See inside Charlotte’s first carless apartment complex

Why it matters: The Joinery’s debut comes as Charlotte tries to become less reliant on cars and more efficient generally with its public transit.

• By eliminating parking, the developer behind the project, Space Craft, was able to invest in other areas, such as competitive rent and aesthetic upgrades, CEO Harrison Tucker tells Axios.
• By some estimates, parking can cost developers $20,000-$40,000 per spot.

Additionally, Space Craft execs say they aim to fill a void in Charlotte by providing a sleek, high-tech property without some of the typical bells and whistles of a new apartment building.

• For instance, there isn’t a pool onsite.

“It’s a true urban experience that you might find in one the world’s great cities,” Space Craft CEO Harrison Tucker says.

Details: The roughly 80,000-square-foot building at 1824 N. Brevard has 83 units. On the ground floor is a common area with plush seating, WiFi and coffee for residents.

• The ground floor also has a mail room, fitness center, outdoor patio with grills and storage for e-bikes available to rent.
• Monthly rent ranges from $1,295 for a studio to $2,165 for a 2-bedroom unit, according to The Joinery’s website.
• Residents will use a mobile app called Latch to unlock doors, eliminating the need for keys and fobs.
• There’ll be a separate app for residents to pay rent and make maintenance requests.
• A roughly 2,000-square-foot retail space facing Brevard will be for some kind of food/beverage tenant.

The Joinery is also working through an agreement with Airbnb to allow tenants to rent out their units for a certain number of days per year, says Mohit Shewaramani, director of operations for Space Craft.

“It’s meant to be an amenity to residents but not disruptive to people who live here,” Shewaramani says of the Airbnb agreement.

Flashback: Construction on The Joinery quietly began as debate roiled over another carless development that was going through rezoning. That project — a 104-unit Seversville complex from Grubb Properties — was thought to be the first car-free residential development in town.

• It wasn’t the first, but it did get approved and is underway now.

Of note: By carless, we mean there’s no parking onsite. Tenants can still own cars and keep them elsewhere.

• That’s different from the Grubb property, which will have tenants agree in their leases that they won’t buy a car.
• The Joinery has an agreement with Preferred Parking that will allow residents to keep their cars on offsite lots, Shewaramani says.
• The development also will have a few Teslas available for rent.

Here’s a look around at The Joinery, which is about a block from the Parkwood light rail station: