willdarden

Took these from the Barings and Regions Bank buildings this week! Always love seeing our city from these angles up high

These are all amazing! I had so much fun scrolling through and looking closely at each one. Really appreciate you taking the time to take them and upload @gman430 On the Commonwealth development - I think this site would be awesome if it included a pedestrian bridge over the rail line closer to Independence. This would improve access to the development for all the apartments along Hawthorne, and it would also make it easier to access the Sunnyside Gold line stop from the Plaza business district. Do you all see a financial incentive for Crosland to build that? I really hope someone catches the vision and adds connectivity on that side of the site. It would greatly improve the pedestrian experience not having to take Central to get to the development from the west side. I realize it’s a little out of topic for this thread, but somewhat relevant since OP included photos of that site as well. Thanks!

You all bring up great points. I am not sure yet if White Point is anticipating a big new project or thoughtful adaptive reuse. They did a killer job with Optimist Hall and maybe could do something cool that integrates all those old low rise buildings that house Legion, Okra, Undercurrent, etc. There is also a surprising amount of vacant land between those buildings and independence that is underutilized, though I’m not sure if they own all the way to the NCDOT right of way. Will be one of the more valuable, prominent parcels in the city when the Silver Line station is put there at some point. But 100% agree that it will be important for whatever comes to be very thoughtfully planned out!

White Point Partners is rezoning a big chunk of land they own between Commonwealth and Independence to allow for denser future development - I am pretty sure it includes all the parcels between The Edison and the Rehab center except for Moxie and the white building next to it. We live nearby and our Neighborhood Association is trying to get a meeting with them to learn more about what they plan to do. My hunch would be they’re teeing things up to build a dense development like Crosland next door. CAC-2 allows for heights of up to 200 feet - I doubt a major redevelopment would happen without a thoughtful plan to include the existing businesses like Crosland tried to do. Will share updates as we learn more!

Posting a few new resources about the under construction Commonwealth development. Their website is a lot more updated now! Lots of new renders and marketing content for the Phase I retail, office and residential elements that are supposed to start delivering in Spring/Summer 2024. https://cmmnwlth.com This may have already been shared, but this marketing video is awesome — the 3D renderings are some of the best quality I've seen from a developer. Lastly, I'm sharing a few comments from the recent CBJ interview with Tim Sittema and Clay Grubb on the development. Fascinating discussion on their decision to start building the office building even with the future of that category in question. They seem confident it will lease well when completed in a couple years. Exciting to see it coming together! https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/08/25/cbj-two-views-clay-grubb-tim-sittema-real-estate.html Your Commonwealth project in Plaza Midwood has quite a bit of site challenges. You committed to saving some adaptive-reuse space on that site. Not the easiest way to do something. What drove that decision? Sittema: That’s an interesting deal on the heels of our Eastland discussion. It’s minutes away on the same street, but it’s worlds away in terms of the macroeconomic conditions. That site, everybody and their brother wanted to buy it. We competed with almost two dozen firms, public and private, and we ended up winning only because we were willing to pay more than anybody else was willing to. As we looked at that site, we knew they had several hundred-year-old buildings there. The initial plans did not include preserving those buildings, but the more we got into our design, even post-closing, the more we realized that preserving those buildings could really allow us to build a place. We do a lot of placemaking, a lot of developers use that word and talk about it a lot, but we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how do we make place in this development. And I think you’ll see, when we complete that project, it is made so much better because we are preserving those buildings. That’s the heart and soul of the development, and we’re building around it. How are you adjusting to market conditions? Sittema: Clay and I were talking about it just before we started the conversation here. We broke ground on the 150,000-square-foot office building (at Commonwealth), and we’re still moving forward with it. Time will tell if our decision is a good one. I still feel really positive about it. It is going to take a couple of years to build that building, and we’re just now starting to come out of the ground. When you’re talking office, most people think that category of real estate is completely on its back — and that wouldn’t be far off of that. But there are success stories like South End, for example, and if you drill down further, those office deals, those buildings that are getting leased today are newer buildings that have amenities, that are in walkable, sustainable environments. Employers are saying they need people in the office to build company culture. Let’s get them an office that they’re going to enjoy being in. And, in some sense, we’re creating an office market in Plaza Midwood. And we feel strongly that it’s a good bet. We’re in a cyclical business, and Clay and I are old enough to have lived through a lot of these cycles. Hopefully, we’ve learned a few things over the years."

Interesting last couple paragraphs in this CBJ article about the Queensbridge development... Anyone want to speculate?? https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/05/25/queensbridge-collective-official-groundbreaking.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_23&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s "Dodson said Queensbridge Collective will serve as something of a bridge between uptown and South End. And it seems the development may not be Riverside's only foray into Charlotte. Dodson joked that she wanted the developer's next project to cover Interstate 277 to "truly bridge the gap between South End and uptown." "Are you up for it?" she asked. To which Scacco replied, "We might have some ideas."

Not sure if anyone else has already shared photos of this, but I walked through the nearly-complete renovated Independence Park this afternoon, and I think I found my new favorite skyline vantage point in the city. There is a bench in the shade with this view that y’all should definitely go check out. I stayed for almost two hours! Hopefully this grassy area will be full of people and super vibrant this summer once the remaining construction wraps up! IMG_2476.mov

Tried to capture the red, white and blue skyline tonight! Since Central is closed I was able to stand in the road for a minute to get a good shot. Attached two versions with different saturation levels!

Amazing mural recently complete on the big wall next to the Ervin building by Eva Crawford and Hilary Siber! Worth checking out. Too big to capture in one or two photos. Hard to park near there, but I found a spot off the road and was able to grab some photos. It's MASSIVE! Love this for the east side.