Duke Energy Building Apartment Conversion

[CLT Development]

 

As  @go_vertical requested, I've created a thread around the Duke Energy Building's conversion to residential and retail. So far nothing has been formally announced for the final property along Mint Street.

• 450 residential units
• 55,000 square feet of retail located on the ground floor of the existing buildings and throughout an open plaza anchored by a signature retail structure.

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by CLT Development

[Norm2]

55,000 sq feet of retail would be a game changer for Uptown, if current plans hold

[UPEnergy]

Would be interesting to see the internal plans.  Having worked in this building for 10 years, hard to imagine how they reconfigure inside for the overall flow for condos.

[RANYC]

This project can’t get done soon enough, IMO.  Opening up that corner of Church with a nicely designed plaza anchored by a large, signature retail building will really invigorate what is, at the moment, a dead and depressing footprint.  In fact, the entirety of the places around the stadium are pretty dismal.  

[Matthew.Brendan]

Maybe, just maybe we finally get an Apple store uptown.

[Windsurfer]

54 minutes ago, RANYC said:

This project can’t get done soon enough, IMO.  Opening up that corner of Church with a nicely designed plaza anchored by a large, signature retail building will really invigorate what is, at the moment, a dead and depressing footprint.  In fact, the entirety of the places around the stadium are pretty dismal.  

Which is interesting in light of the the big push for stadiums to go uptown in order to increase activity.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Gateway station will hopefully develop all those empty lots along the rail line as well and improve the experience around the stadium. Wish we had a “ballpark” village type thing. Potentially what Tepper envisions his entertainment district to be I guess someday. Hopefully this project will provide some synergy and help fill LU retail down the road as well. 
 

But excited for this project and hope it comes to fruition. Uptown needs to go through a residential boom again. Whether that’s office to condo conversions, new residential high rise, or other…the retail we want uptown will have a better chance of coming if more ppl lived in center city. Will also help with the safety aspect too. Safety in numbers concept. Less dead zones and more foot traffic should help make it feel safer uptown. 

[15895]

The retail will be good enough if it’s a restaurant that isn’t a steakhouse or business vibes. 

It’s hard to imagine an Apple, Nike, etc going there. Maybe another CVS or grocer could be realistic? Which is fine, there needs to be more fun places to hang out / eat in uptown these days anyway. The options need to expand beyond steakhouse or fast casual in the southern portion. 

A large brewery would be way better than any retailer here IMO. It’d be really cool to have 2-3 solid great restaurants here.  Midtown, SouthEnd, Ballantyne, Huntersville, Concord Mills seem more likely candidates for Apple over Uptown. I’d personally bet Concord Mills & Birkdale Village are the strongest contenders for an Apple. If it’s not in center city Atlanta, Dallas or Houston, it’s hard to see uptown pulling it off. So, realistically, I just want an awesome brewery or fun venue. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLT2014]

17 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

The retail will be good enough if it’s a restaurant that isn’t a steakhouse or business vibes. 

It’s hard to imagine an Apple, Nike, etc going there. Maybe another CVS or grocer could be realistic? Which is fine, there needs to be more fun places to hang out / eat in uptown these days anyway. The options need to expand beyond steakhouse or fast casual in the southern portion. 

A large brewery would be way better than any retailer here IMO. It’d be really cool to have 2-3 solid great restaurants here.  Midtown, SouthEnd, Ballantyne, Huntersville, Concord Mills seem more likely candidates for Apple over Uptown. I’d personally bet Concord Mills & Birkdale Village are the strongest contenders for an Apple. 

Apple is already opening at Birkdale Village as the replacement to the closed Northlake Mall store. The new store is under construction. 

I also agree that some more casual and fun places in the southern portion of Uptown is VERY needed. Right now, there are few options for a happy hour or lingering after work unless you have a lot of money to spend at places like Caroline's or Dean's. If your group isn't expensing the happy hour and you are self-paying, there are very few places to go for a $7 beer. As such, folks get in their car and head home that work in that part of Uptown if they don't have time to walk over to the pubs at Latta. 
 

Edited November 20, 2023 by CLT2014

[CLT Development]

2 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

The retail will be good enough if it’s a restaurant that isn’t a steakhouse or business vibes. 

It’s hard to imagine an Apple, Nike, etc going there. Maybe another CVS or grocer could be realistic? Which is fine, there needs to be more fun places to hang out / eat in uptown these days anyway. The options need to expand beyond steakhouse or fast casual in the southern portion. 

A large brewery would be way better than any retailer here IMO. It’d be really cool to have 2-3 solid great restaurants here.  Midtown, SouthEnd, Ballantyne, Huntersville, Concord Mills seem more likely candidates for Apple over Uptown. I’d personally bet Concord Mills & Birkdale Village are the strongest contenders for an Apple. If it’s not in center city Atlanta, Dallas or Houston, it’s hard to see uptown pulling it off. So, realistically, I just want an awesome brewery or fun venue. 

Something I failed to mention something that is pretty vital to this convo is the retail will be developed and managed by Asana Partners. They have been the most successful retail space merchandiser and manager in Charlotte. They have created some of our best spaces in Charlotte and have programmed all of Design Center, Ally Charlotte Center, Lowes, and more.

