At 8 a.m. on most mornings now, there are croissants and baguettes at 111 Gilead Road. That address is the corner storefront of The Holbrook at Town Center, and until October 12 it had no bakery. Cocotte, an artisan French bakery and gourmet market that already runs a location in Cornelius, soft-opened that Monday. It sells handcrafted croissants, fresh breads, breakfast and lunch sandwiches and barista lattes. For now it is open Monday and Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed Tuesdays.
A bakery opening would normally make a short item in the local business column. Here it matters because of the timing. Downtown Huntersville spent several years building its public spaces and its housing while its ground-floor food and drink filled in slowly. That last piece is arriving now, a few weeks before the town holds its biggest downtown gatherings of the year at Veterans Park. This December will be the first in which the tree lighting and the holiday festival have open storefronts within a short walk of the crowds.
Eighteen Months To The First Croissant
The buildings came first. The Holbrook at Town Center, a $60 million joint project led by North State Development, held its grand opening on April 9, 2025. It came with about 10,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, 134 apartments, 41 rental townhomes and 11 rental single-family homes, as Lake Norman Publications reported at the time.
The residents moved in faster than the shops did. B & Co Hair Salon opened in The Holbrook about a year ago. The two long-awaited food-and-drink tenants, Cocotte and The Corkscrew, reached The Holbrook "more than 18 months after the development opened," according to Lake Norman Publications' October 23 report, though only Cocotte has opened its doors so far.
The public side of downtown was already there during that gap. The same outlet's July report on the old Town Hall lists what sits within one block of Old Statesville Road and Gilead Road:
- Discovery Place Kids
- The Holbrook at Town Center
- The Vine Greenway trailhead
- Holbrook Park
- The town's new 50,000-square-foot Town Hall
- A free public parking deck
- The planned LYNX Red Line light rail station
Before this fall, the one business on the strip built mainly around evenings was 760 Craft Works. The family-owned brewery opened in May 2023, WSOC reported, and its own site lists it at 100 Gilead Road. For more than two years it was the main place in the center of downtown to spend a Friday night after the parks emptied out.
What Is Open, And What Is Almost Open
This fall, the Gilead Road blocks fill in on both sides of the street. Here is the state of things as of late October 2026:
- Cocotte, 111 Gilead Road. Open since October 12 on soft-opening hours. Lake Norman Publications reports the menu may be limited in the first weeks.
- 760 Craft Works, across the street. A new craft cocktail program launches in late October. Next comes Night Swim, a 21-and-older evening with dim lighting, vinyl listening sessions, signature cocktails, tinned fish and caviar service, on Friday and Saturday nights from 8:30 to 11:30. General manager Layton Cross and co-owner and head of brand Alyssa Ramsey came up with the idea. During regular hours the taproom stays family-friendly, and it still serves house-brewed beer, wine, THC beverages and non-alcoholic options.
- The Corkscrew Wine Shoppe & Bar, The Holbrook. Finishing its build-out, with no opening date announced.
The Corkscrew is the clearest sign of how downtown has changed. It spent two decades in Birkdale Village and closed that location at the end of 2022. Its comeback is on Gilead Road. The new space will pour 30 to 40 wines by the glass, sell hundreds of bottles at retail, and offer craft beer, cocktails, an upscale bourbon list and small plates such as charcuterie boards and flatbreads. Between Cocotte's 3 p.m. close and Night Swim's 8:30 start, the wine bar would fill the early-evening hours that downtown has been missing.
Lake Norman Publications' photo caption also notes that Cocotte and The Corkscrew add patio dining to downtown. Downtown had parks and a greenway trailhead before, but it had few places to sit outside with a coffee or a glass of wine and watch the street.
