SmellyCat

I know someone who works at the Blvd Centro company who is moving into a unit. That gives it the seal of approval for me.

^good question about EpiCentre. Will the Vue's lofty pricing set a new bar for projects around town? I'm especially curious how it will impact pricing for the upcoming Furman/Third Ward Park project.

Hence the name Needless Markups.

I wonder if anyone on the "lower" floors on the Vue on the 5th Street side have any concerns about living across the street from City View Towers. That's the student housing residence recently completed. I think the first students moved in there about 3 weeks ago and I swear everytime I walk past it at night it seems there are parties galore going on and kids yelling stuff down at people on the street from their balconies. It seems to me that it's basically an expensive domitory for spoiled rich kids. A friend of mine is a student at Johnson & Wales and tells me that kids who live there are literally tearing the place apart inside - and its only mid-September!! He also tells me it's so bad that the school is considering disciplinary action against many of the students and weighing other possible options. I never did understand the concept of upscale student housing. My, how things have changed since I went to college - I had a concrete block room with no A/C and a community bathroom. Anyway, if I was paying $600 a foot for a luxury condo, I would be pretty pissed about having to deal with that sort of nonsense outside my window. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

another bennie...the girls sip champagne, supposedly reserved for prospective buyers, for much of the afternoon. So they get friendlier as the day goes on...

^and they're all smoking hot

Wow, at almost $600/sf, these appear to be bubble prices to me. At these lofty levels, where is the catalyst for the upside going to come from...does anyone believe these will be trading at $800/sf in a few years...especially when rates will likely be higher and loads of new units will come online? Consider that units along Central Park in NYC trade at "only" $1000/sf. This may add some perspective to the pricing. Honestly, I think the non-speculative people buying here (probably mostly doctors, lawyers, bankers) consider losing a hundred grand or so a rounding error on their net worth statements, so the ability to have marble floor bathrooms easily outweighs a potential market downturn.

If anyone's going to the grand opening today, let's hear a report!! I'm curious about the traffic, both inside the mall and out

I would think the ultimate views would be on the Souteastern corner (per Charlotte's geography, but really true South) of the building. North views may be cool to look at the top of the victorian homes in 4th ward, but no skyline. South probably wouldn't be bad either, looking toward the stadium, park and the skyline to the left.

Nah, unfortunately a west view will face Gateway Village. Not a bad view, but just not one of the skyline.

Some interesting facts: More than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor. Many airports skip the 13th gate. Airplanes have no 13th aisle. Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13. Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery. On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half. Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck . Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names

How about the 7-1/2th floor of the Mertin Flemmer building? You had to walk hunchback all day or risk banging your head on the ceiling (for all you Being John Malkovitch fan(s) out there)

Nothing is free. Remember when Oprah gave away all those "free" cars to her audience members? That was a fiasco.

off topic...but try Coco Osteria (across Tryon from Capital Grille). Same owners as Luce but much more casual and very reasonably priced. Excellent Italian!

It will be white, they just haven't painted it yet. From what I understand, the building will not be complete for another 4 months.

true, but there will be some store redundancies - Dick's, Gap, Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret, American Eagle, Lane Bryant, Bath & Body Works, Gymboree)

Based on a some of the banter on this board, it seems Northlake has a lot of skeptics. I predict that the mall will do well....most of Taubman's projects are well thought out and they seem to be much more cautious in their development strategy than most others (i.e., they don't build "crap"). After the initial hoopla dies down, the Christmas shopping season should be a decent barometer for how the mall will perform long term. It will also be interesting to see if and how much sales it pulls from Birkdale (likely), Concord Mills (possible) and SouthPark (unlikely).

Girly, 1st Ward's neighborhood (a/k/a the "Garden District") also has a very residential feel to it and is fairly attractive to live in IMHO. Although it's shorter on detached Victorian houses and longer on townhomes than 4th Ward, it's about the same walking distance to the CBD. You might want to check it out. The bigger point is....how can you possibly live Uptown being so far from any substantial retail?

Yes, I remember when the Citicorp Building was built in NYC circa 1976-77...I believe it also uses the tuned mass damper method with the large pool of liquid in the roof area. I recall this was a big deal at the time is was being built.

Yikes! I just had a flashback to the days when I worked at a client's office in 2 World Trade on the 73rd floor for an entire winter. The building would constantly sway back and forth and you'd hear these eerie creeking noises, especially on a windy day. I really did get queasy from it.

Nor do you see it in many other Asian cities like Singapore and Honk Kong. So then the question begs, how do they do it? Is it strictly a cultural thing?