RVA2CLT

^^^Agreed, at least it is an active and reasonable approach vs throwing spaghetti at the wall. i must say though, some of the the names they comes up with for these 'committees' sounds like an authentic Oriental restaurant menus' English translation: 'The Transportation Finance Working Group'

Anyone else looking forward to the grand opening of Stache House this weekend? If you aren't aware of what this place is about you can read a description Here: It should be a great addition to the neighborhood and a welcomed alternative to the sports-oriented bars currently dominating the neighborhood.

I was at the South End Community Monthly Meeting last night. It was great to see a full meeting and i encourage you all to come out to next month's meeting as every topic we discuss in regards to development, LTR, bike-lanes, walkways, uptown/neighborhood connectivity is discussed and plans revealed. A couple points of interest: Obviously, Camden Rd will be the center focus of the neighborhood for developing retail, stroll, socializing area, The 9k sqft of retail for the Camden/West project will be the cornerstone to pull the whole strip together. This will be considered South End's core and the focus of developing the neighborhood around it., especially down through the industrial/undeveloped section between Tremont to Remount west of LTR. Increasing neighborhood amenities, landscaping, strees-scaping, road diets, benches, bollards, flower pots/borders and opportunities along and improvements to the rail trail. Most notable though, several consultant developers from the Northeast were in town to meet with Center City Partners and evaluate the South End situation. Their impression was "We love what you have going here, it's amazing and there is so much to offer. However, we would never consider investing in a project here." Why???? Because there are currently no zoning or neighborhood guidelines/restrictions as to the quality of what can be built. Example: I could come in and build something like The Arlington with high-end materials and produce a high quality product; then right next door someone could build something like Junction 1504 and have the exact some capability to capture the same amount of tenants, in the same locality and proximity to uptown, dining, shoping and transit. I invested 10s of millions more $ and time, but could have yielded the same results with a smaller, lower quality project. As an investor/developer, it doesn't make any since for me to bring a high quality project (like we are all looking for) to an area where the current status-quo, stick built, 4/5 stories multifamily developments are filling up faster than they can be built. So it seems that after the current projects are done, there will need to be some restrictions/neighborhood guidelines in place for developers as well as having the chutzpah to say "No, your project does not meet our community standards and aesthetics and we would rather have an empty lot until the right project comes along than to settle for this." So we will have to deal with infill podium style at least for another year and hopefully the Camden & West as well as the Kingston will set a better architectural precedence for the next round of developments for South End.

In my opinion, MLS and Soccer in general have a ways to go for making headway in this town. Is there even a consistent major grass-roots following of the (USL PRO) Charlotte Eagles? I see the play at Charlotte Christian and do not have a dedicated field, so maybe the community should start with those efforts. Back home, the Richmond Kickers, also in same division, have much larger presence in/around the city and huge local support and interest. DC United comes down to play them in exhibition games every season. At least DC's not too far to go for the demo/friendly matches between BPL & European Champions League clubs which completely sell out FedEx field, 91.7k capacity. Being primarily a fan of English & European soccer, I would much rather see these types of matches coming to BoA Stadium, than an MLS team.

Anyone have Premium access to Charlotte Business Journal to see "What Raleigh Could Do For Transit in Charlotte"?

I was running the Light Rail Trail on Sunday I saw the the Northbound track was closed and there was a work crew with a road/rail truck cutting-down and clearing-out all the trees, vegetation and miscellaneous debris growing from Atherton Market down to Remount, basically the whole backside of the Publix/Camden development sites. Could this be the start of prep work for this project, or a CATS planned clean-up and just a coincidence it's in that particular location?

I am looking forward to Publix simply because the closest 'quality' chain grocer to me is the Harry Teet in Dilworth. IMO, the residential population of Dilworth and Southend is quickly exceeding this little store's ability to fully handle the traffic and I grow ever frustrated attempting a 'quick trip' to the store. I'd be fine with a Super-Teet being built at the location. Don't get me wrong, if I could pick a grocer to plop on South Blvd hands down it would be Whole Foods. To be perfectly honest I would say Wegmans but, most no-one south of the Mason-Dixon knows about that awesomeness with exception to the peeps in NoVA.

Brick fits the motif, esepcailly with the Lowes complex right across the street. Perhaps a more modern use of brick and other materials such as: Or perhaps the masses would favor another up-and-comingly tiring design that is beginning to repeat in the current and planned residental projects.

I think they should take some design cues from the confederate warehouse they converted. Out of all the projects I've seen, this would be the most inline for the current asthetics and vision of historic Southend. .

