Rufus

Am I lost, or was BALLY announced as a new tenant? They are no longer on the website as "Coming Soon." Wonder what's up with that. That being said, BALENCIAGA does show up...exciting.

Can we move this conversation to the Off-Topic thread? It's become ad nauseam for some posters to commandeer various threads talking about homeless, but now to use the tasteless shooting vernacular in a downtown music festival? It seriously is in poor taste, and not relevant to this thread no matter how you try and spin it. Stop it. Just stop it. It's ruining this site to go to every development post and find the same posters talking about the same issues. Some of us come to these threads to discuss merits of the individual project, not to use it as our void to shout our gripes about the city and its "safety" and yes that is in quotes bc you clearly choose to pick and see what you want instead of understanding real crime statistics and context. Like for frick's sake...there is a thread about this in the Coffehouse. Go there. Stop. It's ruining this site.

This should be shown to all developers. It's a drop in the bucket to make some of these changes (probably the street and facade are the most difficult). Also...why the hell is this street four lanes?

I remember touring colleges and having a hard time accepting that I would need to go to Charlotte (as a twin, my parents were paying for two college students at the same time -- that meant public school). But I loved my time at Charlotte, and my love for the university has only grown since leaving. The research and academics at the school are so underrated. People would be surprised at how comparable it is to the major NC universities. These schools have easily 50-150+ years ahead of Charlotte, and yet here is Charlotte finally getting its due. One more anecdote: I came to NYC for grad school and most of my colleagues went to Harvard, Penn, Columbia, NYU, Boston U., and other impressive schools of note -- and they all knew of Charlotte. Even more impressive were the international students that knew of the university. It always boggled my mind that in NC, Charlotte was an afterthought. Happy to see it get what's coming to the school.

This continues to be good news for Eastern NC counties that have been suffering. Honestly, the I-587 Corridor has the potential to be a major player in connecting biopharma with high quality primary care education at ECU and major interstate connections with 95 and 40 which connect to ports and major metros. This is good news as the region continues to shift.

Off topic, but I have always loved the Carlton and also 800 Cherokee just down the road. I was fascinated with these "towers" that were built this far from Uptown when I moved to the city in 2006. And then I remember when Rosewood was built and was fascinated by that development too.

I'd push back on that only from my own visual geometry showing that the JW Marriott and Westin could fit on this lot, but I do acknowledge my overzealousness with this idea! Happy for others to take the dream and run with it

Hear me out with this one: Instead of one 1000-room hotel, why not a 700-room Hyatt or Grand Hyatt that can serve the convention center needs for large-scale bookings, and then have a smaller 300-room extended-stay Hyatt Studios (new mid-tier brand debuting this year) on the same lot. They can share the same base, which can be additional conference space, but then its two towers, one taller for the main hotel and one smaller for the extended-stay. I've never been a big proponent of the singular 1000 room hotel because it just doesn't seem to make economic sense if its only for convention needs. This capitalizes on a couple of things: 1. the lack of full-service Hyatt properties in the city, 2. the value of extended-stay hotels for business travelers and families, and 3. maximizing the space so that it does offer a breadth of uses that can ensure viability throughout the year. Just a thought.

Here's the thing though: the CIAA held its tournament at Spectrum Center (then known as Bobcats Arena), and the Women's tournament was at Bojangles, which is hardly that far from Uptown. The Dickies Arena (not making the joke, but damn) in Fort Worth is in the area of the stockyards, with the only relevant draws being three art museums, and the Will Rogers Center. It's nowhere near downtown or any other activity center. And I can say that the CUSA Men's Tournament was held in an even worse location, Frisco, Texas, at the arena on the Cowboys Headquarters in the middle of pure suburbia. Both tournaments attracted fans in the hundreds...not the thousands like the CIAA. There are distinct differences, and it is unfortunate bc these smaller arenas could be great centers, but they are surrounded by nothingness (no offense to the Kimball and Fort Worth art museums which are glorious architecturally).

Off topic, but this is a result from conferences trying to capitalize on Texas even though most conference teams are east coast based. Pretty soon it may be the ACC Basketball Championship in Dallas now that SMU is in the conference. Could you imagine?

I went last year to a 4th of July shindig in the park right there and it was HOPPING. I had no idea how lively this area had become. It needs to connect to the main downtown core better - relying on the riverfront doesn't do it entirely. There is great opportunity to continue to build on the urban apartment boom in the area. IIRC, when the PPD building was built, there was talk of two more similarly sized buildings, but this was just before the recession, so I don't think it had any teeth to survive that obstacle. Obviously I think apartments and hotels will work better than office down here. Capitalize on the fast growing tourism and retirement growth in the area. It's insane how fast this area is growing.

