210 Trade | EpiCentre

[KJHburg]

well according to the Biz Journal these renovations should be done by Fall 2023.  I had not seen these renderings and at least it is something positive.

from their new webpage   https://www.queencityquarter.com/

this is important to uptown to have this lively again 

[dylansukkert]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

well according to the Biz Journal these renovations should be done by Fall 2023.  I had not seen these renderings and at least it is something positive.

from their new webpage   https://www.queencityquarter.com/

this is important to uptown to have this lively again 

Can’t wait to see this place packed again on Hornets game nights or concert nights. Really used to be a fun pregame and postgame stop.

[Desert Power]

That's less a renovation and more a rendering of what it would be like if they actually could get tenants into existing locations IMO.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

I really enjoyed Alive After 5 there. Big fan of live music and the rooftop was a great environment for that with great views. Speaking of which, is alive after five not a thing anymore? Now that I’m thinking about it, haven’t heard anything about AA5 in a long time since the start of the epicentre’s decline. Would have thought they potentially find an alternate spot uptown. Hopefully they bring back a music venue or two back like howl at the moon. Those ppl were talented in there. 

Edited December 22, 2022 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[PuppiesandKittens]

So the Epicenter is being renamed, parts will be repaired and the owners hope that more family-friendly tenants will lease space there.

OK…

Successfully  repositioning a property usually takes more than that, right?

I’d say that luring the Apple Store from Northlake Mall before it decamps for Birkdale Village, even if the cost is free rent, would be a way to make this center work.

Edited December 25, 2022 by PuppiesandKittens

[ClassicColtrane]

21 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

So the Epicenter is being renamed, parts will be repaired and the owners hope that more family-friendly tenants will lease space there.

OK…

Successfully  repositioning a property usually takes more than that, right?

I’d say that luring the Apple Store from Northlake Mall before it decamps for Birkdale Village, even if the cost is free rent, would be a way to make this center work.

Or Zara. And judging by the comments under Jason Thomas’ last post, the people are sooo ready for a Zara in Charlotte!

[TheOneRJ]

The Apple Store at Northlake is still very popular. I think a third location would open before it’s moved from North Charlotte.

[PuppiesandKittens]

11 hours ago, TheOneRJ said:

The Apple Store at Northlake is still very popular. I think a third location would open before it’s moved from North Charlotte.

Fair point.  Then the former Epicenter ought to find another destination anchor tenant as a starting point. Maybe retailers that aren’t already in Charlotte would be the way to make this work.  

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Fair point.  Then the former Epicenter ought to find another destination anchor tenant as a starting point. Maybe retailers that aren’t already in Charlotte would be the way to make this work.  

Let's just be clear on what the Epicenter is.  It's a distressed piece of collateral that no active developer wanted, and so the german bank lender to the previous owners had to just take title to its collateral, and hire a real estate broker (CBRE) to provide a value-add side service, property managing forlorn & moribund properties.  I still submit there's no real balance sheet ready to fund a massive overhaul of this thing, and somewhat premier brands like Zara and even Apple have more to lose attaching themselves to a distressed property like Epicenter, than Epicenter would even gain from landing such anchor tenants.

[PuppiesandKittens]

2 hours ago, RANYC said:

Let's just be clear on what the Epicenter is.  It's a distressed piece of collateral that no active developer wanted, and so the german bank lender to the previous owners had to just take title to its collateral, and hire a real estate broker (CBRE) to provide a value-add side service, property managing forlorn & moribund properties.  I still submit there's no real balance sheet ready to fund a massive overhaul of this thing, and somewhat premier brands like Zara and even Apple have more to lose attaching themselves to a distressed property like Epicenter, than Epicenter would even gain from landing such anchor tenants.

Fair points.

There was a distressed mall in Long Island called the Mall at the Source.  It was almost totally vacant, but somehow the owner landed a Lord & Taylor clearance center and (once new owners bought it) a Bloomingdale’s furniture store.  Now I think it’s been revived as maybe a home furnishings-focused shopping center.

Fair points about Apple and Zara; however, surely someone in charge of leasing for a desirable national chain would open a store in exchange for free rent.  Maybe Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s new small-format stores?  Brooks Brothers?  Anyone? Buehler?

Simply doing some repairs on the property and hoping that family-friendly tenants will join is a fool’s errand, it needs someone to kick things off.

Edited December 25, 2022 by PuppiesandKittens

[kayman]

On 12/24/2022 at 7:58 PM, PuppiesandKittens said:

So the Epicenter is being renamed, parts will be repaired and the owners hope that more family-friendly tenants will lease space there.

OK…

Successfully  repositioning a property usually takes more than that, right?

