Vitamin_N

Can you throw us a bone on the effects of all the sovereign debt with negative yields? It's something that's perplexed me for a while. I've figured it's going to cause problems but I don't know what exactly.

I finally got a pic of the goldfinch hanging out near my house.

Does anybody know anything about the NAI tower on 3rd/4th/Baldwin? Somebody in the Cherry FB group posted that, according to Assistant Director of Planning Ed McKinney, the city has already received from the developer the $250K for Cherry neighborhood improvements that they promised to help get the project done. I was surprised to hear this because I would have thought they wouldn't pay out unless they were going to build, but maybe it was just promised for the rezoning and not for the building.

That's some nice police work there, Wikipedia: While efforts by Kroger have been made to reduce the murder rate at this location, future data will be required to fully analyze any long term benefits from the ongoing murder reduction strategy.

Prominent travel blogger Gary Leff thinks CLT needs another AA lounge. In a nutshell: The Charlotte airport has only one Priority Pass option, Minute Suites. It’s usually booked solid when I pass through. If you want to use it you’d better make a reservation in advance through the app, and not just a few hours in advance either. Charlotte has 2 Admirals Clubs to 700 flights, DFW has 5 clubs to 900 flights. Charlotte desperately needs another club — or two.

Some of Tony's friends have been known to lurk here and send him stuff as well...

Ask and ye shall receive. Latest from the Charlotte Ledger: The delay has more to do with the 10th Street Apartments that will wrap around the parking structure. We were originally under construction with a six-story, 224-unit wood frame project and made the strategic decision to cancel that project and instead design a concrete frame building of 12 stories with 410+ units. Ground floor retail space will now total 7,000 SF.

How is this decided? At the intersection of 3rd and Charlottetowne the pedestrian walk sign comes up automatically crossing Charlottetowne but only if the button is pressed crossing 3rd.

"Deck Blocker" would be a good name for a 1980s crime-fighting detective who plays by his own rules. "BLOCKER! Hand me your badge, you're off the case."

The Ballantyne theater may be turned into office space soon: Nobody involved would talk about the project, but word has been circulating among nearby retail tenants in recent weeks that something’s up. To the extent that Ballantyne has distinctive architecture, the theater’s home is in one of that area’s most recognizable buildings — the one that’s commonly described as resembling a “spaceship.” But evidence that the theater’s days might be numbered goes beyond storekeeper gossip. Office real-estate giant JLL recently listed office space for rent in Ballantyne Village — and the listing, which is publicly available, seems to resemble the movie-theater space: “Up to 50,000 s.f. of office space available for lease. Distinctive characteristics including large glass windows, 13’ high ceilings, and 2-story lobby with staircase.” The existing theater has a two-story lobby with large glass windows and a staircase. Note that the floor plan seems to show a semicircular balcony, which is a feature at Ballantyne Village that only the theater has. The rendering seems to suggest filling in the theater’s soaring ceiling with a lower one, which could allow two stories of office space.

The Charlotte Ledger has more on the Matthews entertainment district: Developer Proffitt Dixon has broken ground on 359 luxury apartments in six four-story buildings off Matthews-Mint Hill Road that it says “will serve as the front door to Matthews’ ENT District, which is an entertainment and lifestyle center anchored by the Sportsplex of Matthews.” Town officials say they think the apartments will help launch restaurants, retail shops and maybe office space and perhaps eventually a hotel in a pedestrian-friendly area close to recreation facilities – the type of multi-use developments that are becoming popular in other areas outside Charlotte’s center city. Matthews has envisioned such a development for about 20 years. But only in the last few months has Proffitt Dixon cleared the space, getting the project off the ground. The Sportsplex, completed in 2017, provided a boost, and future light rail, planned road extensions and proximity to Matthews’ newly bustling downtown, they say, should draw additional investment to the “entertainment district.” “This means we are finally getting some activity going on,” town commissioner John Urban tells the Ledger. “The good news is, this developer is the catalyst now. … We’re slowly getting some momentum.”

AA is ordering 50 Airbus 321XLRs. AA President Robert Isom mentioned this will let them fly to new markets from (among others) CLT.

Looks like KK is opening a Southend store (scroll down a bit): https://charlotteledger.substack.com/p/what-truist-bank-can-learn-from-atrium

I wonder if they'll occupy that old trading floor in Hearst.

Charter's building a new HQ building in Stamford, they probably won't move any time soon.

Some more background on Amelie's: Court documents show that the lease of the popular French bakery was to have expired in March and that landlords disagreed about negotiating an extension. ...Relationships among the owners fractured over a dispute involving distribution of the money from the 2016 sale of condos in Plaza-Midwood, court documents say. Full article here.

When will we see a chicken coop with a beige EIFS exterior?

One of my neighbors in Cherry had chickens, and they had issues with foxes, believe it or not. I was surprised to see the 25-feet-from-the-property-line restriction since the lots here are so narrow that's almost impossible.

There's a press conference on Thursday by historic preservation groups regarding the Excelsior Club. Anybody know what's up?

If you're a budget traveler, the nonstop CLT-LHR is $577 in October and November.

DeSano Pizza has closed: https://www.charlotteagenda.com/166237/desano-pizza-closes-midtown-location/ Not too surprising as that place was never crowded. Very good pizza though, sorry to see it go.

I have been puzzled for a long time by the dearth of fast food places in uptown: No McDonald's Burger King and Bo's are only in the CTC No Wendy's No Taco Bell One Chick-Fil-A location--judging by how slammed it is at lunch, I get the impression uptown could support more than one Is it really just a case of rents being too high? And if so, how is Showmar's able to get by? (And on the topic of affordable lunches: I recently discovered Sapienza has two slices of pizza and a drink for $7, including tax.)

I just watched 'Wild Wild Country', the Netflix documentary about the Bhagwan Rajneesh cult in Oregon. I was in elementary school when everything went down, in the early 80s, so the extent of my knowledge going into this was that there was some guy with a bunch of Rolls Royces who got in trouble. What I had no idea about was that he was arrested right here in Charlotte . The whole series is fascinating and worth watching, but if you want to see the Charlotte part of it, it's in the first 10 minutes or so of the sixth and final episode.

How about they name it after a Charlotte institution and call it Bojangles Bank? "BoBank" has a nice sound.