uptownliving

CLT is now taking bids for Concourse A Phase 3...this will be a 7 gate add on to Concourse A Phase 2 which will open up in about 6 months. Any speculation on who will go in here?

The contract with the architecture firm to design this was approved about 6 months ago. It takes about a year or so to design a project this size. Expect more to be revealed by next summer.

New 40,000 sq ft Admirals club coming which will be nearly double the size of the current club just off the Atrium. City Council just approved the architectural contract with C Design today. So if everything goes well could have the new club opening in 2025. The new club will be built on an upper level. New concessions on the ticketing/boarding level

Delta Sky Club in A North Phase 2? I can confirm that in the building permits for A North Phase 2 which they recently started construction on specifically mentions "airline club" on the Mezzanine level, this is the level above the boarding gates. We all know its primarily going to be Delta over there, so it only makes sense that we will be finally getting a Delta Sky Club in about 2 years. woohoooo!

This presentation from the city will give you way more info than you would ever find in a Charlotte Observer article. They have approved the City Manager to negotiate a MOU with the Hornets and CATS to nail down the funding and who pays for what etc. http://charlottenc.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=8c10f816-3c87-4d9d-8b45-758538469bf4.pdf

City gets a postage stamp lot at the corner of College and MLK...thinking this will be a little park or something. And then Millienium will face the retail of their development to face the Convention Center. This would replace the existing fountain you can see from College St when standing at the main entrance to the convention center. Also Millieium gets 2.2 acres at Brooklyn Village Dr and Caldwell. City retains an acre of land adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn for a future hotel. Pro is this will liven up that plaza with retail and more humans, plus it adds a nice addition to the existing rail trail. I think its a good deal. Hopefullly it works out.

Anyone have more info on the land exchange with Millennium Venture Capital and related plaza enhancements? Im guessing this has to do with where the fountains are.

For decades the management of CLT has been notorious for doing things as cheaply as possible. Your idea is obviously superior from a logistics standpoint but I'm sure when they were presented with the cost of doing that that is when they decided to just do a big PR campaign. Just for reference to achieve your 50% reduction it would have to be roughly 25,000+ people per day using those buses to get from a drop off point to the terminal building. It would be roughly speaking 80 bus trips per hour to move that many people. So a fleet of 20 buses running on 15 minute intervals. The existing parking shuttles can't be used as they are already full. Additional buses would be needed for 2 weeks.

Would be nice to get an updated rendering with this same angle for Phase 1. The apartments have definately gotten way taller since this rendering was created.

Correct. this rendering is of Phase 2 which is not going to even start construction til 2027. All of us here know and have experienced how much plans and renderings can change in 5 years. Phase1 rendering shown earlier of the apartment towers is the only part of this project that is close to breaking ground....and even that is almost a year out according to the timeline presented last night. When they say "start construction" what they mean is tearing down the existing office bulding. Of course if the economy tanks then much or all of this will be delayed even more.

So basically the only thing that is pretty close to happening with this project is another block of apartment towers on Brooklyn Village Dr. Hopefully the nearby medical district will help carry this development forward. I did watch the Mecklenburg County Commission meeting and only 1 commissioner is currently in favor of this project, but the cost to cancel the project at this point is too much.

Which one is under construction?

My comments were in reference to the 12 story tower Levine Properties in proposing at the corner of Commonwealth and Plaza. I don't know what other property Levine owns in Plaza Midwood, but anyone can do a property lookup on the Meck Co website and find out.

I hope the leadership in Plaza Midwood is reading this forum. What has happened in First Ward could just as easily happen in Plaza Midwood and Plaza Midwood could also end up with an empty parking deck that increases crime and decreases property values. Mr Levine is extremely friendly in person but in First Ward Levine Properties has consistently over promised and under delivered....this has literally been going on for decades. The residents of First Ward lost trust in Daniel Levine a long time ago. I have been happy with the property he has sold off to other developers who have shown they are competent and can build something that gets a Certificate of Occupancy from Mecklenburg County. Again I hope the leadership in Plaza Midwood studies very carefully what happened in First Ward and presses Levine Properties extremely hard on how they will prevent a new parking deck carcass from happening in Plaza Midwood. The last time this region had a building of this size built and never get a certificate of occupancy was the Heritage USA tower in Ft Mill which is still standing today and is an eyesore that can been seen for miles. I don't want the same fate for this parking deck. It needs to be developed ASAP.

There have been renderings on the construction fencing for many months now, maybe even a year. Nothing impressive, appears to be standard efis and glass. It was so unimpressive I never took pics of the rendering even though I've passed it multiple times.

City Council approved the $172M Construction contract for the A North Expansion last night. This will basically be a copy/paste of the existing A North and will take about 2 years to build to add these 10 new gates. The plan is for Delta to move from their gates in "old" A to these newly constructed gates in 2 years. American will take over the current Delta gates in old A after Delta moves. City Council also approved a $10M contract for the Dual Taxi Lanes around Concourse D&E. This project will greatly reduce the existing congestion from all the planes that use Concourse E and have to use what amounts to a single lane country road to squeeze by all the big jets in Concourse D. Project will be complete in 2 years.

I think it is also important to add more perspective to the press release. The last time the airport had passenger numbers that low was 2013, nearly a decade ago. Compared to other airports Charlotte's numbers are very strong but its also important to remember that nearly a decades worth of growth at CLT has been wiped out by the pandemic. For those wondering when Concourse B and C will be expanded look at the construction schedule for Concourse A: Construction is due to start later this year....add 2 years for construction and that puts us in 2024. When the new phase of Concourse A is open, Delta will move to those gates and American will take over the old Delta gates. That allows half of Concourse B to be closed so that it can be expanded in 2025ish. There are going to be more big changes with commercial aviation and I think CLT is positioned well to take advantage and thrive in the new environment.

https://www.ls3p.com/portfolio/charlotte-douglas-international-airport-concourse-e-expansion/

Has anyone else noticed the strong wind tunnel effect on this block of Tryon between Hill St and Stonewall? As a pedestrian and cyclist it is very noticeable. None of the restaurants along this block will be able to have outdoor seating on Tryon. The wind tunnel effect is much stronger on this block than any other block in the Uptown area. I know there was a rezoning for the Deloitte building to bring it closer to the street than was normally allowed and thinking this has amplified the wind tunnel effect on this block. Until this wind tunnel effect is solved I expect the pedestrian experience to be very limited on this block.

Giving it some context from Park Ave

Everything I keep reading says "Canopy foundations"....of course I don't know exactly what that means. https://www.charlottegatewaydistrict.com/project-vision/phase-1-construction/

I don't have any inside information...but remember back in December the person in the Lynx operations that had a holiday party that a good number of employees attended and there was a mini covid outbreak which forced CATS to move to Sunday schedule due to lack of personnel. My guess is that there was some disciplinary actions taken after that ...and that has really put a crimp on availability of drivers not just for the Blue line but the Gold line as well. So that is my guess as to why there are still delays...there are not enough drivers even with the Blue line still on a Sunday schedule....I wonder if a number of operators were fired/suspended after that holiday party.

Agreed...that would be a good question to ask the NCDOT...they have been dealing with homeless camping sites on their property for probably a century if not longer. So far NCDOT has not requested to have the homeless removed from their property so that ties the city's hands to only use voluntary means to get them to a better place. As soon as NCDOT requests it the city can use mandatory means to remove them from the property.

There is enough beds in the shelters and hotels converted to shelters to house all the people remaining at the tent city. The problem is that the people don't want to go there. They feel safer outside in a tent than inside at a shelter or hotel room.