Argos Real Estate Advisors announces its purchase of the former Savona Mill just west of uptown Charlotte.  The 200,000 sf vacant property was built in 1925, and expanded in 1948, by the Savona Manufacturing Co., a Charlotte textile producer.  The real estate development company is working with Charlotte Trolley, a private non-profit, to develop a vintage trolley restoration and museum facility at the site, making way for the return of vintage trolley service on a 1.5 mile stretch of the former Piedmont & Northern Railway, now owned by NCDOT.  The tracks, which are still intact, once carried streetcars from uptown to Lakewood Park in the early 1900’s.  The proposed trolley line would be a tourist excursion designed to run from Cedar St. uptown to the mill and possibly beyond.  Greg Pappanastos, principal at Argos, is immediate past-president of the non-profit Charlotte Trolley.  He led the organization for two years (2009-2011), and was instrumental in helping shape the vision for the group to get back on tracks.  In November 2011, Charlotte Trolley hosted its “2012 Vision Launch” to announce its pursuit of operating rights from NCDOT on the former streetcar line.  “We’re excited as a company to help one of Charlotte’s true treasures come back to life.  There’s no debating the positive impact Charlotte Trolley has had in our community and along the South Corridor before light rail.”


gpappanastos@argosadvisors.com