Metropolitan, Midtown Redevelopment

[f0xym0p]

Has anyone seen what appears to be the sales center for Metropolitan? I think it looks really awesome--a square, blue building with silver fins. The inside appears to have mock ups of the condos. It looks like it may be ready to open soon.

[dubone]

Yeah, that has to be the coolest trailer .

[reverbandwhiskey]

I am so excited to see more retail that i can easily use my bicycle to reach.

[RiverwoodCLT]

05/16/2006

Looks like they are going to put up a big white tent, maybe ground breaking coming up.

Edited May 16, 2006 by RiverwoodCLT

[A2]

Has anyone seen what appears to be the sales center for Metropolitan? I think it looks really awesome--a square, blue building with silver fins. The inside appears to have mock ups of the condos. It looks like it may be ready to open soon.

And the fins light up at night. I drove by the other night and it was kind of wild since everything on the site is pitch black except the Sales Center (kinda spooky now that I think about it, like the one light on at the Blake Hotel )

A2

Edited May 17, 2006 by A2

[UrbanCharlotte]

They had something going on over there today. It was PACKED. They had the white tents up, and the sales center is a building in itself. I was going to go check it out, but didn't bother as it looked way too crowded for another person. At least people are interested.

[A2]

They had something going on over there today. It was PACKED. They had the white tents up, and the sales center is a building in itself. I was going to go check it out, but didn't bother as it looked way too crowded for another person. At least people are interested.

Half of the Charlotte UPers were there. It was the groundbreaking for the project. That is why we might be a bit dead tonight.

A2

[UrbanCharlotte]

So they're starting construction already? Hmm, pretty fast. That sales center is incredible.

[A2]

So they're starting construction already? Hmm, pretty fast. That sales center is incredible.

Yep. I assume that will give us an update on the project real soon. I spoke with some of them and they said the ceremoy was a blast with tons of free booze and food.

A2

[Mobuchu]

lol, yeah, it was pretty cool. It was suppose to be an invite only party, but they opened it to the public, although never made an announcement that I know of. Alot of political figures were socializing through the crowd. Probably over 350 people showed up. (out of 400 invites, not bad) No real new info, but they had a great model of the entire complex in the sales center. The rest was out in the tent where they had free booze and food. Mr. Pappas, the Mayor and Parks Helms all gave a little speech but my camera was not too good with the light inside the tent so they did not come out.

Anyway, here are some pics of the model, a pic of the very cool ice sculpture, and a skyline view from the top of the big dirt mound on site.

Mr. Pappas explaining what a genious he is....

notice all the open park space they added.

The buildings along the greenway are not finished on the model yet because they haven't finalized the details on how it will look. But it is part of the first phase. The condo tower (which doesn't have any details yet either) is the second phase.

Edited May 18, 2006 by Mobuchu

[turbocraig]

Thanks for the pics Mobuchu. Those condos are going to have a kick-arse view. Oh, and love the "man on the street" perspective in that one pic. Almost like being there...

[Neo]

I know that many are against such a "big box" development being in close proximity to downtown but in all reality, there is a lot of space with fairly low density around the downtown core. This was a non-existant or bland development for a very long time and is the best development this site has ever seen.

Just look at the model of the greenway going by the development. This is something Charlotte desperately needs. Many people, including me, love to be connected with water in an urban setting. That is the biggest thing I miss the most by moving from Chicago to Charlotte and I'll be extremely glad to get even a small connection to it back, even if it is a creek.

This development is much better than probably any other alternative that could be proposed at this point in time. In 50 years could Charlotte support higher density on this plot of land? Probably, but that is 50 years from now and I'd rather have a couple of big box stores generating traffic to downtown and tax revenue for the city than leave the site empty and become a burden.

If you were to put several smaller stores in the same space would anyone still consider it bad development? Just because it is one big store doesn't matter much. This development is a smart one in my opinion and I for one will welcome it with open arms.

[Seabreeze]

Thanks for the pics Mobuchu. Those condos are going to have a kick-arse view. Oh, and love the "man on the street" perspective in that one pic. Almost like being there...

Is this complex being built all at once or are the buildings that were all white in the model being built as a second phase?

[rockhilljames]

Fantastic!

[Mobuchu]

Is this complex being built all at once or are the buildings that were all white in the model being built as a second phase?

The buildings along the greenway are not finished on the model yet because they haven't finalized the details on how it will look. But it is part of the first phase. The condo tower (which doesn't have any details yet either) is the second phase.

[ElricSeven]

I know that many are against such a "big box" development being in close proximity to downtown but in all reality, there is a lot of space with fairly low density around the downtown core. This was a non-existant or bland development for a very long time and is the best development this site has ever seen.