Side Note, Birkdale is already getting an Apple Store, and Apple has been looking since 2018 for a location in Uptown and then shifted their focus to South End post covid. There are around 100,000 workers in Uptown today (130K pre-covid), I would think an Apple Store would actually do quite well. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by CLT Development

[videtur quam contuor]

In case someone is wondering how many cities have multiple Apple stores (I was) here is the list:

https://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/

It is difficult to determine discrete cities from their suburban locations in metropolitan areas. 

When the Apple store opened in SouthPark I was in the market for a new computer. I bought one of these:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3

from that store rather than another retailer because I wanted the store to be successful. Can you believe it? I guess i made a difference

[15895]

5 hours ago, CLT Development said:

Something I failed to mention something that is pretty vital to this convo is the retail will be developed and managed by Asana Partners. They have been the most successful retail space merchandiser and manager in Charlotte. They have created some of our best spaces in Charlotte and have programmed all of Design Center, Ally Charlotte Center, Lowes, and more.

Side Note, Birkdale is already getting an Apple Store, and Apple has been looking since 2018 for a location in Uptown and then shifted their focus to South End post covid. There are around 100,000 workers in Uptown today (130K pre-covid), I would think an Apple Store would actually do quite well. 

It’d be one of a handful of cities with an urban location in the US if it did choose uptown (and there’s no lack of adequate space for Apple currently) and would be the only one in the south (TX/FL included) besides Brickell in Miami. Even Seattle doesn’t. Not to say Apple wouldn’t choose uptown, it just seems they prefer malls & places like Birkdale village in most US markets.

In any event, I still think more great restaurants like what SouthEnd & NoDa have would have a better impact, be more lively than retail and be a huge win for the immediate area. And make sense for a place with quite a bit of stadiums. 

[Reverie39]

Walking around a city like DC the amount of good looking restaurants everywhere is insane. Clearly it is possible for a major city center to support that. I don't mind the idea of seeing a lot more in central Charlotte.

[CLT Development]

9 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

It’d be one of a handful of cities with an urban location in the US if it did choose uptown (and there’s no lack of adequate space for Apple currently) and would be the only one in the south (TX/FL included) besides Brickell in Miami. Even Seattle doesn’t. Not to say Apple wouldn’t choose uptown, it just seems they prefer malls & places like Birkdale village in most US markets.

In any event, I still think more great restaurants like what SouthEnd & NoDa have would have a better impact, be more lively than retail and be a huge win for the immediate area. And make sense for a place with quite a bit of stadiums. 

I'd disagree that there is adequate space for Apple in Uptown. There is no contiguous space large enough for an Apple Store in Uptown currently available for lease. They are looking for 8-10K sq feet of space on average. The only thing that fits those size requirements is a tower space on the 3rd floor of Epicentre and it does not share the characteristics of what Apple is looking for, street frontage, high visibility, lots of glass. 

 

[15895]

1 hour ago, CLT Development said:

I'd disagree that there is adequate space for Apple in Uptown. There is no contiguous space large enough for an Apple Store in Uptown currently available for lease. They are looking for 8-10K sq feet of space on average. The only thing that fits those size requirements is a tower space on the 3rd floor of Epicentre and it does not share the characteristics of what Apple is looking for, street frontage, high visibility, lots of glass. 

 

Although I like conversation, I don’t want to overshare my opinion by posting 500x so I’ll make one last comment and leave it alone until others comment if they have any xD

Ignoring physical space (though I’d be surprised no one would make space [including Legacy Union]) & whether uptown could support it (I think a ton of downtowns could so),

I just don’t think it’s that impactful. I’d fully expect it to look like the below most hours of the day besides the grand opening:

 

 

In general, I think Charlotte should

(I) completely ignore office-to-residential & leave it to the free market. It’s not at all worth dedicating resources to me nor makes sense. Let the private market do its thing. 

(II) Not worry about retail uptown (yet.) Grocery stores, Walmart? Sure. I think stakeholders should focus on local restaurants (wayyy too business crowd), local venues, entertainment, [more karaoke, more soul food, more places that have live music from local artist etc - not just rowdy night clubs). Focus on parks, dog parks, wider side walks, recreation, low income housing, dedicated transit ways. But definitely local restaurants & venues are definitely what uptown is lacking to go to the next level of vibrancy.

I’m not saying retail wouldn’t be great. I’m just sort of over years of waiting for an H&M, Apple or Urban Outfitters which are alwayssss seemingly just the next development away & I kind of think, there’s other things that need to happen uptown that would go wayyy further than even & Apple, H&M & Urban Outfitters combined on the same block. They just don’t really generate much foot traffic. 
 

I know those are two things I think people would initially think it’s full of it. But think about it… an Apple wouldn’t make it feel any less sterile than Legacy Union already feels. A karaoke bar, and some Korean BBQ, etc. I dunno. Might be a little more lively. It just seems to be two things that I think we overly emphasize at the expense of what is really lacking. 
 

All my opinion though. You’re obviously Mr. Charlotte himself in hardcore into the loop so. Just providing a different perspective.