SmellyCat

I was under the impression that raw materials and constructions costs have been falling fairly rapidly in the past few months, no? Isn't that a byproduct of the collapse of the commodities bubble and threatening worldwide deflation?

Yes I agree. I flew Lufthansa for the first time a couple of months back and it was a great experience.

Ah yes...thanks for clarifying. I was only looking at the balloons, not the thumbtacks on the map.

I guess I'm surprised there were zero homicides within the 277 loop. That's positive.

Escapists, I understand your point about MLB and the way it clutches to its history and you certainly are well versed on the subject, but I would say that MLB has been more prone to toss tradition to the curb in the last decade or so. Examples: adding an additional playoff tier and wild card team, interleague play, all-star game determining WS homefield advantage, instant replay for home run calls. All of these changes/additions would have been unconscionable 20 years ago. Also, another "legacy" team, the San Francisco Giants, were hours from moving to St. Pete in the early 1990s as you may recall, so I don't think it's a stretch to think a team with a long history can move. I think the almighty buck trumps tradition if a team like Pittsburgh continues to lose games and not draw fans by the millions. Despite a beautiful new ball park built in 2001, their annual attendance consistently lags the rest of the league by over a million fans. They have become as irrelevant in Pittsburgh as the Bobcats are in Charlotte.

^Nice analysis Jed. Not to mention that it especially tough to absorb a new team in the midst of this horrible economic downturn. My guess is Portland gets the next team, and it will likely be from a relocation, as any expansion will be postponed for several years until the economy improves. I predict that North Carolina (likely Charlotte over Raleigh) will get a team by 2015 and that it will also be a relocation of a team from a shrinking population city, like Pittsburgh, where baseball has always taken a backseat to football.

Just to clarify, it was after the 1997 season when the Twins were rumored to being close to moving to the Triad area, so it was about 11 years ago.

Curious as to what sort of depreciation you expect to see in other parts of Charlotte?

Don't know about the stadium, but I did read today that it is expected that 10% of professional sports teams in the four major leagues will change hands over the next three years due to owners seeing their net worth plummet in the past year, thus looking to unload their teams to raise cash. The NYTimes is one of those badly suffering owners and just put their stake in the Boston Red Sux on the block.

I'm not buying that this project will happen for a long, long time. I believe GGP will likely file BK by next week (their loan extensions expire at the end of this week) and the company will be liquidated. This forced liquidation will put further pressure on already downward spiraling retail valuations. The economics to built a mall right now just don't work. Lenders will require a minimum 40% up front equity on a project, and full recourse, just as debt costs are spiking. No lender in their right mind would lend a couple of hundred million dollars on a retail project in this economic environment. Just my $.02.

Sounds to me like unc2007lsu is just getting cold feet. He cited multiple reasons for not wanting to close...the flooring, the viability of Charlotte, possible 9% U.S. unemployment per Goldman Sachs, HOA dues, developer possibly selling blocks of condos. What else, is the color they've painted the building not to your liking? Perhaps it needs to be more of an impact color. :-)

As Neo states, high heels will dent just about any wood type - real, engineered, laminate, etc. For what it's worth, I have bamboo floors in my apartment. It's real bamboo, but when you pull the flooring up it appears to be engineered hardwood - that is, only a small cut of bamboo (a few millimeters) on top of a 1/4" of scrap wood. So, does this qualify as "real hardwood" or "engineered", or as unc2007isu calls it "pre-engineered"? I don't know nor care. It looks like wood, feels like wood. Easy to clean and care for. I have a friend who works at Paresh Flooring in U. City whom I can get answers so some of your other questions.

Ouch only 50%? Yeah I might expect that number to further shrink given what's going on with Wachovia. It's the investment banker types that were likely this building's main buyer base.

That's exactly what was going on. In fact, I tried to go to Black Finn at what I thought would be an early enough hour so I wouldn't have to wait, but lo and behold it was packed with ECU and Va Tech students and alumni.

Am I the only one that is not impressed with the aesthetic imprint of the condo tower? Not surprisingly, it looked much better in the renderings (doesn't it always). I dunno, maybe that's why the units seem priced fairly low.

I agree, I feel the loss of the spires has taken some identity out of this building *sigh*.

If the strength of the Met Target's sales is indeed this strong, hopefully it will help build some momentum for Uptown retail.

I went to Villa Francesca for the first time tonight and decided to test the place out by getting the standard cheese pizza slices. The pizza is New York style, and since I'm from that region, well....I tend to be a bit of a pizza snob. I have to say, I was quite impressed with it. The crust was good, the cheese was just right. Very tasty and I will be going back. I like the decor...very NYC pizzeria-ish. Even had some pictures of NYC buildings hanging on the walls and of course, the obligatory mural painted on the wall. This one was pretty interesting - it was the Charlotte skyline and even included the Nascar office building and the light rail. Wait staff was friendly and attentive. The only issue I had was that is was hot inside, apparently because they underestimated the heat the pizza ovens would throw off. I was told another AC unit would be installed shortly to address the heat. Overall, two snaps up!

I happened to stop by the Midtown Target today, and based on how busy it was, I'd be surprised if they needed to offer cheaper prices to solidify a customer base. Then again, maybe that's why it WAS so busy! Regardless, it's nice to see this project apparently doing quite well from a retail perspective.

That's an interesting excuse and it's rubbish. It's no doubt due to the economy and the fact that General Growth, the developer, is having major issues in these seized up capital markets trying to get refinancing on its $billions of debt maturing over the next two years. Being that the company is now devoting full attention to its existing stabilized portfolio of malls, I predict this project will be on hold until 2010 at the earliest or may just outright die.

I can also vouch that my several eating experiences at 131 Main have all been excellent - I've been there for both lunch and dinner. I've also eaten there before when it was both Red Star Tavern and Patou, and for some reason the atmosphere is much better now. Perhaps is something as subtle as the addition of dimly lit lamps at the bar which create a nice mood.

6,000 announced, but how many have/will actually come to fruition? Surely much fewer than that, no?

True, there is no evidence because we have never seen anything close to the likes of what's going on right now. Even in the 1970s, adjusted for inflation, fuel shocks were never ever this high. During the oil embargo years you've cited, the highest gas prices reached were $2.50/gallon (again, in today's terms) and peaked at $3.40 in March 1981 at the beginning of the Iraq-Iran war. Don't you think there's a chance - just a possibility - that $6 gas by the end of the summer could perhaps render people's behavior in this era different than what we've seen in the past? By the way, oil broke through $140 a barrel for the first time today. Uggh.

Geez, thank goodness so many of these other projects are not coming to fruition then (OneCharlotte, 300 S. Tryon, 210 Trade, The Park?) or else we really could have had a condo overhang problem on our hands. Another thing that may help tip the scale a little more in favor of Center City condos is sky high gas prices, which may keep prices at a floor. This will have the opposite effect - that is making exurb type areas like Huntersville and Mint Hill, where there is also a ton of land available, a lot less desirable. We're already seeing that effect in play in the DC area, where Northern Virginia exurb house prices are getting slaughtered. I would expect to also see that happen in our exurbs, if it already isn't.

I have lived in First Ward for a couple of years now and have not had any issues with crime, nor do I think First Ward stands out as being any more problematic than any other part of Uptown or Charlotte in general these days. There have been some car break-ins, but that appears to be endemic to the entire city. I guess the buyer needs to ask herself the question if she's prepared to live in an area that has an urban fabric and all the inconveniences that come along with the conveniences, such as higher crime rates, occasional late night noise, fire and police sirens (there is a firehouse literally right next door to her project), arena traffic, etc.