InSouthPark

They really have to get Barclay Downs intersection reconfigured if they are going to keep building on this site. It's a complete disaster in rush hour already and they just keep adding apartments, office, and medical. My office was on Carnegie and it was a hair pulling experience to turn left on Fairview daily...either from Piedmont Row or Barclay (and I left work at the crack of 4pm as any later and it got exponentially worse). Speaking of Carnegie...I would expect 5825 Carnegie to go up for sale/re-development "soon". Our lease in the building was not renewed after 20+ years and rumors were the company that owns the building (Essity) was looking to sell. Its a complete dump of a 3 story office on a pretty big lot (5.5ac), so I would expect a tear down and hotel/apartments or new office. If Harris ever built their fancy new office tower across the street, this location would be perfect compliment for a new upscale hotel as its walking distance to the mall. Most of the hotels near the mall are really long in the tooth.

It's a state funded university that's part of a $4.2 billion state UNC appropriation budget. UNCC gets $300+ million annually from the state which is 1/3 of their income. I can tell you with the new conference they are apart of now (AAC), they will be bringing in substantially more money. The AAC payout to each team was $8 million last year. The Conference USA annual payout...750k last year. The conference move is paying for this, the state is just fronting the money. A successful football team adds more money to the UNC system pie (by reducing the amount they have to give the school).

Unless I am missing something, Planning Commission votes whether to make the recommendation to City Council and City Council votes on the actual rezoning. The planning committee could vote against it and still have it passed by city council.

Reason? Honeywell Ally Duke Deloitte BofA all have their names on building within a block of Wells. I am not sure city council is going try and piss off one of their largest employers because they went to put a sign on a building they own when other companies have their names on buildings.

The building permit for the Carmel Commons Publix were issued yesterday. Infrastructure work is officially underway now that the old office building has been demo'd. They are working pretty quickly on this. Permits show 53k heated sf store on top of a deck which is about 5k sf bigger than the Cotswold one.

How that Publix isn't started yet is beyond me. It's not like they need some residences built to justify that Publix location. It's on one of our heaviest traveled roads in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods on the "right" side of the road for people coming home from uptown. Never did I think the Carmel Commons Publix would be built before the SouthPark or Arboretum one.

I will believe it when I see construction. I am sure Harris wants to be involved, be a "partnership", pick the design, etc. If they wash their hands of the project, sure. Can someone alert Wegmans property buyers? LOL. We all know Levine isn't going to build theirs.

Unless they are selling the land outright, nothing happens IMHO. DeeDee and Levine can pitch whatever they want, it’s all snake oil over and over and over.

When has Harris Land Company had any success with any projects in the past 20 years? I mean they build a Walgreens on Carnegie like 15yrs ago. The Harris Land Company web site looks like it was developed in 1998 when someone picked up their first HTML book.

A TJ anywhere near SouthPark would just be printing money.

Technically they would probably pay less because their home value would be higher if the same house was in Charlotte...but yeah...if you just talk apples to apples... "low taxes" in Union County is a myth from decades ago.

Meck County tax rate for 2023 (due next week) which includes my new tax value is .4731 CLT City tax rate for 2023 is .2604 So combined Charlotte is $.7335 vs $.6321 unincorporated Union County. So yeah, unincorporated Union county pays a little less, considering the infrastructure the county needs, I doubt it stays below Meck for long. A 500k house in unincorporated Union county pays about $500/yr less property tax than Charlotte proper. That's kinda wild to me.

Kermit is a frog. duh.

NC is set to override the governors veto on the 3 anti-LGBTQ+ bills today. Hope Tricia gets mailbox full of dog poo. Nothing like government taking away more human rights.

I'll bet you a beer they never will open another tap room here and never seriously discussed it. And after this PR debacle, good luck winning patrons back LOL.

I have hurt myself running in mud there. It's slick as s**t and no way around it. McMullen has always been the worst for this. Between the low spots and the flooded raised wood sections...ugh. In their defense, they have seen their errors and have eliminated the raised wood sections from new construction. All the new raised sections are now concrete (at least the walking surface).

That has always been a mess and the 485 expansion at the bridge has made it worse. I doubt we see any improvements done until the 485 construction is complete and ballantyne greenway connection finished. But they need to do something. I have been running that greenway for 15 years and the low spots have gotten worse, either from increased runoff or the heavy equipment sinking the pavement (or both).

