Brooklyn Village Redevelopment in 2nd Ward

[SgtCampsalot]

IMO, Stonewall will be as good as it can be. It is an auto-dominated street with highway ramps, and feeds into Park Rd, the classic suburban corridor. The pace at which development is happening on Stonewall is bound to get several mundane projects. But, at the same time, it's better than grass lots and parking lots. Our current situation in this society is to take whatever minimal level of good urbanism we can get. This will have to do.

The rest of Uptown is doing pretty well!

[alb1no panther]

My two cents on these press releases is that these developers need to start setting expectations.  They know where to find the interested parties to communicate their intents.  Marketing material meant for the masses [like the picture in the article] are great to get people interested, but they also need to come with a disclaimer like:  Hey this is what we're thinking, but we need some input.  It's really not that hard to do the little things.

[Spartan]

On 6/24/2016 at 10:35 AM, tozmervo said:

Do you want me to design the building for them? For starters they could just not have a plaza and insert storefront instead. They could dramatically reduce the size of the ingress/egress from the parking decks - they need 8'-6" at most per lanes, two lanes, and the character of design can visually reduce the entrance in favor of pedestrians. They could show on-street parking along south boulevard. They could advocate to reduce the size of that POS intersection. They could actually step down with the slope of the site instead of really lazy flat slab design

While we're at it, we can also substantially reduce the 558 parking space count they're providing. It's barely 900 feet to Stonewall station, not to mention within easy walking/biking distance of practically every business type someone would need for day-to-day living. I can't believe we're still building parking decks that massive in Uptown

Re: Stonewall/Caldwell intersection: it's horrible, but it's not as bad as it could be. I've talked to people about the situation and here's what I know about it. Back when the city redesigned the Caldwell/South Blvd/I-277 interchange, NCDOT required the design to assume traffic would be at what the models predict for beyond the year 2030. The capacity of that interchange is thusly designed for traffic that may never need to use it. The city argued for less lanes, and more bike/ped accommodations and the state wouldn't budge. Given the conditions that NCDOT was forcing on the city, the fact that there are crosswalks, median islands, and a bike/ped path across 277 are pretty amazing. 

Anyway, the other takeaway is that because the intersection is controlled by NCDOT, the odds of reducing the size of it are slim to none.

 

On 6/24/2016 at 10:46 AM, Jayvee said:

While I agree the deck is WAYYYY too big and the garage entrance there sucks. It seems unavoidable. 

You COULD go about reworking the Davidson/277 light and having the egress ramps wrap around back to the building. That's ideal but very impractical. 

I do agree the slab is SO obnoxious rather than just designing with the topography, actually didn't notice that until you pointed it out. 

As far as the garage entrance goes, the rendering has the sidewalk going away. Can't imagine that being the case in the final design so it's probably safe to assume there will be a bit more PED awareness here than letting on. 

I actually like the plaza a lot but yeah with only 8k of retail there's really no reason anyone would use it other than the office workers. 

I hear your criticisms, I do, and agree with most. But I think there needs to be some level of realistic expectations as well

You've mention the 'green wall' area several times. I'd like to know why that has to be there, and more specifically, why they can't cram a retail space in there? One of the things Charlotte lacks is 'unique' retail space. In other cities, buildings with slopes would still have space that could be occupied as long as you can get a door in there, but fewer windows.

[CLTProductions]

17 minutes ago, Spartan said:

You've mention the 'green wall' area several times. I'd like to know why that has to be there, and more specifically, why they can't cram a retail space in there? One of the things Charlotte lacks is 'unique' retail space. In other cities, buildings with slopes would still have space that could be occupied as long as you can get a door in there, but fewer windows.

It's too short, the wall is only like 4' 

[deleted]

I finally got a close look at the Presley "water feature"...looks like the maintenance guy forgot to turn off the hose.  Also, what's with the orange metal?  Looks like they just didn't finish painting.  Hope their next attempt is better.

[captainjack]

Same rendering as already posted, but evening view of the Northwood Ravin development:

[DMann]

From David Ravin: Our high-rise component is pretty small compared (to other uptown projects). It’s only a third of the project — only 170 units, compared to 300 or 400 units. 

That seems to imply that the units in the tower will be good sized and probably pricy, with the low rise apartments at a more affordable rate and probably smaller.

[Eightane]

This does come as a mostly-pleasant surprise, what I see here... First thing that struck me is the geometry, it seems like different angles of view could make it look wildly unique, at least compared to the variety present in our zip code Will decline comment on that. Bottom line it is a pretty piece of urban vision.