December Puts It To The Test
The holiday calendar is where these openings start to matter. Huntersville holds its main December events downtown at Veterans Park, 201 Huntersville-Concord Road, a short walk from the Gilead Road blocks. Huntersville Today's holiday roundup, last checked October 11, takes its details from the town's Holidays in Huntersville page.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Dec. 4, 6 to 8 p.m. | Town Tree Lighting, tree lit at 6:30 p.m. | Veterans Park |
| Saturday, Dec. 5, 3 to 8 p.m. | Holidays in Huntersville | Veterans Park |
| Dec. 10 to 12, 5 to 8 p.m. | Santa's Village | American Legion Post 321 |
| Thursday, Dec. 31, 9 p.m. to midnight | A Huntersville New Year's | Holbrook Park and 760 Craft Works |
The tree lighting and the Saturday festival are both free. Holidays in Huntersville, presented by Novant Health, has free children's rides, artisan ice sculptures, holiday performances by local groups on stage, carolers, face painting, balloon twisters and roaming holiday characters. Santa's Village is held inside the American Legion Post 321 building. The town says reservations will open closer to the date, and walk-ups are also welcome.
People driving in should know about the street closures. According to the town's event page, Main Street from Huntersville-Concord Road to Bigham Street, and Maxwell Street from Huntersville-Concord Road to Huntersville ARP Church, close from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, December 4, and from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 5. Huntersville does not hold its own Christmas parade. The North Mecklenburg Holiday Parade steps off on Main Street in Davidson, about six miles north, at 1 p.m. that same Saturday. That means a family can watch the parade and still get back for the festival's 3 p.m. start.
New Year's Eve is planned for Holbrook Park and 760 Craft Works, so the town is hosting it in the walkable block that was built for this purpose. Since Night Swim's Friday and Saturday schedule doesn't include Thursday nights, the brewery's December 31 role is the town event, not its new weekend listening bar.
Event times sometimes shift. The town's Holidays in Huntersville page is the best place to confirm them in the week before each event.
The Next Layer Already Has Dates
The new storefronts are the start of what's planned, and the next phases already have contracts and votes behind them.
The old Town Hall. The roughly 8,500-square-foot building at Old Statesville Road and Gilead Road is going to Town Hall Partners LLC, a partnership of Shane Seagle, who is also with North State Development, and Rachel Krenz of The Lagniappe Group. The Town Board unanimously approved a $1.44 million sale agreement on April 21, 2026. Its terms require food and beverage to take up at least half the building, including a sit-down restaurant of at least 1,800 square feet, Lake Norman Publications reported. In July, the partners were aiming to open in 2027. The October 23 update said construction is scheduled to start in 2027. In Lake Norman Publications' July report, Krenz said the partners want operators "who collectively create energy, variety and a reason for people to return again and again." Seagle said that "as someone who grew up in Huntersville, it's been rewarding to help shape the downtown's next chapter."
Dumpling Girls and Pint and Page. The popular food truck Dumpling Girls plans a restaurant next to The Holbrook. Next door to that, Pint and Page plans a combined bookstore and biergarten-café. No timelines have been made public for either one.
A parking deck over the Town Hall lot. At its October 6 meeting, the Town Board approved a $907,200 preliminary design contract with Shelco LLC. It also set aside $1 million from the General Fund for design and site preparation, according to Lake Norman Publications. The town's June 2026 design-build solicitation called for a multi-level, double-ramp deck, estimated the project at about $13 million and targeted completion in June 2028. Those figures are from June, and the October action did not restate them. The newspaper reports that the deck is expected to spur more downtown investment.
The parks, the new Town Hall and the apartments came first, and the bakery and the bar followed this fall. The restaurant in the old Town Hall and the parking deck are now in design. A town tree lighting on December 4 with Cocotte, 760 Craft Works and, if its timing holds, The Corkscrew around the corner is the first time downtown Huntersville has had all three layers in place for a holiday season.
If you are tracking which Gilead Road storefronts open next, Bryn Rose would be glad to talk through what is coming to Huntersville's town center next. Let's Connect.