It’s so popular, nobody goes there anymore! Haha Never been. 400 drafts isn’t very appealing to me. Too much of a chance for old beer (specifically IPA’s). And at $10 for a 10oz pour…I’ll take my chances where I know it’s fresh.

What it used to look like before it was a 3+ year impromptu parking lot.

Nope, they don't own anything beyond the tree line. The country club put the gravel there in the past couple years. Used to be all grass except for a small area that AT&T used as a pseudo driveway to access their equipment (which is why there is a cutout in the curb). It looked SO TRASHY just having cars all lined up parked in the grass / gravel. I live a mile away and saw it every day and it finally got under my skin enough to do something about it (emailed ALL the city zoning / inspection bosses + the directors of the CC). After the city did inform them that was not their property and in fact city right of way, they put up the chain across with a no parking sign. I can't park my car on the grass but the country club thought it was ok to use city property and park 40+ cars on a grass (without any screening) daily for years? "Rules for thee, Not for me". Edit: Even it they did own the property, city ordinance says it must be screened. Here is a shot of what it looked like on a very very light parking day when I went to take pics. Only 4-5 cars early morning. By mid-afternoon there was always 20+ cars out here.

The latest greenway extension (51 to Johnson Rd) is officially "underway". This will connect multiple apartments neighborhoods to the McMullen greenway. It will also provide easy grocery store access to not only Lidl but to the new Publix under construction. There has also been a bevy of re-zoning in the immediate area around Carmel Commons (including multi-family) which will all have access to the extension. A GC has been selected (Eagle Wood). Visible construction is supposed to be by EOY. 18-24 month construction time line (for 1 mile?!). Will also include a new parking lot on 51 (but no bathroom facility due to the flooding risk). This project was re-railed years ago by Country Day and Carmel Country Club who (along with their neighbors) to quash the extension up the the school. They didn't want poor people to have easy access to their neighborhood of multi-million dollar home off Green Rea. Unrelated note about Carmel Country Club: if you ever drove by and saw cars parked all out front on the grass every damn day...it won't happen anymore...you're welcome. They thought it was their right to use public right of way to park their cars on the grass because "they don't have enough parking". LOL.

The Carmel Commons Publix is officially underway. Demo of the office building where it will go along 51 is in full swing with most of the building torn down.

To me personally: Victory and Southern Tier are 100% not Charlotte breweries in my eyes. My ex-wife is from Downingtown (where Victory is from). Been to their original taproom 20 years ago (and quite a few times since). They still brew 100% of their national lineup in the Downingtown area and have been for 25 years. But I do consider "4001 Yancy" its own brewery (even though they brew under the ST/Victory brand). The CLT Brew'd stuff is Charlotte beer. But if I pick up a Dirt Wolf or a Pumking...that's a PA/NY beer. I don't hold that against them. I quite enjoy 4001 Yancy (food, drinks and cocktails), especially when the weather cools and you can sit on the patio with some ST stouts and Pumking variations.

I will say it again, HopFly is not an out of town brewery. There were an out-of-town brewery that moved the entire operation and 100% of production to Charlotte. The founder and CEO of HopFly lists his location as Charlotte. They only operate a small taproom, about the size of my garage, in Rocky Mount. They are a Charlotte brewery now. We consider bank HQ's that move here, "ours". Same goes if a brewery moves here. There is no logic that says Salud is a questionable CLT brewery, I don't care what others say. They brew beer down the street, not in another city/county/state. They don't "contract brew". They just use someone else's equipment, Heist isn't brewing for them. Sycamore doesn't brew a drop on site. You can add Frothy Beard to the out-of-town with brewing. They mentioned a soft opening "soon". I am weirdly excited for this one, mostly because I want this location to succeed.

Same, over the hill and picking up steam. My top spots - Resident Culture PM (yuck in the southend) is my go to spot. Love their beer, love their setup. HopFly when my wife is with me (her favorite sours). Lower Left when I want to just chill. Divine Barrel for anytime, Heist BA when the weather is cool and they have something other than 400 IPA's, Triple C in stout season, Middle James when we are out doing errands, and Burial during the week. Plus Armor Artis if anywhere near downtown fort mill. The rest I just randomly rotate in occasionally. Haven't been to Southern Strain in PM (ehh), Armored Cow (too far, likely never go), Weathered Souls (I usually have a dog with me and they have no patio) and Monday Night (been too hot to go out recently).