pgsinger

Has anyone heard anything about an Olympic Training Facility coming to Kannapolis? See an old article below. Is this going to have a real economic impact or is it more of a smaller center? https://www.salisburypost.com/2019/10/08/olympic-athlete-training-center-considering-kannapolis-for-new-site/

Ok, so more than likely BS. I had not heard of this rumor, so I seriously doubted it. Not that I am super well connected, but I assumed a Publix in NoDa/Plaza area would make huge waves on this forum.

I heard a rumor that Publix is looking at taking over the location of the Food Lion on the Plaza at Matheson. I have no idea how good this source is, so I thought I would check in here. Any accuracy to this rumor?

Does anyone know what they have been doing on the Little Sugar Greenway just south of Morehead? See picture below. It looks like some form of infrastructure work. I walk by it everyday, so I am curious about it. Also, now that Atrium's expansion is approved, do we have any final details on the renovations to the greenway between East and Morehead?

They are already taking reservations for units. They have been for a few months.

I will share this link here. While I think it is a long shot, I think removing the Belk Freeway and replacing it with the silver line underground would be ideal. If you read the article below, Portland Oakland is looking to do a similar multi-modal underground above ground combo and add to it affordable housing and mixed use development. I am not sure how wide the freeway is, but it seams like a light rail line can fit in there potentially with some vehicle lanes and development over the top. @JacksonH This article also have a link to the Congress of New Urbanism's Freeways without Futures list. That list contains a list of "Graduated Campaigns," including Seattle's removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. That route was replaced with a tunnel that opened one month after the viaduct closed. During that one month period, there was not traffic disaster, so people have drawn the conclusion that the tunnel was a waste of money. Presumably, some research was completed to see if people just avoided that area of the city until the tunnel opened, but I do not have that info. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/04/urban-worst-freeway-without-future-teardown-demolition-list/584707/

Wish it was a baller...

Have we given up hope on this being a Kimpton given the Spectrum connection.

I will be around on the 24th but I am out of town the weekend of the 22-23. Anyone else?

Sorry guys, I was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with my feet in the Colorado River drinking a Lenny Boy Ground Up Coffee Stout. Any change we can get a mid-Feb meet up? Or maybe a quarterly thing and do April?

I think you misinterpreted my statement, and I do not think any of your points demonstrate an inaccuracy in my statements. I completely agree with the points you are making. Roads are cheaper, period (particularly if we use cleaner fuels). However, the cost of using a road is more than simply the cost of building a road. For example, we subsidizing parking costs by requiring too many parking spaces to be built. The cost to build those parking spaces increases the cost of rent, which results effectively in a tax on people. If we did not subsidize parking, then parking would be more expensive. This would likely result in an increased demand from suburban residents for mass transit. This would keep those cars off the road, which in turn would allow the essential services and other road dependent services to use the existing infrastructure without expansion. We simply need to be aware of the total cost of using both types of transit when comparing which to build. See below for a plethora of studies that explain the costs and impacts of parking on a city. These are direct costs of road use. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/07/how-parking-spaces-are-eating-our-cities-alive/374413/ https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/11/20/the-many-costs-of-too-much-parking https://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/transportation/parking-environmental-impacts-development-policies-research-roundup/ https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/parking-spacescommunity-places

They should turn it into apartments.

We can all discuss our own preferences of transit options, but thanks to the beautiful diversity of this country (and forum), we will never have consensus. In my opinion, I would much rather see these conversations (particularly at the policy creation level as opposed to dinner conversations) focus on the subsidies provided to the various options. Currently, there are numerous subsidies in zoning ordinances and tax expenditures that greatly benefit cars. This disguises the true public cost of driving. This makes obtaining public funding for other sources of transit (bike lanes, designated bus lanes, and light and commuter rail) seem relatively more expensive. If we compared the cost of the Silver Line, or even the entire transit "Big Bang," to the actual cost of providing cheap roads and parking, then the differences would not be nearly as great. Currently, the general public sees roads as free and mass transit as extremely expensive. This is simply not an accurate comparison. This argument is really applicable to many other urbanist concepts as well, such as urban vs. suburban living. Using broad based taxpayer fund to widen roads serving suburbs is a redistribution of wealth from urban areas suburban areas. It also misconstrues the costs of living in a less dense area. Toll roads tax the use of the roads. Therefore, they are a more fair tax and not a redistribution of wealth. If suburban and rural residents paid the true costs of living in those areas, there may be less desire to live there. Note, I am not saying urban is always better than suburban/rural. I am sure there are other costs that urbanites do not feel that suburban residents do. My point is that we should focus on the true costs of each policy when comparing them, and individual preferences should be secondary in the policy discussion.

Pics or it didn't happen! Thanks!

I guess its an electronic board...

A video board would already have been approved in their plans, correct? Particularly if they already started building it. I don't think it is a video board.

#1 Levine Parking Deck stays empty. #2 Levine parking Deck Blocked Lane remains blocked. #3 Charlotte gets a new brewery.

If I speak to them again, I will ask about their time frame to start improvements. However, my expectation is that they will not do much until something is decided on the light rail. As I understand it, the blue line could stop at the mall exactly or be several miles away from it. Those create two very different results for the mall. Without the rail to spur the new life, I am not sure they will want to reposition it as a retail center in the face of some other nearby centers (Ballantyne, Tanger, etc.). After all, the mall is dying in part due to location and competition. Without the light rail, an entirely new purpose for the land may be the best use. I will probably talk to those guys in a few weeks, so I will let you know what they say if this comes up.

Yes, and more importantly so are Eric Washington, Norv Turner, and Kyle Allen.

The redevelopment of Carolina Place mall will come sooner than most probably expect. However, a lot of it will hinge on the blue line extension. Brookfield recently (18 months ago?) took GGP private again. They believe that numerous malls in GGP's portfolio are ripe for redevelopment. In my conversations with the Brookfield team, they specifically cited Carolina Place Mall. In addition to actively pursuing the mall as a stop for the extension, they want to add apartments and make other upgrades to make it more of a destination than it currently is. It will not go away, but look for more development similar to what has occurred around South Park to happen actually on the grounds of the mall. While we may see some of this start in the near term, it is likely a 10 year+ timeline for a material impact to be made.

I agree 100%. In St. Louis, if you parked on the street you just took everything with you and left your doors unlocked. Some mornings you would come back and your glove compartment would be open, but all the windows would be intact.

"...lost control of it in a blizzard of non-payment/bankruptcy/liens/lawsuits..." = FRAUD Tarhoosier - You put it very politely. It was his and his business partner's violation of the fraud provisions in the bankruptcy code that allowed the court to consolidate cases and ownership of companies to result in a near total loss for them and a $1 million fine a piece. https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2012/03/investors-acquire-epicentre-under-plan.html There are some additional links in that story which go into the fraud aspect.

I would ask them how many total floors they have... How tall are Canopy and AC hotels in SouthPark? You forgot the other Spectrum Vantage tower. The old CBJ building is down, so I think we can consider this one under construction.

Not sure if this should be here or in the SouthPark thread, but does anyone know what is going on at the corner of Runnymede and Selwyn? Over the last 2-3 weeks several houses have been demolished right here. Below is a screenshot with a blue square around the area...though I think the area may be longer than the area I marked. I will try to grab a few pics on the way home today.

As a second aside, most of this 2009(ish) stuff could be said about Stumpf and Wells Fargo.