A new housing development coming to Cramerton, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, will help its host community build a recreational trail linking several parts of the town along the South Fork River.
Mattamy Homes said in a statement this month that it plans to build 61 brick ranch single-family houses at Riverloom on the Southfork, a 29-acre development just south of Cramerton. The town, with roughly 5,200 people, is 15 miles west of central Charlotte. The Toronto-based developer agreed to donate a 7.1-acre parcel that the town will include in a future public park with river access and a trail link to the center of town, 7 miles away.
Lennar, another developer that recently built Redhawk, a neighborhood with room for more than 1,000 houses directly to the south of Mattamy’s project, gave the town its own contribution of 5 acres for the same purpose, Cramerton town manager Josh Watkins told Homes.com. He said these donations are helping enhance the town's identity as a good place to live and have access to the outdoors.
“Before, it was like, how are we going to get all these people connected to town and to trails?” Watkins said. “A lot of people are coming to this area because of our focus on outdoor recreation.”
The town began working on various recreational trail segments tied to the regional Carolina Thread Trail in 2009, including trails on land and so-called “blueways” on the river, Watkins said.
In Mooresville, 28 miles north of Charlotte, Mattamy has plans for Lanterna, a 187-house neighborhood on 65 acres. The project near Shearers and Clodfelter roads will include five pocket parks, a mile of paved walking trails and a dedicated dog park, located approximately 2 miles from the nearby town center.
"Lanterna represents Mattamy's confidence in the long-term growth of the Mooresville–Lake Norman market and our commitment to delivering thoughtfully planned communities," Mike Smedley, Mattamy’s director of marketing in Charlotte, said in a statement.
Both Cramerton and Mooresville are desirable areas to live in with a tight housing supply, the statement said. Cramerton’s median single-family house sales price over the past 12 months was about $429,000, according to Homes.com data; in Mooresville, it was $539,000.
Mattamy said site work for both residential projects will begin in early 2026.