Not sure if this is the right thread or if the Lowe's tower thread is better, but Outdoor Voices is closing all stores to focus on their online platform. I liked their stuff, but apparently they closed through shady methods with their sales associates, so I can't share in the goodwill towards their product anymore. Sad to see them close. I'd be interested to see what takes over here. This is now a retail hotspot, so I would hope something like Aesop or Le Labo or Everlane. Maybe we should start a retail thread for South End?

So what's this I'm seeing about Balenciaga opening here? I mean...EXCUSE ME? Consider me intrigued by Simon to get this here in Charlotte. Although I think Ferragamo, Bottega, Hermes, Cartier make better sense, it is still huge news.

I guess one of the big reasons it still exists is that it provided a large space for conferences. IIRC, when the Marriott Convention Center was being built, the Hilton North Raleigh was the only hotel in Raleigh proper that offered conference space. With the Renaissance being the only major hotel to open since then, I'd say it still fills a void that is hard to replace until the proposed Omni opens down at the CC. Raleigh truly lacks full-service hotels.

Anymore news on the Phillips Place changes happening?

Not to be annoying but it's just VINCE not Vince Camuto. Two separate brands. Unless I'm missing something. The wesbite lists VINCE but not Vince Camuto.

Pardon my ignorance, but, aside from the Library, what else is moving forward in permitting or being built? Correct me if I am wrong, but the office tower is no longer? What's the likelihood for hotel & residential?

Remind me again of the deck screening with this? That is an atrociously visible deck, and I would hate for it to be the focal point from this vantage point.

Well one of the reasons this might work is because it's odd shaped leftovers and one large lot (Preferred Parking). The only things that would work in terms of highrises would be something the size of Moxy or Skye, which isn't the worst thing, but this at least tries to maximize the odd shapes into something useful. And then when the CTC closes and the new buildings are built, it can somewhat connect to that development and further connect with Epicenter, thus creating a natural entertainment district that doesn't rely on one big development plan.

Ok hear me out: this is good news bc it takes up another empty lot. But I also have this idea of taking the sliver of land between Midnight Diner and that gorgeous building at Trade & Brevard, and turn that into a plaza that connects to the Moxy. Use the remaining portions on that block to set up food trucks or kiosks for food. Heck, you can even extend the plaza to cross 4th as well and go behind Skye. And then on either side where there are vacant lots, build small scale entertainment like the B Tower on 5th. Ok here's what I am thinking :

Also, it should be noted that Jacksonville is consolidated with Duval County, whereas Austin is not with Travis County. So, the scale is different. And while communities in Duval chose to remain separate, Jacksonville not only covers a larger land (874sqmi) compared to Austin (320sqmi). Austin also got hit pretty hard during the COVID pandemic as folks moved out of cities, whereas Jacksonville, being the beach community it is and much larger in area, gained from that loss. So, I would say trust nothing until the 2030 Census numbers come out because the latter half of this decade will be a return to 2020 numbers and growth upward. Austin is still the poster child for insane growth, and I imagine it to overtake Jacksonville in the next couple years.

I always thought Levine, Brenner, and other Children's hospitals were separate, but I guess the nuance is that they are attached to the main hospital.

This wording is a little off -- makes it sound like you have to "check-in" to use the facilities. But, I won't split hairs in terminology. Bryant Park has free public bathrooms and they are heavily maintained daily, including tracking totals of users for each bathroom. I'd say look and hope for that kind of investment, and it'll pay off. The head of the Bryant Park Corporation, the organization that maintains the park, is noted as saying that the bathroom is the most important asset to the park. Other parks try to imitate it, but they don't allocate staff to their bathrooms as frequently.

Continuing my morning tear of comments on this site.... I think it's important to note which cranes will still be up later this year and into 2025. As office development dwindles, having some sign of development is incredibly helpful in showing that the city is growing and becoming a more robust hub. I'm hoping at least a couple of these cranes remain in the air for that time. I still remember how valuable seeing Skyhouse and 615 S. College were to keeping up appearances.

I think we need to understand that some of this has to do with the prevalence of hostile architecture/infrastructure in many CBDs. Even in New York, public bathrooms are scarce, and also rarely well maintained. But they are also vital assets, not only for the homeless but for tourists. Now, if these are just for the homeless, I still don't see a problem with that. It still gives an opportunity for outreach. To the $500k to homeless outreach -- if you've never been a part of that kind of work, you won't understand how hard it is. There is no forcing to shelters. But there is consistency, awareness, and relationship building. These workers develop relationships that eventually get them the tools to help homeless. It's not an immediate impact, but it does have some lasting impact. There is a careful act not to force people to shelters, but to ask if they want to go. It takes repetition. I've done some outreach in NYC, and it is thankless and dirty and yet so rewarding when you finally make the connection. Also, I wouldn't choose the word accommodations for the religious buildings. That does assume them to become housing shelters, and I'd rather see some of them be community facilities with trained medical staff, employment counselors, therapists, and facilities to clean up. That's my hope...but funding is the key.