newspapers with websites as well:

• The Charlotte Observer also has a section for the Lake Norman area
• The Mooresville Tribune
• Denver News
• Davidson News
• The Herald Weekly for Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson
• Creative Loafing 

Last but not least, YELP   is an awesome resource for finding reviews of Lake Norman businesses and restaurants.  You can search for reviews by location, zipcode, type of business or restaurant.  They will also send you wonderful email reviews on things like the best restaurants for eggs in the whole Charlotte area. 

So, there you have it!  Just about everything you want to know about Lake Norman in now just a clickaway.

Please add your own resources in the comments section and I will add them to this list!

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 Relocating to Lake Norman

Lake Norman Participation Resource Guide

Lake Norman, Our Inland Sea