Robbie Charlotte

August 1, 2021

On 7/19/2021 at 10:31 AM, RANYC said:

I know Charlotte wants to hold on to some sort of heritage, but I see this as a fairly slight and plain 2-story brick box with some ornamentation in the front. If a developer can replicate some of that ornamentation and the materials, while giving us a fully filled-in block and a building that frames the street-scape, then I'm not looking to complicate the builder's life or the economics.

If someone proposed to come along and create 15-20 of these low-rise street-fronting facades all in this district so that we ended up with something like 6th street in Austin, I'd be all for it.

August 1, 2021

Are you saying that because the general trend will lead to taller, or do you have details on a specific project that will be announced? As for the new taller outside of the 277 loop - well that could be the Spandrel/Atalaya residential project on Morehead, no?

July 20, 2021

16 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

I mean...I agree completely, but Charlotte used to elect very moderate politicians (or at least pro-growth) for the most part (both R and D) but the current slate of city council is much more "progressive" than 5+ years ago, and this type of debate shouldn't be surprising given the campaign platforms for most council members and their stated focus on affordable housing.

Robbie - you listed intangible benefits. While affordable housing is a tangible benefit. Again, I completely agree, but a council member isn't going to run for re-election on less trees knocked down in Union County or the increase in revenue at Devil's Logic brewing.

hmm, pedestrian plaza or new patrons for business are intangible?

I get your point about the bounded rationality of each council member. I'm just saying that if we're pushing back on projects like this along mass transit infrastructure, then please stop proposing tax hikes and wasting my money on mass transit.

July 20, 2021

59 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

New food hall coming to Southend so says Clayton Sealey in this article.

Scoop: New food hall coming to West Tremont area in South End - Axios Charlotte

I'm thrilled to see that hideous chain-link fence come down and this lot revitalized. Charlotte is so fortunate as a sunbelt city to see so much vitality so close to its urban core.

July 20, 2021

30 minutes ago, go_vertical said:

I hope the city council collectively grow a pair regarding her "concerns". This is EXACTLY what needs to be going up a block away from a streetcar line that is going to need all the help it can get to reach ridership goals. Not to mention an urban greenway literally across the street. They successfully killed the office tower at 4th and Hawthorne further submitting the streetcar to a slow and probably painful start. This is blocks away from anything historical. Let's see; a Bojangles, a gas station, B of A branch, car wash, a relatively new apartment building and a cell tower are supposed to be historical? Ridiculous.

Wholeheartedly agree.

Observer writes that council members agreed that project failed to include community benefits. Let's review:

intensified residential use adjacent to a new transit line - no benefit?

significant increase in new patrons for local-area, center city businesses - no benefit?

in-town development so that we're not felling a forest on the edge of town to accommodate new residents - no benefit?

pedestrian plaza included in project - no benefit?

So to get this straight, only affordable housing is a community benefit?

April 22, 2021

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

from todays Biz Journal

"""It was an opportunity Noi Vong couldn’t pass up. The entertainment industry veteran has snapped up a 7,000-square-foot spot at the AvidXChange Music Factory for a new venture called Bazal Gallery Venue. Vong says that space — which previously housed Butter nightclub and most recently Club One — has long been a favorite of his. He's also behind QC Social in uptown. His aim is to create an upscale experience and venue, unlike anything offered in the Queen City currently.""

Upscale entertainment venue to open this year at AvidXchange Music Factory - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

Is this place accessible via mass transit? Been in Charlotte two years, but never to Music Factory. Assuming this is outside of Uptown, yes?

April 22, 2021

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

More good news bad news not so bad news:

In terms of the office space market JLL has come out with their 1st Quarter 2021 reports:

of the office markets surveyed which they are 55 only 2 reported positive absorption of office Richmond and Fairfield County CT Charlotte with a small loss in occupancy was the 8th best with Nashville beating us at 6th best. 53 of the markets lost occupancy of office space but Charlotte's decline was small.

Cost of office space per square foot Charlotte middle of the pack $32.56 sq ft vs. NYC and San Fran still over $82 sq ft

of the 55 markets Charlotte has the absolute 4th highest amount of office space under construction trailing only NYC, Silicon Valley and Boston

Charlotte has the 6th lowest vacancy rate at 13.3% national average 18.8%

so Charlotte is doing better than most of the country as we have not had large blocks of space vacated like in some markets. Much of our under construction inventory is preleased like the Ally Bank Center but this will leave some vacancies elsewhere or Vantage Southend and Lowes tower which is heavily leased.

Charlotte market is 54 million sq ft plus almost 6 million under construction.

wow, beating out places like Atlanta, Seattle, Austin and Miami in absolute terms on office space construction? Would never have guessed that.

