Optimist Park / Belmont Projects

[Mobuchu]

Some updates on Alpha Mill. I didn't realize how big this project was until I visited yesterday.

9-23-06

These next couple are from one of the loft condos.

Here's the view, with uptown, 277, and the future Northeast line on the bottom right.

And their not allowed to call it a Mill without a smokestack

[dubone]

I have long liked this project. Crosland has outdone itself. This project is awesome. It will certainly pull plenty of tenants to a part of town that would otherwise have been avoided at all costs (next to freeway, next to busy freight tracks, polluted brownfield, high crime neighborhood).

But Tuscan and Crosland have both given Optimist Park nice beginnings to a turnaround, they've cleaned the site up, and they've really given it a campus feeling so that the freeway and the railroad are hardly an impact at all.

Great photos, Mo.

[MZT]

Even just driving past this area last year was creepy. It was so easy to imagine homeless guys sleeping behind the Mill buildings. The renovations have really changed the atmosphere of these blocks.

[uptownliving]

Thanks for the inside shots Mo.

The city has already started on making Caldwell St 2 ways by Alpha Mill and putting in a new cross street.

[uptownliving]

City Council voted tonight to eliminate the Brevard St site for consideration of the Kroc center as it would require about $3M of city money to relocate some city maintenance facilites to make it work.

Instead they will likely select the Independence site which will require about $4M in city money. In addition Salvation Army had $13M in money lined up for the Kroc center that only applied to the Belmont site. This is a huge loss for the Belmont area.

[tiblerbrit]

this city has some really screwed up priorities.

[atlrvr]

I've never understood the logic here....why select a site that is clearly inferior, will cost more public money, and may result in the Salvation Army delaying or abandoning the project?

Is it a matter of where the $4M vs. $3M is drawn from? CDOT vs. general funds?

While I wanted the Kroc center in in Belmont mostly because I was wowed by the initial design, I'm not sure it was the best place for it. The community is on the rebound with or without it, and there are other cultural facilities nearby. I do hope that Piedmont Middle School makes it fields available to the public during non-school hours.

[Charlotte_native]

Maybe they moved it to try and help another area since Belmont is already on the move. Just a guess. Where on Independence are they looking? That strip NEEDS LOTS of help.

[uptownliving]

It will be right across Independence from Ovens Auditorium.

[tarik]

Urban Stash will be coming down in the next few months. Tuscan is dedicated to residential development on the site, and the 150 units will be scaled down to 75 or less. There will be no retail on the site. The place to put retail, entertainment, etc. is on Hunter land. We need to find a way to get them out. Also, I am on a quest to petition abandoned houses in Optimist Park to be renovated on removed by the dead-beat landlords. All we need are 5 signatures from local owners, so hopefully we can get many more than that to prove to the Neighborhood Development that we are serious about our quailty of life.

[Charlotte_native]

All we need are 5 signatures from local owners, so hopefully we can get many more than that to prove to the Neighborhood Development that we are serious about our quailty of life.

Do you need signatures? I thought you could complain to Neighborhood Development based on the homes being substandard, overgrown yards, or unsafe as an individual, even anonymous.

[AntB]

Urban Stash will be coming down in the next few months. Tuscan is dedicated to residential development on the site, and the 150 units will be scaled down to 75 or less. There will be no retail on the site. The place to put retail, entertainment, etc. is on Hunter land. We need to find a way to get them out. Also, I am on a quest to petition abandoned houses in Optimist Park to be renovated on removed by the dead-beat landlords. All we need are 5 signatures from local owners, so hopefully we can get many more than that to prove to the Neighborhood Development that we are serious about our quailty of life.

What's Hunter land?

[tarik]

The 311 personel and neighborhood development say different stories.

[Charlotte_native]

The 311 personel and neighborhood development say different stories.

I just checked the website -- they do require 5 signatures (didn't know that and have seen complaints with just one name on them...). They don't require they be nearby property owners, though, just 5 signatures from citizens of Charlotte...I doubt that would be too difficult.