I’d say that luring the Apple Store from Northlake Mall before it decamps for Birkdale Village, even if the cost is free rent, would be a way to make this center work.

I think Charlotte has the population that could support a 3rd Apple Store without relocation of an existing location. 

 

On the topic, the formerly named Epicentre now Queen City Quarter is what who wants to manage it makes of it. The point of it being a destination requires coordination and desire by property management/ownership and event organizers. The property is similar to Underground in Atlanta. It is all about timing and willingness to put in effort to revitalize it. I doubt that it won't happen, it's about when. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by kayman

[KJHburg]

Apple does need a 3rd store in this market and intown is where it needs to be.  Northlake store serves everyone north of town like in the Lake Norman area who find a trip to Southpark too long.   There is not another Apple store in NW NC or western NC for that matter.  Apple sniffed around in Southend and I agree you give them a sweetheart deal at the QCQ Epicenter.  Metro Nashville which is smaller than metro Charlotte has 3 including one downtown!  

Apple stores are desired by mall owners as they produce off the charts sales per square which is a common way retailers pay landlords a base rent and % of sales. 

[15895]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Apple does need a 3rd store in this market and intown is where it needs to be.  Northlake store serves everyone north of town like in the Lake Norman area who find a trip to Southpark too long.   There is not another Apple store in NW NC or western NC for that matter.  Apple sniffed around in Southend and I agree you give them a sweetheart deal at the QCQ Epicenter.  Metro Nashville which is smaller than metro Charlotte has 3 including one downtown!  

Apple stores are desired by mall owners as they produce off the charts sales per square which is a common way retailers pay landlords a base rent and % of sales. 

It’d be nice to see an Apple Store uptown along Tryon similar to the one in downtown Portland.  Maybe at the Wells Fargo Water Fountain Plaza. 

It’d even be cool if they could keep the water fountain and just box up the majority of the Plaza as a glass facade Apple Store. 

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLT2014]

36 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

It’d be nice to see an Apple Store uptown along Tryon similar to the one in downtown Portland.  Maybe at the Wells Fargo Water Fountain Plaza. 

It’d even be cool if they could keep the water fountain and just box up the majority of the Plaza as a glass facade Apple Store. 

 

It will be interesting to see if Apple expands on the glass box concept in some markets given their experience with the Portland store. The one in Portland is completely surrounded in tall chain link security fencing, concrete barricades to stop cars from ramming, and security that greets you at the door due to vandalism and they are going to now "renovate" the store with a less open design that breaks panels into smaller pieces to be repaired faster during civil unrest. Portland is likely an outlier, but Charlotte has had its share of vandalism in Uptown that could give pause to as innovative a design as this Portland store that is now being made less open.

Edited December 26, 2022 by CLT2014

[rancenc]

Maybe a new and better Epicentre could be in the making......let's see!!

https://www.wbtv.com/2023/02/08/plans-new-entertainment-district-surrounding-spectrum-center-uptown/

[15895]

Time to dust off the old plans for a Brevard Entertainment district again. I remember the city put serious effort around the time of the Hall of Fame & Epicenter was built. Around the time there were serious discussions about a big fancy pedestrian bridge connecting uptown & SouthEnd. Too.

Levine Land, Brevard Stroll Districts, 2nd Ward Village & Gateway Station. Things that always seem imminent even a decade later. 

It’s crazy it’s already been 10 years since NC engaged Hines to be a developer for Gateway & dropped this lovely Rendering of gateway. 

Edited February 8, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[JRCLT]

Time to dust off the old plans for a Brevard Entertainment district again. I remember the city put serious effort around the time of the Hall of Fame & Epicenter was built. Around the time there were serious discussions about a big fancy pedestrian bridge connecting uptown & SouthEnd. Too.
Levine Land, Brevard Stroll Districts, 2nd Ward Village & Gateway Station. Things that always seem imminent even a decade later. 

It’s crazy it’s already been 10 years since NC engaged Hines to be a developer for Gateway & dropped this lovely Rendering of gateway. 

Unfortunately…

https://www.eqv-consortium.com/charlotte-gateway-station

[ertley]

15 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Time to dust off the old plans for a Brevard Entertainment district again. I remember the city put serious effort around the time of the Hall of Fame & Epicenter was built. Around the time there were serious discussions about a big fancy pedestrian bridge connecting uptown & SouthEnd. Too.

Levine Land, Brevard Stroll Districts, 2nd Ward Village & Gateway Station. Things that always seem imminent even a decade later. 

It’s crazy it’s already been 10 years since NC engaged Hines to be a developer for Gateway & dropped this lovely Rendering of gateway. 