April 21, 2021

I know times are tough for malls, but it would be nice to see Charlotte with more of an outdoor mall, something akin to OxfordStreet in London. We've got decent, temperate weather. I think it would work. If they can attempt to replicate a shopping strip in Beverly Hills with Jacksonville's St. Johns Town Center, I believe we can do better than the assortment of enclosed centers we have.

March 26, 2021

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Now the state is getting NC born country star Luke Combs involved in some PSA

Country music star Luke Combs steps in to fight litter in NC — and you can help – FOX 46 Charlotte

That's a good step. Can we also get J Cole to tell people not to trash the homestead? Gonna need a cross-section of musical styles for this campaign.

March 24, 2021

Impressive. Also, interesting to contemplate what this innovation district may mean for urban infill growth? Will we see fairly rapid infill growth in parking lots along Stonewall and should this project accelerate the timeline for redeveloping Brooklyn, or is "277" too great a barrier?

March 24, 2021

10 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

I am not sure Raleigh will attract the banking talent. Miami makes sense, but is getting expensive. I suspect Fort Lauderdale is going to see a large amount of back office jobs spring up soon.

When a NYC-based financial services firm (buy-side or sell-side) starts scouting cities for a tech innovation hub to drive the "digital transformation and strategy" of the enterprise, does Charlotte have enough branding in this area to be considered a locational stalwart for such expansions? Not going to lie, I've been on calls with Asset Managers considering the sunbelt, and when they get around to NC, they know Raleigh well and have preconceptions that it is rich with talent thanks to Duke/UNC CH. Charlotte is a bit more unclear, and to them is more full of the traditional white-collar consumer and business bankers along with their risk management/operational counterparts.

I should add that these digital transformation roles are not just tech, but high tech. Unclear to me whether Charlotte has even established itself as a High Tech hub in banking.

March 24, 2021

6 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

Yup, Robinhood will be poaching from our Fintech Talent which will encourage others to come, to poach from Robinhood and others... It is a nice problem to have.

And while Robinhood is looking for space in Charlotte for back-office operations, Citadel might as well look here too. A growing share of large hedge funds are considering sunbelt locations for infrastructure teams, especially tech innovation groups. Most hedge funds are too small to put up newsworthy headcounts for such sunbelt-based operations, but a firm like Citadel could register a decent-sized headcount for something like this.

Miami appears to be "cleaning up" in the area of sunbelt-based hedge fund expansions (and not just back-office either). I'd submit that when a hedge fund's sunbelt expansion is for uber-wealthy founding partners, Miami has the advantage. When it's to grow infrastructure, operational capacity, or to launch a tech innovation team, I think a city like Charlotte is competitive - although Raleigh might have an edge there.

March 17, 2021

3 minutes ago, Rickybobby said:

I would LOVE for another grocery store to be a part of that development. I live in this area and also suffer from the lack of a decent grocery store. I can honestly say I have never been in Wayne's but would imagine it leaves a lot to be desired when compared to a modern store. The 4th ward Harris Teeter is lacking a lot itself. I typically go to the monster HT over on South Blvd.

I've been inside of it, and the only "vestiges" I've observed are old age and decrepitude. Is that the trade-off, suppress any sort of aesthetic sensibility or live in a food desert?

March 17, 2021

11 minutes ago, Urban Cowboy said:

You want to remove the only grocery store in the area? Help me understand why.

I know Wayne’s isn’t hip like Camp North End, and it’s a vestige of the character and community these neighborhoods used to have...

But I don’t consider demolishing a grocery store progress. Especially one that serves segments of our lower-income populations who are reliant on affordable and close-proximity food options. Ridiculous.

I thought he was simply referring to adding other uses to that property, given it currently is a sprawling sea of blacktop for parking and the lot hardly has any sidewalks on its perimeter for pedestrian access. I've been to that area multiple times and thought the property seemed prime for "densification." In addition, a development project that modernizes and strengthens the current structures isn't necessarily incompatible with keeping that grocer or any kind of grocer.

January 12, 2021

9 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Since green walls on buildings and garages were discussed in several threads here is a newly based Charlotte firm doing something about it.

Suite Plants. Custom Living Walls for Any Space (suiteplants.com)

attention developers do something with this firm on your parking garages or blank walls. (the Ascent?)

Some green walls I saw on the Disney property in Orlando.

I actually emailed the company about green-screens on parking garages and they said they do this, but no concepts currently in Charlotte. Any way the city can incentivize this to get done...and it's a local company...

January 12, 2021

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

see I leave town and head south and y'all go start renaming buildings. Bank of America Plaza at Trade and Tryon is no more. the new name drumroll please is

One South at the Plaza

and BofA vacated a chunk of space and they Cousins have 350,000 sq ft to FILL out of a 891,000 sq ft building. Since they have 2 major landownerships in southend perhaps they could market as swing space until they build to suit down there if desired. Otherwise that is a huge chunk of space and I doubt ANY new office buildings will be announced uptown in the next 2-3 years. Notice I said uptown not Southend. Duke will empty out of 400 South Tryon and where is US Bank to go if they are pushed out of Truist Tower? I still think US Bank should look at this space and get naming rights to consolidate their space uptown.