[tarik]

I have typed up a petition regarding 1221 n. caldwell and the two houses on 16th street at the dead end that are boarded up. I will be walking around the neighborhood some time soon to fill out the name and addresses. After that, we will have to send it to Neighborhood Development. All three properties are owned by Asset Management, which also owns the brick apartments on 16th. last I heard, they were in the process of installing ac in those units and were going to rent them, but that has not materialized, although they have put new blinds and windows up...

[Charlotte_native]

I have typed up a petition regarding 1221 n. caldwell and the two houses on 16th street at the dead end that are boarded up. I will be walking around the neighborhood some time soon to fill out the name and addresses. After that, we will have to send it to Neighborhood Development. All three properties are owned by Asset Management, which also owns the brick apartments on 16th. last I heard, they were in the process of installing ac in those units and were going to rent them, but that has not materialized, although they have put new blinds and windows up...

Anchor Investment owns:

1215 N. Caldwell

1217 N. Caldwell

1221 N. Caldwell

412 E. 16th

411 E. 16th

Good luck, leaving properties boarded up and in such poor shape really does drag an area down. I assume you are one of the new residents over there...congrats on moving to the area and caring!

[tarik]

Thanks for the specifics; I am going around this weekend with the petition. A friend told me he would not sign the petition because he likes the mill house on the corner. Not a good start... but that's what friends are for, right?

[Charlotte_native]

Thanks for the specifics; I am going around this weekend with the petition. A friend told me he would not sign the petition because he likes the mill house on the corner. Not a good start... but that's what friends are for, right?

The petition and filing does not mean the home will necessarily be torn down. It just brings Neighborhood Development out, they inspect the property, write up a letter of mandatory improvements that the owner MUST comply with, they file it like a lien against the home. If the owner doesn't improve the property it then goes before city council and they decide whether it gets torn down at the owners expense or not. They set these on pretty tight time frames, also, with 30 days to comply and extentions if you are doing work.

You also don't have to have neighbors sign, it can be any citizen of Charlotte.

[SCOTTER]

The petition and filing does not mean the home will necessarily be torn down. It just brings Neighborhood Development out, they inspect the property, write up a letter of mandatory improvements that the owner MUST comply with, they file it like a lien against the home. If the owner doesn't improve the property it then goes before city council and they decide whether it gets torn down at the owners expense or not. They set these on pretty tight time frames, also, with 30 days to comply and extentions if you are doing work.

You also don't have to have neighbors sign, it can be any citizen of Charlotte.

I live in the area I will gladly sign the petition. Can we also do something about the people living in tents along 13th street between Davidson and Caldwell

[uptownliving]

Here is a rendering of what the apartments will look like at the 204 unit The Crossing at Seigle Point.

City Council is set to approve this $21M project tonight. 102 units will have a monthly rent of $243 for those earning less than $19K per year and 102 units will have monthly rent of $555-$789 for those earning less than $38K per year.

Edited October 9, 2006 by uptownliving

[uptownliving]

This is the site plan for Siegle Point that City Council adopted/approved yesterday: In place of where the Kroc center was going to go instead will be market rate condos and Charlotte Housing Authority HQ office.

The orange is the 204 unit subsidized apartments. The beige is the 50 unit mixed income (30 market/ 20 affordable) townhomes. The yellow is the 140 unit market rate condo building. Purple is the CHA office, and blue is the community center. The recreation fields across the creek will be renovated in a joint venture between Meck Park and Rec and Trinity Episcopal School.

Demolition is complete on the site. Infrastructure work on the site will start this month and is due to be complete April 2007. At that time they will begin construciton on both the apartments and townhomes. The condo project will start according to market conditions (enough pre-sells)

[atlrvr]

Was there any mention if the CHA will be relocating their HQ to this site from South Blvd? I know that was part of the original plan, and they show "future office" in purple on the site.

[uptownliving]

That is the plan but I have not seen any timetable or money allocations for the move of the CHA HQ.

[A2]

Are the condos going to have any verticle elements, or are we talking lowrise throughout?

A2

[dubone]

All low rise, but then I believe midrise at the corner, where the condos go. But I think that is only 4 or 5 stories.