Daniel Levine says there is a plan for North Tryon's unfinished parking deck. But not what it is.

Next to First Ward Elementary School in uptown is a lesson on timing and real estate investments.

Daniel Levine, who has invested in properties in uptown since 1980, is the largest private landowner in First Ward. His vision for the area led to First Ward Park and UNC Charlotte's uptown campus.

But the nearby parking deck Levine started in 2015 sits substantially completed but unfinished and closed to the public. Concrete pillars that would have supported an apartment building wrapping the deck stand in a field, supporting nothing.

Meanwhile, nearby UNC Charlotte employees at the Dubois Center look across to the deck where state money paid for them to have access to parking spots that are yet to be delivered.

Building permits for the development have long expired. North Carolina building codes only require that the site be kept secure.

Levine, who is widely considered a vital partner in the redevelopment of North Tryon Street, remains reluctant to share many details about why the parking deck continues to sit, five years after it was supposed to be completed. But forces swirling around his land holdings — specifically, the likelihood of the Silver Line light-rail line eventually passing beside the parking deck — leave clues to the delay.

"I acknowledge it's a hot topic all over our community," says Levine, in some of his first comments about the deck since construction stopped before the pandemic.

"It's bordering Mecklenburg County's Hal Marshall site, which is also a significant opportunity, both for center city and the region. I can confidently tell you there's a promising plan in the works and that it should satisfy all the inquiring minds. There's more to come."

More than a decade ago, Levine reached a deal with the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to deliver priority items, such as First Ward Park, affordable housing and public parking. For building those items, Levine would receive infrastructure reimbursements in the form of tax-increment grant payments.

Levine opened First Ward Park in 2015, which came with about $11.4 million in reimbursements from the county.

The deal for the parking deck was up to $23.7 million in exchange for more than 1,000 spaces near First Ward Park. Multiple deadlines for delivery of the parking spaces have passed.

The city has the option to terminate the infrastructure reimbursement agreement with Levine Properties but has decided not to, says Todd DeLong, assistant director of economic development for the city.

"Since these grants are performance-based, there is no financial risk to the city by keeping the agreement active. The developer will not receive any grant payments associated with parking until the spaces are complete and available for the public to use," DeLong says.

Charlotte City Council member Malcolm Graham, whose district includes First Ward, says the original city approval for the parking deck requires screening to meet design standards. Without the apartment building, the deck would need some additional building, site and elevation modifications to meet city standards.

The parking deck has not earned tax incentives from the city. But it was built with $4.2 million in state money, which was to ensure 305 parking spaces for use by nearby UNC Charlotte.

Levine halted construction of the 1,200-space parking deck in 2016 and made plans to add an apartment component with 264 wood-framed units in a five- story building with a small amount of retail. Plans then changed again, with the apartment piece growing to 418 units.

Levine declined to say why the apartment development stalled — at a time when multifamily development boomed across the city. And though he declines to say what needs to happen for the parking deck to open, he says he wants to open the deck as soon as he is able.

"We know that we are behind schedule," Levine says. "But there's nobody in North Carolina that wants that deck to move forward any faster than I do. We have paid for that deck. You can look on Polaris and see what kind of property tax I'm paying on an annual basis for a property that's not producing. There's nobody that wants it done more than I do."

In the context of development of the North Tryon district, Levine says he envisions a mix of uses, including residential, office, retail and entertainment.

"You cannot force development. Regardless of what type, it takes time, it takes vision, it takes capital, it takes commitment, a great deal of good decisions coming together to make good development happen," he says.

Michael Smith, CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners, says the deck is a valuable asset, especially as plans move ahead on a North Tryon tech hub.

"That is a foundational asset for our aspirations for this district," Smith says. "It's our hope that it becomes operational as soon as possible. It will strengthen our aspirations for this place, serving the university's interests, hospitality interests, commercial and entrepreneurial."

Smith points out that parking decks are expensive to create and a necessary piece of infrastructure for other development goals.

"The public sector nor the private sector would never seek to have it occur that way," Smith says of the dormant deck. "But it did. To look at it any other way than 'OK, so now what,' would be less than strategic."

John Nichols, commercial real estate investor and broker with The Nichols Co., says the potential Silver Line arrival near Levine's parking deck has surely changed the calculus for the site.

"When the world changes, you stop and regroup. The density could be much higher than was anticipated when the apartment project was conceived," Nichols says. "This wasn't the time to build the next development."

In the meantime, Nichols says a parking deck is indestructible, except for keeping graffiti off the building.

"You've got to play your card when it's time to play it. I can assure you when the time is right, he's going to do it," Nichols says of Levine. "He's such a smart developer. I would never doubt much of what he does."