Cousins Properties renames uptown tower, plans renovations after Bank of America's exit - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

Are you still confident about 10 Tryon?

January 11, 2021

1 hour ago, SgtCampsalot said:

There's no good reason why the state and city should not build housing-first housing on that land, or intentionally make it happen on any other publicly owned land. Unfortunately un-housedness is treated an acceptable by-product of our society. An initiative like that would perhaps do better if waited until after the UDO is completed, but if activists/officials mentioned it it could be used as a cudgel against the UDO by the gen pop.

This might be a silly comment, but I stopped by the new public library on South Boulevard on Saturday. At the site is a one-story, single-use structure with a parking lot. I thought to myself, given the urgent need for housing, couldn't this have been a multi-story building with affordable apartments up top and a ground floor library and coffee shop?

December 21, 2020

On 12/18/2020 at 7:23 PM, KJHburg said:

this is great office and retail project and hope it fills up soon. at Tremont and S Tryon.

last photo is the new home of Arrival across the street.

2100 South Tryon - 83,00 s.f. of Class A office in South End - 2100 South Tryon (2100stryon.com)

Not going to lie, I love the building Arrival is moving into. I despise the look of 2100 S Tryon. Please, someone teach me what to appreciate about it.

Not sure which thread this belongs in, but I just came across a Memphis thread for a billion-dollar downtown project there called "The Walk on Union," and wondered why nothing like it has been proposed for Uptown. I mean, it's Memphis.

October 24, 2020

On 10/19/2020 at 5:23 PM, dubone said:

Removed the following now they are done:

These two apartment buildings near Optimist Hall

https://www.altapurl.com/

https://www.facebook.com/alexanoptimistpark

I added the greenway improvements by the new Atrium Hospital plans, and a number of other items from the rezoning list, including apartments planned across the rail from Optimist Hall, and the commercial building (likely Walgreens) on the Epicurian site in Dilworth.

Where does one find this latest map?

October 22, 2020

8 hours ago, formerly commoner said:

There way more than the approach that leaves much to be desired - and I wouldn't be surprised if NWR is purposefully under-reporting the number of units available. Look at Uptown 550 at night time. It's not 75% full. Furthermore, evictions are back, and there are serious arrearages. The sheriff's office is there, regularly. Not to mention the build quality concerns. I can't imagine any more value possibly being engineered into a building than already is the case at 550. Calling it a snakebit development would be charitable to NVR.

Do you believe their West Trade project to be of higher quality than Uptown 550?

October 21, 2020

I just put a place under contract in the Wesley Heights area. If all goes as planned, I'll be moving there from South End (right next to Atherton Mill) early next month. I certainly hope this area continues to evolve. I will miss sauntering to an adjacent wine bar or to a pub to watch a game in the way that I access those things in South End. The new place in Wesley Heights is still largely residential with few entertainment spots to just walk to. These adaptive reuse projects currently abounding in the area are certainly intriguing and creative, but I hope they go a little easy on making the asphalt seas of parking such prominent features in these developments.

October 12, 2020

Would it be fair to think of this initiative as building academic prestige and renown from scratch? No history to point to, no track record, no discoveries, no patents, no famous benefactors...

are we generations from realizing a bit of the touted promise of this transaction?

October 10, 2020

8 hours ago, KJHburg said:

here is a story the view from Winston and yes Charlotte is but soon to be no longer the largest US city without a medical school. This is win win for Charlotte, WFU Baptist, and both cities.

https://journalnow.com/business/local/wake-forest-baptist-atrium-health-merge-into-a-single-enterprise-to-be-based-in-charlotte/article_a9ed0202-0a40-11eb-8859-1ff9b81e1389.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

I've assumed the medical school site will be in Midtown. Is that far from a given? Any chance this might end up in the suburbs, or will this be in center city?

October 7, 2020

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

downtown Atlanta has very little retail same in downtown Dallas and Houston all cities have been to recently. Downtown Fort Worth on the other hand has a very vibrant retail scene in the Sundance Square area. https://www.dfwi.org/ Downtown Fort Worth despite is size smaller than Houston and Dallas is very vibrant.

Might be off-base here, but I bristle at the idea of using Atlanta, Houston, or even Dallas as models for what uptown Charlotte should aspire to

September 14, 2020

21 minutes ago, norm21499 said:

Are there any more details that can be provided? I can't read the article due to not having a subscription

White Point seeking to rezone to TOD-UC, the densest of the TOD zones adopted by Council last year. It is a conventional rezoning request, so plans for the rezoning don't have to be submitted. That's really the pith of the article.

Sign In

Profiles

Forums

Gallery

Project Database

User Guide

Store

Events

Posts posted by Robbie Charlotte

Important Information