Elizabeth Projects (7th St, Elizabeth Ave, etc)

[RANYC]

36 minutes ago, SouthEndCLT811 said:

Here's a "favorite" where the damaged pole is still hanging behind the new pole at the corner of Clanton/Tryon

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1960994,-80.8769693,3a,51.6y,189.19h,96.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAv7BwCXW1k2tvBWWb9gGGg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

Wonderful reflection on our city at an intersection just off the interstate too.  The dangling pole is really accentuated by the sagging, rusted, breached chain-link fencing as well.

[ArchiCLT]

Can we talk about how hideous the new paint scheme is at the Elizabeth Station apartments (formerly Venue)? The Elizabeth community wrote the ownership/management a letter criticizing their new paint job that sticks out like a sore thumb in their neighborhood. Under new ownership and management, complaints about these apartments have been numerous, including trash issues and the like. (See last photo.) One resident even placed a sign one day in protest of the new management outside the building that read: "The worst apartments in Charlotte!" They apparently have only one maintenance person on duty for the entire complex. Has anyone else heard anything about this?

Edited January 9, 2022 by theronhobbs

[JRCLT]

Paint scheme isn’t too bad. It does pop but isn’t ugly at least not from those pictures IMO. Everything else is unfortunate.

[J-Rob]

14 hours ago, JeanClt said:

Paint scheme isn’t too bad. It does pop but isn’t ugly at least not from those pictures IMO. Everything else is unfortunate.

If it was in SouthEnd the paint scheme might not seem as bad, but it absolutely sticks out like a sore thumb on 7th street.  Elizabeth is a very historical neighborhood with lots of bungalows, etc. The neighborhood vibe is very calming, and when I drove past the new paint job the first time, I almost drove off the road, lol.

 

[49er]

So much time was probably spent during the rezoning process to ensure that the project blended into the community. There's some stonework and other minor details that are nice. If I lived there I would be pissed. It's just flat out tacky.  The colors do not match up with the brick and stone at all. 

[Madison Parkitect]

A coworker lived there before she bought a house and had a few months' experience with the new owner/management. She had only really bad things to say about it, especially the trash and maintenance situations.

[JRCLT]

I guess these colors match more with the surrounding structures and homes more than the current color scheme. Not bad. I can see it stands out more now lol. I’d say it seems kind of like a bland neighborhood and looks gloomy in this picture. The color scheme isn’t bad aside from its location and therefore its perceived appearance. I wouldn’t say the colors don’t go well together they look good together on the building alone. Tacky? Yeah a little. Probably not the best location to be flashy in.

[TGIBridays]

5 minutes ago, JeanClt said:

I guess these colors match more with the surrounding structures and homes more than the current color scheme. Not bad. I can see it stands out more now lol. I’d say it seems kind of like a bland neighborhood and looks gloomy in this picture. The color scheme isn’t bad aside from its location and therefore its perceived appearance. I wouldn’t say the colors don’t go well together they look good together on the building alone. Tacky? Yeah a little. Probably not the best location to be flashy in.

I'm with you.  But I also kind of just hate beige and how pervasive it is. 

[cltheel.sdl]

Blue-grays are popular right now - would have been much more aesthetically pleasing than the color scheme they chose on that building.  

[KJHburg]

first time I have driven by this site in a long time.  Kudos to Crescent this building looks GREAT!  Today as I was heading to Sabor the original location. 

 

[Bat'leth]

From Charlotte Ledger. 6 story hotel proposed for corner of 7th St & Lamar Ave where  Royal Gardens bldg now sits. Current area plan calls for street level retail & office or residential above. 4 stories  or 40 feet max height.

From Charlotte Ledger:

A boutique hotel with ‘concierge-style service’ is envisioned in Elizabeth
A Durham developer is proposing to build a 6-story boutique hotel in the Elizabeth neighborhood.
So far as we know, there is no hotel at the moment in Elizabeth, so building a 47-room hotel on the northeast corner of East 7th Street and Lamar Avenue — catty corner from Cajun Queen — would be a new look.
Documents filed with the city show that a company called Lucrum Seven LLC has filed a rezoning petition for the 0.6-acre site, and the site plan calls for a 73-foot-high hotel with underground parking and 6,800 s.f. of retail. The site now contains two houses, built in 1913 and 1935, with one being used until recently as a business (a garden shop).
     

There are condos next to the property on one side and single-family homes on the other. It’s zoned for general business. In Elizabeth, 7th Street is a main commercial corridor.
Public records seem to show that Lucrum Seven is linked to a company called The Carolina Experience, whose website says it operates four properties, in Edenton, Mount Airy, Elkin and Blowing Rock. It says it has “premium properties” that “aim to deliver concierge-style service at beautiful destinations across the state.”
 

