[Duke Energy Plaza Headquarters | 40 Story formerly Charlotte Metro Tower]

11/27 AM from The Westin 23rd floor’s dirty windows.

[Summit Pointe (Under Construction)]

Any word of additional tenants here? It seems they’ve done really well leasing up the apartments but the retail and office leasing seem to be sluggish. It does appear site work has started on the next block. 

So far First Watch and Wasserhund Brewing have been announced as retail tenants.

The climate for new office and retail demand will take awhile to recover.

[Honeywell HQ to Charlotte]

Is it just me, or did they go with the angle from the original rendering?

[Grand Bohemian Hotel – 15 Floors – 254 Rooms – Boutique Hotel]

Look at this trash. Who made this?  Are we going to AC for the weekend? 

If somebody were to tell me, "make the trashiest entrance you can think of; I want it to look like if Reno and Ventnor had a baby" I wouldn't be able to come up with this.  

Woof.

It looks like a 23 year old who lives on 74 who's never been anywhere or seen anything was told "come up with something classy."  It looks like crap.

I’m going to concur. The building as a whole is great. However, this entrance is straight out of The Cheesecake Factory’s design playbook.

[SouthPark Mall]

Those Amazon bookstores are cool, as long as you have an Amazon account you don't even need to pay for anything in the store and they carry a pretty curated selection of stuff.

Not even just the bookstores. They have another concept retail store called 4-star. They’re rather aggressively expanding into numerous cities, including the aforementioned one in Crabtree.

There is one glaring exemption on the list. Not sure why Charlotte got the snub on the expansion list.

Perimeter in ATL and Crabtree in Raleigh are both listed as Coming Soon. Even Nashville has one of their bookstores.

https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_ABFYSA_2a1_w?node=17608448011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-1&pf_rd_r=BC9NRAG5276PY6GFNSAW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=447ff123-178a-4d1e-95aa-168a402a6f1a&pf_rd_i=17608448011

[Republican National Convention in Charlotte]

RNC in JAX is cancelled. 

Beat me to it. I may not live in CLT anymore, but this brings me great joy.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/23/trump-return-briefing-room-thursday-defend-his-administrations-response-coronavirus-pandemic-minutes/5492998002/

[Grand Bohemian Hotel – 15 Floors – 254 Rooms – Boutique Hotel]

Phew boy. This may have been posted here already; but that presidential suite rate... I’ll submit that’s a bit out of my price range.


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[First Ward Urban Village / North Tryon Vision Plan]

It’s time for some good old fashioned eminent domain’in

 

[Ally Charlotte Center (f/k/a Tryon Place) - 26 floors - 427']

Ugh I really loved how JWM was turning out until that glass went in. What is with the sick obsession with super-polished blue glass? I was hoping for a darker navy or something closer to what BOACC has. Would’ve looked much more regal.

[Summit Pointe (Under Construction)]

Glass almost topped out on the new office tower.

Is the land being cleared now on Terra Vista and Executive for the apartment/garage or the office tower from the master plan? Seems a little early to be building the third office tower. Unless the second has already been leased.

[Belk Place: Carolina Theater and Hotel Intercontinental]

That has to be about the cheapest Westin this time of year in the country. $128 tomorrow night. Occupancy has to be awful.

Probably. And it’s not even near the oceanfront where most tourists stay. I think the only reason it is able to stay open is because of government subsidies.

I stayed in it once while my company was trying to convince us to move up here. Stellar views for sure.

[Misc. Uptown Projects/News]

1WFC is still a very beautiful building on the outside,  but man a lot of the floors are dated.

You’re not wrong there. Maybe they’ve been updated since the mid/late-90’s; but I remember admiring the, even then, dated green marble floors and walls in some of the elevator lobbies during First Union’s Kids Day at Work every year.

Getting to go out onto the “jukebox” balcony was breathtaking for a preteen future Skyline-Enthusiast. I’d be surprised if WF did that sort of thing anymore.

[Belk Place: Carolina Theater and Hotel Intercontinental]

This will obviously be the tallest hotel in the Carolina's, but more impressively...probably the tallest hotel between ATL and Philly.

 

Sort of. LU1/BOAT’s hotel doppelgänger, Westin-Town Center in Virginia Beach, is the tallest building in Virginia at 508ft to the top of the spire, 413 to the roof. So it’s all in who you ask.