Just look at the model of the greenway going by the development. This is something Charlotte desperately needs. Many people, including me, love to be connected with water in an urban setting. That is the biggest thing I miss the most by moving from Chicago to Charlotte and I'll be extremely glad to get even a small connection to it back, even if it is a creek.

This development is much better than probably any other alternative that could be proposed at this point in time. In 50 years could Charlotte support higher density on this plot of land? Probably, but that is 50 years from now and I'd rather have a couple of big box stores generating traffic to downtown and tax revenue for the city than leave the site empty and become a burden.

If you were to put several smaller stores in the same space would anyone still consider it bad development? Just because it is one big store doesn't matter much. This development is a smart one in my opinion and I for one will welcome it with open arms.

Looks better all the time. I've an appointment to talk with a sales person. Hopefully they'll recognize that the location is not as good as within the belt loop and that there is some risk in buying into the project at this point and discount accordingly. I'm not interested if it's going to be $300 per square foot, unless it has really nice fixtures, finishes and amenities. By really nice, I'm talking Vue nice.

[cinco]

excellent photos, mobuchu. (love the caption on pappas ) this is going to be a hugely successful project. i can't wait to see the creek uncapped.

[turbocraig]

Looks better all the time. I've an appointment to talk with a sales person. Hopefully they'll recognize that the location is not as good as within the belt loop and that there is some risk in buying into the project at this point and discount accordingly. I'm not interested if it's going to be $300 per square foot, unless it has really nice fixtures, finishes and amenities. By really nice, I'm talking Vue nice.

Just out of curiosity, E7, why do you think this location is inferior? I love the fact that you have a phenomenal city view (possibly better than one you may not get inside the loop even), have retail and dining options at your doorstep (downtown can't really even claim to have the former), and have a beautifully landscaped greenway at your disposal. I think this may be a better location than downtown, IMO.

[ElricSeven]

Just out of curiosity, E7, why do you think this location is inferior? I love the fact that you have a phenomenal city view (possibly better than one you may not get inside the loop even), have retail and dining options at your doorstep (downtown can't really even claim to have the former), and have a beautifully landscaped greenway at your disposal. I think this may be a better location than downtown, IMO.

I wouldn't say "inferior" just less preferred than an Uptown location where you can walk to work and not have to pay $195 per month to park. I've learned from renting units that I own and talking to other Uptown residents that being within a 10 minute door-to-door walk is incredibly important to people. So, I'm hoping that the Metropolitan recognizes that they can't command the top premium of about $350 to $400 per square foot that the Uptown locations do. That being said, yes the project has a lot of things going for it. I just think they'd be doing themselves a big favor momentum-wise to be a little modest on the price. Make it a win-win for them and the purchasers. The tendency lately at FAP and Vue has been to squeeze every last dime the market will offer and ten percent more.

[turbocraig]

Ah, I see. As someone who reverse-commutes daily from 4W to Ballantyne, I didn't consider the walkability factor. I'd be someone more interested in amenities than walk times.

[RiverwoodCLT]

Everything can't be built uptown. This looks like a quality development.

This will help extend the uptown outward from I277.

With Elizebeth, CPCC, South End, Dillworth and Midtown, this would equal a mid size town in NC in development. This will only enhance uptown, when it is enter from these areas.

[ElricSeven]

http://www.metmidtown.com/home.htm

[turbocraig]

All those people look so happy. That's nice. I really like the Euro-mod interiors in the MetLofts and MetTerraces slideshows. Very cool.

[Rickydavisfan21]

So has anyone gotten a look at the brochure's yet, I have a pretty funny find that I wished to share. The find I have made is very unprofessional of a graphic artist. If you go to metterraces PDF brochure you can see a group of people toasting glasses, but somethings wrong with the image, there is a huge corbis watermark on the picture, I actually found the picture on corbis. For those who don't know corbis is a huge stock photo database,with hundreds of thousands of stock photos

http://pro.corbis.com/search/searchFrame.aspx

search for toast

go to page 10 of 40

it is picture AAHA001310

I priced the image around $150-300, not that expensive for an advertising budget, especially if you compare this to the vue who's budget is obviously incredible.

Does bad design and bad buiness practices by a designer make anyone else feel less about a project?

hopefully other people find this funny because I did, there are also great pix of charlotte on this site, this picture came from corbis, enjoy

Edited May 25, 2006 by Rickydavisfan21

[Neo]

Just wondering if anyone knows how the greenway through this section will be adapted to bike riders and pedestrians? Will there be dedicated bike paths (two lane paved) with a separate walkway or will it simply be the single lane unmarked paths like on the other sections throughout Charlotte?

I'm hoping that Charlotte will start incorporating some dedicated bike paths into the greenway system.