This [my response, not the original posting] technically belongs in the Culture thread, but since it was prompted herein...

I personally think some folks with deep pockets (e.g. developers) should approach the NC Music Hall of Fame and work out a deal to relocate it in Charlotte, whether part of a Brevard entertainment district or not; anywhere uptown would be fine, IMO. Everybody likes music, of one variety or another, and it would be a tremendous draw, and for all ages and demographics, to have it downtown.

I've stated before that I don't think Charlotte should go chasing waterfalls, when developing its cultural identity, and a museum about music and musicians from North Carolina would definitely not be something you could find anywhere else. 

I'm sure the institution in Kannapolis is done well, but if real money, especially as part of a major development, was put into its relocation to downtown Charlotte, it really could be taken "to the next level," in way that it's not currently. The Hall of Fame was originally founded in Thomasville and moved to Kannapolis only in '08 (from my internet research), so it wouldn't be like Charlotte was poaching a sui generis Kannapolis institution; it's moved before. I think it could be objectively stated that it would get far more patronage by being in Charlotte than in Kannapolis. 

I opined a while ago that I think the old First Baptist should not be simply an auditorium space for the new library complex but really offer a variety of productions, including music (not copying per se, but inspired by Ryman in Nashville), and having the Music Hall of Fame within a few blocks' walk would really create some 'synergy' , IMHO, and hopefully inspire or catalyze a live music culture downtown, which is what makes Nashville and Austin the cultural centers of the New South that they are.

This was mentioned in the History thread, at some point, but Charlotte was a major locus of country music in its early days, and Nashville became dominant--and drew artists and talent away from everywhere else--largely because of the sponsorship and influence of an insurance company-sponsored radio program.  To me, having the NC Music Hall of Fame in Charlotte would be more than appropriate, it would situate it where some of the actual earliest national musicians from the Carolinas started.

Besides everything else, there are so many relatively unknown, important folk, etc. artists that have come from North Carolina that should be known by all North Carolinians--Elizabeth Cotten springs immediately to mind--that I think (IMHO) it's actually incumbent upon a museum of a scope, such as one statewide, to be in a place where the most people possible can attend and learn. 

[RANYC]

52 minutes ago, ertley said:

This [my response, not the original posting] technically belongs in the Culture thread, but since it was prompted herein...

I personally think some folks with deep pockets (e.g. developers) should approach the NC Music Hall of Fame and work out a deal to relocate it in Charlotte, whether part of a Brevard entertainment district or not; anywhere uptown would be fine, IMO. Everybody likes music, of one variety or another, and it would be a tremendous draw, and for all ages and demographics, to have it downtown.

I've stated before that I don't think Charlotte should go chasing waterfalls, when developing its cultural identity, and a museum about music and musicians from North Carolina would definitely not be something you could find anywhere else. 

I'm sure the institution in Kannapolis is done well, but if real money, especially as part of a major development, was put into its relocation to downtown Charlotte, it really could be taken "to the next level," in way that it's not currently. The Hall of Fame was originally founded in Thomasville and moved to Kannapolis only in '08 (from my internet research), so it wouldn't be like Charlotte was poaching a sui generis Kannapolis institution; it's moved before. I think it could be objectively stated that it would get far more patronage by being in Charlotte than in Kannapolis. 

I opined a while ago that I think the old First Baptist should not be simply an auditorium space for the new library complex but really offer a variety of productions, including music (not copying per se, but inspired by Ryman in Nashville), and having the Music Hall of Fame within a few blocks' walk would really create some 'synergy' , IMHO, and hopefully inspire or catalyze a live music culture downtown, which is what makes Nashville and Austin the cultural centers of the New South that they are.

This was mentioned in the History thread, at some point, but Charlotte was a major locus of country music in its early days, and Nashville became dominant--and drew artists and talent away from everywhere else--largely because of the sponsorship and influence of an insurance company-sponsored radio program.  To me, having the NC Music Hall of Fame in Charlotte would be more than appropriate, it would situate it where some of the actual earliest national musicians from the Carolinas started.

Besides everything else, there are so many relatively unknown, important folk, etc. artists that have come from North Carolina that should be known by all North Carolinians--Elizabeth Cotten springs immediately to mind--that I think (IMHO) it's actually incumbent upon a museum of a scope, such as one statewide, to be in a place where the most people possible can attend and learn. 

Love this idea 

[15895]

39 minutes ago, ertley said:

This [my response, not the original posting] technically belongs in the Culture thread, but since it was prompted herein...

