New UP poster here so take it easy on me. I'm moving to Charlotte in the next couple months and want to be close to Uptown so I took two days to tour SouthEnd Apartments and the area in general.
From initially hitting South Blvd from 277 there is a really great active feel, plenty of apartments, bars, restaurants, ect. I felt as though I was still apart of Uptown Charlotte. The Apartments from Camden, to Mosaic and Ashton gave a feel of being safe and relatively close to where the action is. Rents are a tad high, but that is to be expected. Ashton was actually about 20 percent higher than any other in the area and they currently have no openings, at least no 2 bedrooms. Every single apartment I visited in this area made it a point to tout proximity to the light rail and the coming Publix. As a way of comparison a couple of them touted safety compared to some of the newer developments further down South Blvd, they specifically mentioned problems at Fountains when I said I was going to visit there too.
Once you pass Ashton though, and this is just my opinion, the area doesn't feel as apart of Uptown as it could. I think the Publix will help, but some of the buildings in the area are in need of serious renovation /updating. Sedgefield shopping center across from Colonial and Silos just looks very out of date in comparison to what the apartments there are trying to portray. Fountains from everything I have heard is having serious issues with car breakins and even a couple muggings, and while the apartments are nice, the area surrounding it needs some serious work to compete. Other notes:
- Silos and Colonial seem to be renting out well. Colonial opens it's second phase very soon with the Apartments with uptown views available first week in March.
- Don't know if the people at Colonial know something or not, but was told that Sedgefield Shopping Center was going to be upgraded or torn down within a year.
- Was also told that something was going to be done with the parking lot where Pepsi parks their trucks at the corner of Poindexter and South.
- Really like the look and feel of Park & Kingston, but they only have studio's and one bedrooms.
I'm definitely moving to the SouthEnd area soon and love reading the updates here. Keep them coming!