[DMann]

I have been in that house and always thought it had potential for a beautiful single family home!  Oh Well!

[abttown]

That's interesting.  All of their properties (minus Blowing Rock) appear to be renovated buildings.  Charlotte will be a different setting, so I'll be very curious to see what they plan to build here.

[Bat'leth]

This is a proposed section through the building. I'm told the first elevations are of a pretty modern look - brick & glass. Definitely not trying to fit in with its surroundings here as they did elsewhere.

 

 

[archiham04]

Section looks like it will have decent street presence.    Would be better if retail were 18' floor to floor and deeper- 60' or so (making it more viable for wider variety of businesses) but other than that, good on them from tucking the parking underneath and not putting the garage at street level.  All that said, I wonder if this section is a worst case or best case scenario?

[NYtoCLT]

On 3/11/2022 at 3:03 PM, Bat'leth said:

From Charlotte Ledger. 6 story hotel proposed for corner of 7th St & Lamar Ave where  Royal Gardens bldg now sits. Current area plan calls for street level retail & office or residential above. 4 stories  or 40 feet max height.

From Charlotte Ledger:

A boutique hotel with ‘concierge-style service’ is envisioned in Elizabeth
A Durham developer is proposing to build a 6-story boutique hotel in the Elizabeth neighborhood.
So far as we know, there is no hotel at the moment in Elizabeth, so building a 47-room hotel on the northeast corner of East 7th Street and Lamar Avenue — catty corner from Cajun Queen — would be a new look.
Documents filed with the city show that a company called Lucrum Seven LLC has filed a rezoning petition for the 0.6-acre site, and the site plan calls for a 73-foot-high hotel with underground parking and 6,800 s.f. of retail. The site now contains two houses, built in 1913 and 1935, with one being used until recently as a business (a garden shop).
     

There are condos next to the property on one side and single-family homes on the other. It’s zoned for general business. In Elizabeth, 7th Street is a main commercial corridor.
Public records seem to show that Lucrum Seven is linked to a company called The Carolina Experience, whose website says it operates four properties, in Edenton, Mount Airy, Elkin and Blowing Rock. It says it has “premium properties” that “aim to deliver concierge-style service at beautiful destinations across the state.”
 

Between this and the hotel on Central/Hawthorne that is proposed there is going to go from zero hotel space in this area to a decent little bit.

 

I am curious how long longer the UPS Store retail center will be around.  Definitely not the highest and best use for 7th and Hawthorne.  

[sakami]

A site plan has been filed for a Dunkin Donuts at 3197 Monroe Road. As far as I can remember for the last 15 years this spot was a shuttered gas station. This isn’t really in Elizabeth but it doesn’t feel like it belongs on the MORA page either. 

APPROVED-LDCR-2021-00007.pdf

[RANYC]

6 minutes ago, sakami said:

A site plan has been filed for a Dunkin Donuts at 3197 Monroe Road. As far as I can remember for the last 15 years this spot was a shuttered gas station. This isn’t really in Elizabeth but it doesn’t feel like it belongs on the MORA page either. 

APPROVED-LDCR-2021-00007.pdf 884.64 kB · 1 download

Good grief, so much land use for this single-use donut & coffee shop.  Latest example of the car-sucker tax that permeates every fiber of our existence and landscape.

[CLT2014]

Hideous... that corridor just keeps getting auto-centric sprawl.

Add this to the list of other crimes on Monroe that will keep it car focused:
MoRA Point shopping center..... sprawling Aldi, a car wash, drive thru Starbucks, and 7-Eleven gas. Hideous cheap and poorly built buildings that won't age well. 
Meridian Center... basically a McDonald's
Oakhurst on Monroe... cheap suburban strip mall... better than MoRA Point though by at least being up against Monroe, with parking behind. Missed opportunity on retail entrances from Monroe. 
SECU Branch next to Oakhurst.... giant parking lot that kills any connectivity to the adjacent Oakhurst on Monroe Center. Lots of drive thrus. 

[RANYC]

47 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Hideous... that corridor just keeps getting auto-centric sprawl.

Add this to the list of other crimes on Monroe that will keep it car focused:
MoRA Point shopping center..... sprawling Aldi, a car wash, drive thru Starbucks, and 7-Eleven gas. Hideous cheap and poorly built buildings that won't age well. 
Meridian Center... basically a McDonald's
Oakhurst on Monroe... cheap suburban strip mall... better than MoRA Point though by at least being up against Monroe, with parking behind. Missed opportunity on retail entrances from Monroe. 
SECU Branch next to Oakhurst.... giant parking lot that kills any connectivity to the adjacent Oakhurst on Monroe Center. Lots of drive thrus. 