Those rents are redonkulous and will absolutely be adjusted when those units come available. Trust me, a 4th/5th floor 2 Bed, 2 Bath +1300sqft, granite surfaces, stainless steel appliances, balcony with view of Uptown/Dilworth/Southend with gated-parking, valet trash, pool, gym etc. adjacent to the Light Rail Station, next to bars/restaurants and boutique retail is still obtainable under $1,900 a month for a 12 month lease. With these 5 projects set to be open for business come summer 2013 - Junction, - Fountains - 300 Tremont - Silos - Park & Kingston it will be interesting to see if the 'Market Rates' change or if they will need to bait with incentives to get them filled especially if the following projects have broken ground by that time. - Park & Kingston - Camden & West - Camden South Blvd - 1200 South Blvd - Summit & Church Also, keep in mind that Colonial Grand is the same outfit who built/own The Enclave in Uptown's 1st ward, Those were built as condos and then made into rentals when condo market tanked, They may be posting their Ask @ top dollar to see if any of those former interests are around, believe the hype, and willing to hit the Bid. From a business perspective, if I came to the neighborhood with a new product that I am positive is superior in quality and offerings to what was currently, immediately, available I am going to ask Top-Dollar, not a discount, especially when all the other comparable product has been snatched up like hot-cakes. That is, until the neighborhood and the rental market corrects this assumption and forces rates down. I am not too worried.

for 1200 South, the last I heard was on Nov 14 from a Cambridge rep based in Houston who advised: "At this stage we are working through our permitting process, and it is very difficult to provide an ETA for the start of our project."

Agreed, and well worded. You should have briefed the Mayor before he went to pitch this to council. Also Dallas' DART Light Rail Red, Blue and Greenline turn into 'street cars', since they are in mixed-traffic, in the heart of downtown. Most Charlotteans who are opposed to this project are suburban-living and probably never lived a life-style in another city where transit options are the norm and life-blood of the city. It's tough battling the mindset and commuter culture of the majority of a population who grew-up and live in the burbs where getting around in a car is the norm and traveling by bus means you're poor. The fact of the matter is a StreetCar (Tram for the Euro savvy) will tie the neighbohoods to the city center and allow for more inter-connectivity and strengthen each neighborhood's uniquity and desiriability as a place to visit, live, and start/move a business. They would become accessible and attractive to visitors and tourists and could become marketable 'brand name' destination places within Charlotte, such as neighborrhoods in NYC and SF. It's already happening with South End and NoDa. South End even has registered/copyrighted it's logo, Now that's Brand ownership. Personaly I look forward to the day where I can hop on the lightrail at Bland, jump off/on the Street-Tram at CTC, take it to Plaza Midwood for an early dinner and drinks, back through a re-viving Elizabeth, jumping off to meet friends at a new bar and then back on the Street-Tram to Gateway Station to meet my cousin arriving to town from Richmond after which we walk a couple blocks over to BB&T Ballpark for the Knight's game. One Day... Hopefully it will be a day when I will still be living here.

That looks great and keeps the street frontage consistiant with that of 'The Kingston'. Hopefully that 10 story Camden project will be built with similar street frontage on both Kingston, adjacent to 'Kingston and Park', as well as on Camden and West, thus creating an immediate mixed-use, denser urban feeling to that area. Very exciting.

Agreed Deep Ellum is a far cry from what happened in South End. Even when I left in 2010 it was still 'trying to happen' and the Green Line just opened though there right before the affects of the recession hit. However, compared to the new constructions and the concrete sprawl that keeps ever reaching northward towards the Red River, Deep Ellum is as close as Dallas is going to ever get to having a 'South Endish' feeling area that includes Light Rail, TOD, Art, Music and Eats in a 'historical' urban area with original brick buildings. I'll be the first to say that the quality of life in South End far exceeds that of Deep Ellum. However, it's interesting that even though Deep Ellum has the basic elements which are making South End such a huge success it lacked the community support and neighborhood envolvement-cohesiveness to really make it something,

Dallas has an area known as Deep Ellum http://deepellumtexas.com/community/ which would be very comparable to the re-development of South End and has light-rail through it which terminates at the Texas State Fair Grounds.

Thanks for the welcome. I've been lurking in the shadows of these threads for about 6 months and thought it was time to join the conversation(s). Let me jsut say that Charlotte, in particular South End, is basically eveything we've been wanting between our experiences living/working in Dallas, NYC/NJ, DC/NoVA since 2007 and there's so much more to look forward to here within just the next 5 years. It's quite remarkable actually, We really feel like we landed here just at the right time to experience the continuance of Charlotte's renissaince as well as the growth and rise of Metrolina to a premier international conteneder in the post-financial meltdown economy.

I actually do this commute already. I live in South End and have taken Bland St to Sharon Rd and then take the #43 Bus to Ballantyne.It takes just under an hour for the commute but, it beats sitting in 77 and 485 traffic all more so with the traffic on 485 getting worse with the lane expansion project starting in January. However, the drawback is that the bus only runs every 30 minutes on peak hours and one an hour on non-peak which, of course, does not provide a 'mass-transit' solution to get down there. It will not stop me from dreaming of a day where light rail comes down throught Pienville, follows Lancaster Highway to the Ballentyne West Stop where the Tram @ Ballentyne Commons Parkway could drop me off in my cluster of office buildings,,, sigh..