pazzo83

I wouldn't think so, because the parking garage is going to be above ground. If we can even see like 70-80% of the speed we are seeing with Novare's project (Catalyst, etc), we should see some upward motion soon.

The second crane looks to be complete as of tonight (I was out in the French Quarter area). The top horizontal part is positioned over Church St righ now, but it looks completed. Pretty amazing seeing as how around 130pm this afternoon the base was only about 60-70% completed.

That is not true at all. In the winter months when dark comes much earlier, there is traffic well past sunset. Charlotte is the only major city that I have EVER been to, period, that has this type of problem in its CENTER. Arguments regarding light pollution are ridiculous. It is the center of a metropolitan area with 2 million people. If you want to see the stars at night, don't live in the middle of the city. It is absolutely reprehensible that the freeways near and in uptown are lacking lights. Trying to get from 77 to 277 at night is pretty dangerous. Not to mention you can't see ANY of the overhead signs because they aren't lit up either. PlazaMidwood, I put my high beams on on that ramp from 77 S to 277/Brookshire too. You can barely see the road otherwise, and it is a very sharp turn. You shouldn't have to use your high beams in the downtown of any major city, period.

The rate at which this project has moved along is just absolutely unreal. We went from basically nothing to starting to go vertical in what, like 2 months or so? Unbelievable.

I actually was in the sales center today and this is what I was told: Groundbreaking should be within the next two weeks. The sales guy fed me some line about the supply of those tower cranes and other materials being limited, so I don't know how to take that. Studios are starting in the low $300s (and I'm assuming this is at the bottom floor), which is RIDICULOUS. I completely agree, there is NO way in this market they sell all those remaining units at these prices. You can get studio apartments in Downtown DC for less than $200K. Although the guy said there were still some 3 bedrooms available for like $660K or something, which I guess is slightly more reasonable (although not much). I really hope they get some sense and set the prices at a level more in tune with the market. The building would really be a nice addition to 4th Ward, so we'll see.

They just tore one down literally right in front of the balcony of my condo on the corner of 11th and Church. It was a pretty decent sized tree, too.

Saw some workers on the site today, it looked like they were drilling into the ground to me. Perhaps this is the start of some groundwork there.

OK, last post I'll make about this so as to not throw the thread off topic, but if its not busy enough to warrant 4 lanes of traffic during non-rush hour travel (I disagree with this, 77 north of uptown during the day time, non-rush hour, is pretty busy), how is it busy enough to warrant that one lane be closed to non-HOV traffic?

During the middle of the day its a lot busier, but not busy enough to merit completely sealing off that lane to HOVs. I've honestly never seen a 24hr HOV lane before.

OK this is something that really ticks me off about NCDOT, who on EARTH makes the HOV restriction 24 hours? I've driven in HOV lanes in dozens of cities, and not ONCE have I seen a 24 hour restriction. The very idea of it is maddening. WHY did they make it restricted permanently?

I seriously doubt Trump would want to be overshadowed by the BOA building. After all, this is the same guy whom the City of Chicago had to tell to tone down the building height for his new project there.

Yea, but I think the Charlotte market really never got inflated like other markets did, and that is what is helping it stay strong (and grow!). I mean, look at how house prices just SKYROCKETED in areas like DC and the northeast, among other areas. Houses that were $150,000 in say 1995 were selling for close to $750,000 last year! And this was normal! Things were getting completely out of control, and the market is correcting itself in those areas. I really don't think the market in Charlotte even needed correrction, housing here is still dirt cheap when compared to other areas. I mean finding a 1-2 bedroom condo for $250,000 in a city center the size of Charlotte's is almost unheard of in many other parts of the country.

I believe that is the tower portion.

That's funny, I noticed that today too when I was running down Elizabeth...

Piles of rubble on the property are FINALLY gone (there is some cleanup left, but the giant piles are gone) as of yesterday (6/11). Can I get an "it's about **** time"?