The line started at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, which was 16 hours before the doors opened. WSOC reported a "here we go Wegmans" chant in the parking lot. Queen City News found people tailgating into Wednesday morning, including some Buffalo Bills fans. When Charlotte's first Wegmans opened at 9 a.m. on October 14, WBTV described overnight campers, hundreds of shoppers coming through the doors and a crowded store.
The store sits at 11550 North Community House Road, a short walk from The Bowl at Ballantyne and TD Amp Ballantyne. Until now, people came to that part of Ballantyne for a concert, a dinner reservation or a gelato after the lawn show. Now it's also a place for a regular weeknight grocery run. And from November 21, an outdoor ice rink keeps TD Amp busy on weeknights through the cold months. A campus built around evening events now has errands in its regular weekly schedule.
Wegmans and The Backyard sit on the same road
The addresses explain it. Wegmans is at 11550 North Community House Road. Ballantyne's Backyard, the green space, is at 11611 North Community House Road. TD Amp Ballantyne is at 11115 Upper Avenue. In its opening-day story, WSOC put the store "just steps from the Ballantyne Bowl."
Parking makes that closeness useful. Wegmans has 664 parking spaces, and WSOC describes the store as more than double the size of a typical grocery store at 110,000 square feet. One parked car can now cover the grocery run, dinner at The Bowl and a walk across the Backyard.
People coming on foot or by bike already have a route in. The Ballantyne greenway connection opened October 24, 2023. It runs from the Lower McAlpine Greenway along Ballantyne Corporate Place to The Amp and Stream Park at 14105 Stream Way. That connection has been there for three years. Until this month, though, there was no grocery store at the end of it.
What's inside overlaps with dinner out
The store's layout leans toward eating there or taking a meal home. According to WBTV's preview, the prepared foods section covers pizza, seafood, meat, deli, sushi, cheese and coffee. There's also an outdoor area with a children's turf play space and seating. WSOC described a large cafe with seating for hundreds. The Charlotte Observer noted a cheese counter with varieties aged in Wegmans' Cheese Caves, along with specialty bakery items, sandwiches, sushi and pizza.
So the store does some of what The Bowl's restaurants do. A family can pick up sushi and pizza, eat at the cafe and let the kids use the turf area without booking a table. The Bowl's sit-down restaurants are still there for a night out. On a regular weeknight, the grocery store can take over part of that role.
Wegmans planned for crowds to keep coming after opening day. Before the opening, the Charlotte Observer reported that the company had worked with CMPD and city transportation officials. It planned a police presence through opening week and allowed tailgating before the opening, with extra staff and portable restrooms. For a sense of scale, WSOC reported that an estimated 30,000 people visited the Raleigh Wegmans on its opening day in 2019. The Ballantyne store manager told the station he wouldn't be surprised if Charlotte saw similar numbers.
What's open at The Bowl, and what still says "Coming Soon"
The other half of the walk is already in place. As of mid-October 2026, The Bowl's official directory lists 20 tenants without an "opening soon" label:
- Arrow
- Bossy Beulah's
- Brasserie Copain
- Drybar
- Dunbar Social
- Flower Child
- Fly Kid Fly
- Gallery Restaurant
- Harriet's Hamburgers
- Honeysuckle Gelato
- LaserAway
- North Italia
- Olde Mecklenburg Brewery
- PopUp Bagels
- Postino WineCafe
- Rooster's Wood-fired Kitchen
- Solidcore
- South Block
- The Salty Donut
- The Spa at Ballantyne
Two announced restaurants haven't opened yet. Culinary Dropout was announced February 28, 2026, as the comfort-food spot's second Charlotte location, with a target of "this fall." Its page on The Bowl's site still says "Coming Soon," including where the hours would go. Mister O1, the pizzeria Northwood described as Michelin-recommended, was announced February 9, 2026, to open "later this year." Its page also still reads "Coming Soon." Neither one had a public opening date as of mid-October.
How an office campus got a grocery store
For most of its history, Ballantyne meant office buildings. In 2026 the campus is marking 30 years, and Northwood offered $30 lawn tickets at TD Amp as part of that anniversary. According to WSOC, the city approved the Ballantyne Reimagined public-private partnership in May 2020. About $111 million has been invested in the area since then, alongside corporate jobs from Citi, TD Bank, Daimler Truck Financial Services and SoFi Technologies.
Several of this year's milestones came out of that office base. In March 2026, Northwood announced that Citi had opened a new Ballantyne office. In April, an office tenant bought naming rights to the amphitheater, which became TD Amp Ballantyne. Also in April, a community garden opened on campus, named in memory of the late Northwood senior property manager Matt Oliver. City Councilman Ed Driggs told WSOC that this year's growth goes back decades: "A couple of $100 million back in the 80s and 90s, and that was just to have a foundation, water supply, all those things, so that then people could build, and that's what has happened."
The Ballantyne store is the fifth Wegmans in North Carolina. WSOC reported that the company is looking at property in Cornelius for a possible sixth location. For now, south Charlotte has the only one in the Charlotte area. Readers in the north end of the county can find their own weekend spots in our North Mecklenburg summer guide.
The calendar from here through January
The weekend after this post publishes starts the run of events that leads into the rink season. The official Ballantyne events calendar and Northwood's rink announcement set these dates:
| Date | What's happening | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, October 24 | Whiskey, Wine & Fire Festival | 4–9 p.m. |
| Saturday, October 31 | Taco Dash 5K | 9–11 a.m. |
| Saturday, November 21 | Ice Skating at The Bowl opens at TD Amp | 11 a.m.–10 p.m. |
| Wednesday, November 25 – Friday, November 27 | Rink Thanksgiving break hours | Noon–10 p.m. |
| Sunday, December 20 – Saturday, January 2 | Rink winter break hours | Noon–10 p.m.; Saturdays 11 a.m.–10 p.m. |
| Sunday, January 10 | Last day of the rink season | Noon–9 p.m. |
The rink keeps weeknights busy into winter
Northwood calls it The Bowl's first outdoor ice skating rink. It runs at TD Amp Ballantyne from November 21 through January 10. Regular weekday hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. on Fridays. Saturdays run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sundays run noon to 9 p.m. Those weekday hours fit an after-work trip, and the grocery store is a short walk from the rink.
Pricing, per the official announcement:
- General admission is $20, with skate rental included
- Children 5 and under pay $15
- Skaters who bring their own skates pay $18
The rink will also be a donation site for Ballantyne Families Helping Neighbors in Need. Northwood says more details on how to help with food assistance for local families are coming. That puts a food drive in the same few blocks as the new grocery store, which makes it easy to drop off donations while you're doing your own shopping.
When the rink opens on November 21, a winter weeknight at TD Amp could include skating, a stop at Honeysuckle Gelato or Harriet's Hamburgers, and the grocery run on North Community House Road before heading home.
If you own a home near Ballantyne and want to know how this fall's changes on North Community House Road fit into your home's value, John R. Bolin can walk you through what nearby buyers are paying right now. Start with your Instant Home Valuation, and we'll go over the numbers together. You can also browse more local guides on our Mecklenburg County page.