 

 

Difference being that the Intercontinental will be lost in CLT’s skyline while VB’s Westin sticks out like a sore thumb.

[Cap over Belk Freeway (277)]

3 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

We once were ruled by the Benito Mussolini of moderators 

My lone warning point on here came 14 years ago from that very same ray of sunshine.

 

While a linear park or waterway would be a wonderful pipe dream, Charlotte is far too car-centric to allow either half of 277 to be demolished. For the foreseeable future a short cap would be the most financially viable given we were able to sell some of the air rights to help pay for it and use a block or so for a small urban park. Reinforce the sections that air rights will be sold for obviously; but park sections wouldn’t need much more supporting structure than a standard bridge would.

[Vantage South End - 1100 S Tryon]

8, maybe 9, cranes in this one shot alone!

 

All these new offices are making all those post-blue-line 4/5-story stick apartments look dumb.

#CranePorn

 

[Belk Place: Carolina Theater and Hotel Intercontinental]

Gman’s 12/20 vs Today. Very slight changes. 
When I’ve been by they seem to be focusing primarily on the theater interior.

All I can see here is that you managed to kill off 7% of your battery in three minutes. I think it’s time for a charge!

[Norfolk International Airport]

Only some of the material is trucked away. Craney island will eventually be filled in. As of right now it is expected to be at capacity in 2028 at height of 47'.  It could be extended another 15 years to 2043 if they strengthen the Western dike, however that would mean that the height of the Craney Island would increase, which neighboring groups and municipalities have been historically opposed to. The current plan for dredged material after Craney Island reaches capacity is to dump it 17 miles offshore. However, it is likely they will find a new site. 

I believe that eventually something will become of this area, I don't see how they can they can justify raising the height to the point that it becomes useless space. This is absolutely the best location for a regional airport and I hope that it is at least considered. 

 

I can’t say I disagree. However, access to Craney Island from the entire metro would be prohibitively expensive unless the entire plan for the third crossing comes to fruition independent of the airport.

 

 

 

Also, protected wetland waterfowl and planes don’t mix well.

[Truist - New HQ (BB&T-SunTrust Merger)]

Found this gem at MIA

[Summit Pointe (Under Construction)]

Work has already begun on the next parking deck on the spot of the old Dollar Tree employee lot. Most of the old lot has been barricaded off and island/pavement demo has started.

 

 

[Carolina Panthers]

Luke Kuechly retires at age 28... I totally get it... but damn

[Legacy Union (former Charlotte Observer redevelopment)]

I like the flat top much better.  Far less contrived looking IMO.  Looking at the side-by-sides, they also eliminated a couple of the vertical brick elements on the north and south sides.  I get that it’s more windows for the inside likely, but it looks a bit squattier to me with fewer vertical elements.  Overall I think it’s an improvement. 

I don’t know what to make of the ground floor downgrade; the awning disappeared and it looks overall less engaging.

[UNC Charlotte Football]

Tough loss on Friday. But an appearance in a bowl game so early on in the program’s history is a milestone in itself.

[Duke Energy Plaza Headquarters | 40 Story formerly Charlotte Metro Tower]

Well, they’ll be walking through them when they arrive at CLT, as the new terminal project will be well underway by then. 

Those shipping containers have been in use at the airport for at least the last year.
To me, the difference in concrete pours directly overhead (CLT) and potential falling debris (Duke) aren’t exactly hand in hand; but hazardous nonetheless. And the containers aren’t blocking anything at the airport other than the current construction zone itself. I guess my biggest peeve is the blocking of half of Tryon with a closed off blank-walled tube for the next two years. At least paint a mural on them or something.
I’m obviously in the minority on this, so I’ll drop it for now. I’ll revisit this discussion during July/August when those BLACK shipping containers are baking in direct sunlight while the heat index is already at 110. Wait and see how many people elect to use them then.

[Duke Energy Plaza Headquarters | 40 Story formerly Charlotte Metro Tower]

The airport’s been using them for four years. They’re safer for pedestrians than scaffolding. 

 

True. Forgot about the ones at the airport. But I feel like those, being in what equates to a parking desk-esk surroundings, are a more appropriate setting than the city’s main street just before a major national event. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather cross the street twice than walk through those.

 

[Legacy Union (former Charlotte Observer redevelopment)]

 

Would they really block “the promenade” from Mint and the stadium? Seems like it would be a pointless promenade if they were to just block it off and hide it down an alley.