That said, I'm sorry but I can't be quite as calm about this as most have been, the retail amount is a *joke*. Especially on a street so woven into uptown, connecting to south end traffic and midtown, this should be at least commercially awake, even accounting for what others have said about large intersections, poor design etc. We have large, capable corporations spearheading sizeable chunks of land, and in the age of social media we have at least enough to gather what an area needs or is clamoring for. A property abutting a light rail stop in the heart of town should not be more car-accomodating than Metropolitan.

I don't know who exactly is most liable for dropping the ball when it comes to getting critical mass of places to shop, but even with Lincoln Harris's Observer site that's still years away and under wraps, no matter how tipped towards retail it appears. Almost every other construction-base upswing of something, be it apartments, industry growth etc. can fill a vacuum through explosion. I eagerly await the day that uptown finds itself quenched of this really prominent gap in service.

[Spartan]

On 7/1/2016 at 2:12 PM, Jayvee said:

It's too short, the wall is only like 4' 

Are we talking about the same wall? The one I'm talking about is on Stonewall. The lower end looks like its upwards of 25-20ft tall (it's hard to say based on the rendering). The upper end might be closer to 4ft... again, it's hard to tell.

[RiverwoodCLT]

Brooklyn Village will get a Staybridge Hotel and Even Hotel

From Charlotte Business Journal

Edited July 29, 2016 by RiverwoodCLT

[KJHburg]

another interesting tidbit from that Brooklyn Village article from Charlotte Business Journal was larger retail spaces for smaller big box retailers and one could be perfect for a full size grocery store. 

Three anchor tenants are planned, ranging in size from 40,000 to 76,000 square feet. Those big-box tenants would be along South McDowell Street.
National and large-format retailers would be targeted for Brooklyn Village South, which abuts I-277.   Actually I think this is pretty good idea because you need retail anchors for any shopping district. There will be lots of small shop space as well. 

[SgtCampsalot]

But what about the parking?!?!
 

[KJHburg]

The article mentions parking garages  for all the apartment buildings so I am guessing they will build them big enough for retail customers as well like the Stonewall Station project with Whole Foods. 

[CLT704]

I also know that a new coffee shop will be built in those older buildings on Brevard/3rd, involving someone already in the CLT coffee scene. 

[SgtCampsalot]

36 minutes ago, CLT704 said:

I also know that a new coffee shop will be built in those older buildings on Brevard/3rd, involving someone already in the CLT coffee scene. 

!!! It was truly meant to be.

[CLT704]

DELETED 

Edited July 30, 2016 by CLT704

[elrodvt]

All I can say is "yuck". Looks like a suburban condo plex.

[KJHburg]

Even more apartments  planned for the Actors Theatre site http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/08/02/more-than-1-000-apartments-now-proposed-along.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2016-08-02&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1470165594&j=75298772

[elrodvt]

I think It's a shame to see more lower end stick built stuff going up in downtown. It's bad enough all the towers are apartments and of questionable value for conversions (kinda small) but these are the worst. 

[Nick2]

How tall would that be with 300 apartments on an acre?

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Nick2 said:

How tall would that be with 300 apartments on an acre?

Here is the rendering. You can see for yourself. 12,000 sq feet retail.

[CLTProductions]

6 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Here is the rendering. You can see for yourself. 12,000 sq feet retail.

Good ole Proffitt Dixon, wasting land on Stonewall since 2014

[navigator319]

Same architect as did Woodfiled (Circa)?  POS hope it burns to the ground.  Keep your 12k of retail and shove it up your a$$

[CLTProductions]

10 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

Same architect as did Woodfiled (Circa)?  POS hope it burns to the ground.  Keep your 12k of retail and shove it up your a$$

It is done by Axiom who also did Camden Gallery and the Pepsi site. Which are easily some of the best projects in the city. This would be a great project if it was anywhere BUT uptown

[atlrvr]

  No...different architects, but same Geneology.....the above is Axiom Architecture.....Circa is Housing Studio.....both firms trace their roots to David Furman.

I actually this is is fine....not sure what everyone is looking for.....the curb-cut is my only bone of contention......it would be nice to utilize the existing cul-de-sac that as the sole ingress/egress (as well as the future BK Partners redevelopment of Bob Walton Plaza)

The 12k sq ft of is meaningful, and the 2nd floor balcony helps bring some life toward the street as well.  The wood paneling is distinctiveThis is significantly better than any other wood-frame project except maybe Camden South End.

A mix of scale is appreciated, and for everyone who complains how expensive new apartments are, the asking rent if this was high-rise would be at least 20% higher.