Are these design choices forced upon the developer by city design requirements and regulations?  Thinking about the lack of retail entrances off the Monroe Rd sidewalk...do city regs hinder such a design feature, or does developer decide no one will enter the establishments off the sidewalk and so why spend the money on access points along the sidewalk?

Edited May 27, 2022 by RANYC

[CLT2014]

13 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Are these design choices forced upon the developer by city design requirements and regulations?  Thinking about the lack of retail entrances off the Monroe Rd sidewalk...do city regs hinder such a design feature, or does developer decide no one will enter the establishments off the sidewalk and so why spend the money on access points along the sidewalk?

Nobody forced MoRA Point to be a sprawling suburban wasteland... the developer thought that was what the market could bare and was more focused on trying to appeal to car commuters. The city just shouldn't have approved it like that. How a gas station ended up there.... ugh. 

[RANYC]

31 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Nobody forced MoRA Point to be a sprawling suburban wasteland... the developer thought that was what the market could bare and was more focused on trying to appeal to car commuters. The city just shouldn't have approved it like that. How a gas station ended up there.... ugh. 

"Wasteland" is harsh, lol.  In the name of a kinder, gentler America, I'm going to try and tone down and use de-escalatory language, even on the most benign of subject matter.

Having said that, yes, MORA could be so much more accommodative to those who walk or use micro-alternatives like bikes, e-bikes, scooters, hover-boards, seg-ways, etc.  I do think that starts with a massive re-design of Monroe Road.  The prospect of walking or taking micro-alternatives along Monroe Road for errands is a terrifying one, and as long as such arterial hostilities exist, it's probably sound judgment for the developer to design in a way that fits the context.

Edited May 27, 2022 by RANYC

[TCLT]

Monroe is so horrifically unfriendly to pedestrians that it makes sense to orient the customer entrances towards the parking lot. It’s awful but I don’t blame the developers. The sidewalk is right up against the road and really narrow for most of the stretch of Monroe and the crossings are not comfortable or well designed. The city is fixing a small stretch of sidewalk between Wendover and Sharon Amity which makes the Oakhurst shopping center design somewhat, but barely, more egregious. The proximity to independence I’m sure also contributes to car centric design. There’s just a lot more drivers to capture as customers than any pedestrian activity that could possibly be stimulated by good design. The only thing that’s gonna change that is the silver line.

Mora Point for sure feels more aimed capturing traffic from independence rather than monroe. It’s pretty disconnected from the residential neighborhoods nearby and Idlewild is even less walkable than Monroe. Their tenant mix is super uninspiring too, but its design is probably contributing to that. The retail at Meridian is a bit better but it’s also a lot more accessible from East Meck High and the neighborhood behind it. Having a brewery there also encourages walking by nearby residents I think.

[sakami]

2 hours ago, TCLT said:

Monroe is so horrifically unfriendly to pedestrians that it makes sense to orient the customer entrances towards the parking lot. It’s awful but I don’t blame the developers. The sidewalk is right up against the road and really narrow for most of the stretch of Monroe and the crossings are not comfortable or well designed. The city is fixing a small stretch of sidewalk between Wendover and Sharon Amity which makes the Oakhurst shopping center design somewhat, but barely, more egregious. The proximity to independence I’m sure also contributes to car centric design. There’s just a lot more drivers to capture as customers than any pedestrian activity that could possibly be stimulated by good design. The only thing that’s gonna change that is the silver line.

Mora Point for sure feels more aimed capturing traffic from independence rather than monroe. It’s pretty disconnected from the residential neighborhoods nearby and Idlewild is even less walkable than Monroe. Their tenant mix is super uninspiring too, but its design is probably contributing to that. The retail at Meridian is a bit better but it’s also a lot more accessible from East Meck High and the neighborhood behind it. Having a brewery there also encourages walking by nearby residents I think.

Yes it is absolutely terrible to walk down. I sometimes take my car down there for work and think it’s only a mile no big deal and walk home. And then I trip over the giant cracks and crumbles in the sidewalks and am worried I’m going to fall into the street.

While not personally thrilled by the idea of a Dunkin Donuts I am happy it isn’t another storage facility or gas station. 

[tozmervo]

A project is starting later this year to make a stretch Monroe a hell of a lot more pedestrian friendly, with more stretches planned in the future. Monroe Road streetscape (charlottenc.gov)