Toast Café will open its Davidson location at 101 N. Main St. Thursday, initially serving breakfast and lunch. “Come hungry,” owner Brian Burchill told DavidsonNews.net.

Also in this report: an update on the Sheraton and other Exit 30 projects, Davidson firm upgrades ‘Ace & TJ’ website, and the developer of the Village at Lake Norman project in Cornelius has bought the land for the development.

TOAST OPENS THURSDAY

Toast will open at 7 a.m. Thursday. The restaurant will be serving breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch. Hours are weekdays (except Tuesdays), 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The restaurant eventually plans to serve dinner. “No dinners at first. I’d say another couple of weeks we’ll start dinner,” Mr. Burchill said Tuesday.

Toast has taken over and renovated the space formerly occupied by Kudzu on the Green, which closed in February. It’s the second outlet for Toast, which has operated in downtown Huntersville since 2005.

The menu will be similar to what Toast serves in Huntersville, though Mr. Burchill has said he plans to alter the dinner menu slightly when he begins serving dinners in Davidson. Entrees will be $10 to $18.

Toast offers eggs, omelets, French toast, flap-jacks and its own fresh-baked breads and pastries. For lunch, it serves salads, sandwiches, burgers and wraps. Dinner at the Huntersville location currently includes soups, salads, crab cakes and other appetizers, pasta, seafood, chicken dishes, steaks, shepherds pie, and burgers.

For more information, visit the Toast website, http://www.toastcafeonline.com/.

EXIT 30 PROJECT UPDATES

Planning continues for the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center off I-77 Exit 30, but pre-construction delays mean the town won’t see tax revenues from the project as early as expected.

Construction was supposed to have started in March, but delays have pushed back the groundbreaking until July, planning director Kris Krider said in his most recent planning report. The 227-room, six-story hotel is now expected to open sometime in 2009.

The delay in construction means the town will not get tax revenues from the business in the coming fiscal year, as originally anticipated. In his 2008-2009 budget message, Town Manager Leamon Brice said he was forced to reduce his revenue estimates. “The Sheraton Hotel that was projected to open for three months in the coming fiscal year has experienced a three-month setback and will not generate any occupancy tax revenue in the coming fiscal year,” Mr. Brice wrote.

Planner Parviz Moosavi said Tuesday that one of the major holdups involved Duke Energy’s restrictions on construction on a 200-foot utility easement it controls through the Sheraton site. Mecklenburg County also required the developer to revise storm water treatment plans after revising the overall plan.

A list of new tenants has committed to the Davidson Commons (Harris Teeter) shopping center, at Jetton and Griffith streets. As previously reported, the Harris Teeter, Monkee’s and PostNet have all opened. Also coming are Ming’s Bistro, Great Clips haircutters, Just Fresh restaurant, Davidson Chocoloate, Signature Cleaners, and Lollipop Décor children’s clothing. Second floor tenants will include a dental office, nail salon and optometrist, according to Mr. Krider.

DAVIDSON FIRM UPGRADES ‘ACE & TJ’ WEBSITE

A Davidson-based internet start-up company called pxSpot Inc. has completed a website redesign for the syndicated “Ace & TJ” radio show, (acetj.com) including technology that lets users share their own photos on the site.

pxSpot said in an announcement this week the new site lets users get involved in many ways, communicating directly with the show’s hosts; watching or listening to live streaming audio, podcasts and videos; and incorporating pxSpot’s photo sharing technology.

Mark Becker, pxSpot’s president, said the changes have helped increase page views on the radio site.

“By using our pxSpot photo sharing tool, The Ace & TJ show has created a new level of user engagement and given them an extremely easy way to manage this information,” Mr. Becker said.

pxSpot is about one year old, Mr. Becker said. “It’s just now starting to take shape,” he said. The Ace & TJ project is the first big relationship we’ve had, and that’s leading to other projects.”

He said the company’s technology is a good fit with media companies and other companies that want to add interactive content to their sites. More information about pxSpot is available at www.pxspot.com.

DEVELOPER BUYS LAND FOR BIG CORNELIUS PROJECT

Cornelius Bromont LLC said Monday it has completed the purchase of 104 acres in Cornelius for its planned $516 million Village of Lake Norman mixed-use project. The price was not disclosed.

The massive project, which would include retail stores, offices, luxury condos and two hotels, won approval last month from the Cornelius Town Board.
http://davidsonnews.net/2008/04/23/cornelius-board-oks-village-project-3-2/

To win town approval of the project, the developers have promised about $80 million in road improvements, including the widening of I-77, a new Exit 27 at Westmoreland Road, widening of U.S. 21, a new flyover bridge taking the realigned Bailey Road across I-77. But whether the project ever gets built will depend on additional approvals for all the roadwork, from local, state and federal highway officials.

BUILD Fund of America its providing initial financing for the project, along with Fifth Third Bank

“We are very pleased to have passed this important milestone,” Josh Rector, project manager and senior vice president for Cornelius Bromont, said in a press release. “We are now proceeding to complete the engineering and architectural plans, and most importantly the necessary transportation improvement approvals. Members of our team are also talking with several potential tenants. We hope to begin physical construction by the end of 2009.”

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