Massive fire breaks out at construction site of Charlotte apartments being developed by Florida, Greensboro companies - Triad Business Journal (2025)

A massive five-alarm fire broke out in Charlotte this morning at the construction site for an apartment community being developed by Mill Creek Residential of Florida in partnership with Hawthorne Residential Partners of Greensboro.

The Charlotte Fire Department posted a photo of the blaze on its Twitter account this morning, identifying the site as Modera SouthPark, a partnership between Mill Creek Partners and Hawthorne that broke ground this year and was scheduled to open next year.

"It's a four-alarm fire at this point and very serious," Tariq Bokhari, City Council rep for SouthPark, told Charlotte Business Journal this morning. "All focus is on saving lives on site at this point. I don't know much more right now, but traffic is gridlocked and people should stay away."

The fire department later raised the level to five alarm.

"Our number one priority is the health and safety of the people who were working there today and those in the surrounding area," Peter Jakel, Mill Creek's vice president of strategy, told CBJ. "Our thoughts are with those who were impacted and their friends and family members. We are gathering as much information as possible on what occurred and will take the appropriate measures to address today’s incident."

A construction worker was rescued shortly before 11 a.m. from the top of a crane over the apartment building and appeared to be uninjured, WSOC-TV reported. Paramedics said one person was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and two more people were evaluated but not transported, according to WSOC-TV.

Charlotte Fire Department Chief Reginald Johnson shared a statement in a meeting with the media this afternoon:

“During the course of this, it was a very fast-moving fire. High heat conditions, well over 2,000 degrees. As the construction site is open, a lot of wood is exposed, the fire moved very rapidly. We had several maydays. A mayday is when crews get trapped or have access issues of escaping due to the fast-moving fire. A mayday is required when we have to send other firefighters to rescue those companies. We had two of those; they were attempting to rescue all of the construction workers that were in the building at the time.

"According to the construction foreman, there are two construction workers that are unaccounted for. We’re still in the process of extinguishing the fire, so we’re going to be on scene for a period of time. We have a number of investigators here that will determine the cause. And I’d like to thank our neighboring departments for providing support to the rest of the city. … Again, we rescued 15 people from the fire. The men and women of this department put themselves in harm’s way and actually had to call for assistance themselves to get out of this fire. That’s how fast it was moving. So, I’m proud of the work that we’ve done here."

Alejandro Quiroga, a construction worker on the project, told CBJ he was in the building when the fire started. Quiroga said the fire was believed to have begun on the second floor and may have been caused by a spray foam machine and a flame sparked from that. The building is three to five months from completion, he added.

Construction workers gathered in groups across the street while firefighters continue to work on putting out the fire. Water and smoke remain visible from across Fairview Road, where media have gathered.

Construction on the 239-unit mid-rise apartment community began in January 2022, and Modera SouthPark was slated to deliver in spring 2024. The project consisted of twin buildings at 7740 and 7741 Liberty Row Drive. It’s next to The Barclay at SouthPark retirement community and the Canopy by Hilton hotel. The apartments are the final piece of the master-planned Liberty SouthPark development, approved in 2016.

Mill Creek Residential of Boca Raton, Florida, entered the Charlotte market in 2021 with the $59 million purchase of a 184-unit complex then named Quarterside Uptown. Mill Creek rebranded the property at 810 E. Seventh St. to Alister Uptown.

Hawthorne Residential Partners is the Triad's largest apartment management group. It manages 27 apartment communities in the Triad with a total of more than 5,500 units. Hawthorne's portfolio also includes eight properties in the Charlotte region.

Despite media reports that up to 3,000 customers were without power because of the fire, Duke Energy Carolinas spokesman Keith Richardson said the utility has no significant outages in the SouthPark area. “We have no outages related to the fire, but we are aware of the situation and have a (repair) crew on standby should that change” he said.

Richardson checked with Duke’s distribution control center in Matthews, which handles electricity distribution for the SouthPark area, at 10:45 a.m. to confirm that Duke is at this time unaffected.

Duke’s own near real-time outage map shows fewer than three dozen power outages in Charlotte as of 11 a.m.

SouthPark mall is currently open, though personnel there declined to comment on the fire.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said the following roads were closed as first responders worked the scene:

The roads are closed until further notice.