I personally think some folks with deep pockets (e.g. developers) should approach the NC Music Hall of Fame and work out a deal to relocate it in Charlotte, whether part of a Brevard entertainment district or not; anywhere uptown would be fine, IMO. Everybody likes music, of one variety or another, and it would be a tremendous draw, and for all ages and demographics, to have it downtown.

I've stated before that I don't think Charlotte should go chasing waterfalls, when developing its cultural identity, and a museum about music and musicians from North Carolina would definitely not be something you could find anywhere else. 

I'm sure the institution in Kannapolis is done well, but if real money, especially as part of a major development, was put into its relocation to downtown Charlotte, it really could be taken "to the next level," in way that it's not currently. The Hall of Fame was originally founded in Thomasville and moved to Kannapolis only in '08 (from my internet research), so it wouldn't be like Charlotte was poaching a sui generis Kannapolis institution; it's moved before. I think it could be objectively stated that it would get far more patronage by being in Charlotte than in Kannapolis. 

I opined a while ago that I think the old First Baptist should not be simply an auditorium space for the new library complex but really offer a variety of productions, including music (not copying per se, but inspired by Ryman in Nashville), and having the Music Hall of Fame within a few blocks' walk would really create some 'synergy' , IMHO, and hopefully inspire or catalyze a live music culture downtown, which is what makes Nashville and Austin the cultural centers of the New South that they are.

This was mentioned in the History thread, at some point, but Charlotte was a major locus of country music in its early days, and Nashville became dominant--and drew artists and talent away from everywhere else--largely because of the sponsorship and influence of an insurance company-sponsored radio program.  To me, having the NC Music Hall of Fame in Charlotte would be more than appropriate, it would situate it where some of the actual earliest national musicians from the Carolinas started.

Besides everything else, there are so many relatively unknown, important folk, etc. artists that have come from North Carolina that should be known by all North Carolinians--Elizabeth Cotten springs immediately to mind--that I think (IMHO) it's actually incumbent upon a museum of a scope, such as one statewide, to be in a place where the most people possible can attend and learn. 

Good post. 

I’d say in general, there’s several “small” things Charlotte could pursue that I think would have outsized positive consequences as a whole. Nice, big, separated bike lanes on Tryon, take a lane or 2 from College and make on street parking in one lane and the one beside make that portion the Rail Trail with lots of landscaping, etc. Wider sidewalks even in the currently dead parts of uptown, some love to several parks, pretty good temporary Rec Fields (for soccer, etc) on some empty lots paying some $$$ to developers sitting on lane in 1st or 2nd wards, etc. Why not move the Charlotte Fair from some random place in NorthLake to Uptown at Levine Land or near Marshall Park?  Etc.

Are there any laws that can be passed to encourage a large brewery uptown? Built for future development in mind? Marshall Park (not sure if it’s going away) is a huge asset given it has a large water feature. A renovated Marshall Park with a large brewery would be sooo dope. I’ve been thinking for years Marshall Park is such a wasted asset  

Regular everyday use for locals, family, recreation (Especially family) will go a long way for reimagining uptown from an office park to a giant SouthEnd. Doesn’t have to be new museums, aquarium, Ferris wheels, etc. or things that would be significant 

[Reverie39]

Top Golf in Uptown?

[Jakeupps]

I thought the Top Golf was a great idea, but we realized they didn't account for left handed golfers.  First swing by a lefty at a company get together and WHAM, destroyed a TV that they had lining each bay.

[PuppiesandKittens]

So City Council is talking about creating an entertainment district uptown, with “corporate naming rights” that “could” bring in “$60 million over 10 years.”

Great, but unless and until I see a private developer or retail/restaurant/entertainment tenant, with a track record and funding, announce firm plans, it’s just talk.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Wish we weren’t so restricting/limited in regards to casinos and sports books here in Nc.  Entertainment district could be sponsored by Draft Kings and the epicentre could be anchored by an upscale place  like Sports & Social and have a state of the art sports book.  Surrounded by shops, restaurants, and music venues. Coupled with the potential CTC renovation and hornets practice facility, would be game-changing imo. 

[Madison Parkitect]

5 minutes ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

Wish we weren’t so restricting/limited in regards to casinos and sports books here in Nc.  Entertainment district could be sponsored by Draft Kings and the epicentre could be anchored by an upscale place  like Sports & Social and have a state of the art sports book.  Surrounded by shops, restaurants, and music venues. Coupled with the potential CTC renovation and hornets practice facility, would be game-changing imo. 

We'll get legalized betting here eventually, just like everywhere else will. A sports book isn't a bad idea for the Epicentre, actually; something like that doesn't need any windows or street connection. They could put it in one of those big interior spaces and it would do just fine.