The Charlotte City Council on Monday unanimously approved a partial rezoning of the Manor Theater site on Providence Road, clearing the way for SLRH Acquisitions, an affiliate of StreetLights Residential, to redevelop the long-closed Eastover landmark into a mixed-use project with 120 to 130 residential units and roughly 35,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The rezoning — petition 2026-003 — applied to the back portion of the property, about 20 percent of the site, which had been zoned office. The rest of the parcel was already commercial.
The Manor Theater closed during the pandemic. Council Member Kimberly Owens (District 6), whose district covers the parcel and who had championed the rezoning, framed Monday's vote as a transition rather than a demolition.
"The Manor Theater has been in existence for 73 or so years," she told the dais. "It was one of the victims of the pandemic. It was the first and last place to see art house films in Charlotte." She said her own children had seen their first non-superhero movies there. "I've heard it referred to as a plan to honor the manor. I'm really hopeful that that continues through in execution."
Council Member Danté Anderson (District 1) followed, identifying herself as a native Charlottean with multiple film degrees. The Manor, she said, was one of the very first places she went when she moved back to Charlotte in 2011.
Council Member J.D. Mazuera Arias (District 5), a Queens University of Charlotte alum, told the dais that the Manor "is just down the street from us" and was where he first encountered independent filmmaking.
The redevelopment, per the petitioner's filings, will require all existing buildings on the site to be torn down. Construction is expected to begin in 2027. The Manor's revival lands on a thread Charlotte's older venues have been quietly working through: the Excelsior Club's $8 million revival is still under public-money negotiation.
Mayor Vi Lyles closed the agenda item with a request she framed as half a joke: "We probably all need to get a chair out of the theater and take it home."