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tozmervo
tozmervo

Lifeless to alive in just a couple of years.

kermit
kermit

on topic but miniaturized... my wife 3d printed a copy of the uptown skyline for me!     Hurst was not ‘Hursted’, but check out those accurately reproduced surface lots! (actually

J-Rob
J-Rob

Per Charlotte Ledger, the land at 4th and Brevard across from CTC sold for $11M.   This is the Norfolk Southern land they were slow to let go of.    I am incredibly excited about this.  White Point Pa

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SgtCampsalot Town

SgtCampsalot

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19 hours ago, Dale said:

Would you agree that there is decidedly more synergy than, say, ten years ago ? I rest my case.

It's basically hair, shoe repair and cheap eats. Which is why it doesn't impede higher quality retail elsewhere. See: Minneapolis.

I like when a city's downtown has a handful of cheap national chains. It can be nice if you have to be stuck on foot for a long time or in a pinch.

The most frustrating moments in my various tips to Boston, NYC, Denver, was when I was on my last $20 and needed it to stretch two days for meals, but all I could find were fancy restaurants and expensive sandwich shops. In that respect, I do kind of wish some of Overstreet's tenants could be street level (and open after 5pm, but that's a general downtown issue in the south).

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caterpillar2 Hamlet

caterpillar2

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I also wish that the Latta Arcade was open on weekends and there was a Steinmart uptown somewhere. They are cheap and have a variety of goods. It would also be nice if there was a place to get a watch repaired, see a travel agent, browse an antique shop, shoot a game of pool or throw darts; It is hard to believe that at one time uptown Charlotte had it all and shopping was excellent. Unfortunately, we went the route of other cities that grew out and had to build shopping centers. It will change I believe. The problem is that the old places like the National Shirt Shop, Tanners, and numerous small shops are no longer affordable.  It is so costly to keep anywhere open. Even shops, small bistros,  and pubs in London are closing because of the expense to run a small business these days. The volume of sales just isn't enough these days to sustain a business in many cases. 

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CLT704 Hamlet

CLT704

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13 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

 No clue where to put this, but If you fast forward to 39min it shows David Copperfield "escaping" from Hotel Charlotte before it was imploded in 1988.

If only the building was still standing today. There are a couple of buildings I wish weren't destroyed including the Independence Building.

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KJHburg Ecumenopolis

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Hotel Charlotte where the Carillon stands today was a great old building. But at that point in history of Charlotte it was so expensive to renovate. Yes now it would be and it would have been a great apartment building.  Dittos for Independence Bldg Charlotte's first high rise. Would make a great boutique hotel today. Our city is so modern people are surprised when I tell them President George Washington stayed in uptown Charlotte in 1791 and reportedly left his wig powder behind LOL. But I am excited we are going to save some of our old mills and the old Ford Model T plant. 

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CharlotteWkndBuzz Burg

CharlotteWkndBuzz

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^it's probably all up to opinion though. I love how new and modern uptown is. But from growing up in winston myself, clt lacks that grit and historic feel. I think we get too caught up with that standard of uptown that we start critiquing every little thing that is out of uptowns norm.

For instance, I'm in Asheville right now. We on UP often complain about how ugly the Ascents mural is on the garage side, but if that same mural was hoisted up on some building here in Asheville, hell even winston, nobody would think twice. We sometimes seem to dismiss the quirkiness and weirdness of things here, that uptown could use. Also I haven't been to asheville in years and blown away with all the retail and boutique stores that line the streets. 

I know we are making great strides and changes with our streetscape in terms of retail and stuff, but really makes me wonder how clt missed the boat on all of this  from the beginning, when smaller cities like asheville and Greenville have a plenty 

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nonillogical Burg

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On 2/11/2017 at 6:27 PM, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

For instance, I'm in Asheville right now. We on UP often complain about how ugly the Ascents mural is on the garage side, but if that same mural was hoisted up on some building here in Asheville, hell even winston, nobody would think twice. We sometimes seem to dismiss the quirkiness and weirdness of things here, that uptown could use.

I have to disagree with that...the Ascent mural is very uptown Charlotte in that it looks like it was designed by a committee, not by an artist. Asheville (Winston too in parts) and many other small cities have great murals and street art because they entrust an established artist to just run with an idea. 

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CharlotteWkndBuzz Burg

CharlotteWkndBuzz

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1 hour ago, nonillogical said:

I have to disagree with that...the Ascent mural is very uptown Charlotte in that it looks like it was designed by a committee, not by an artist. Asheville (Winston too in parts) and many other small cities have great murals and street art because they entrust an established artist to just run with an idea. 

I agree with you.  Some may argue though, that the definition of art is up to perception and opinion.  Some may like the mural, while others don't.  I by no means like what's up there currently and agree that it would have been cool if there was a known/local artist(s) involved.  Also think we are still figuring out things (cultural identity)...meaning you can't just slap up murals, weird sculptures, old vinyl/record store and an Earth Bound store and have "culture" in uptown.  It has to be organic.  

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Spartan Gigalopolis

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On 2/10/2017 at 10:27 AM, Dale said:

Sounds like someone is triggered by Overstreet Mall. I've always liked it. And it is clearly not impeding street activity. Every time I visit Uptown, it's sidewalks are awash with foot traffic.

 

On 2/10/2017 at 5:02 PM, KJHburg said:

Overstreet Mall is very crowded during lunch periods and yes it is almost deserted during weekends and evenings. However it does serve a purpose many uptown workers love it because they dont have to get outside in the heat or excessive cold or rain. Here of late it has not hurt the street level retail scene. It was modeled after the system in Minneapolis and at least it is better than the tunnel system Houston and Toronto has. You can really get lost underground! It will probably not be expanded again.  The history of it was it was built to compete with suburban malls when you had 2 huge department stores uptown Belks (where BofA CC is today) and Iveys department store. There used to be an overstreet mall bridge over Tryon. I have a photo of it I took when I was a kid. 

 

On 2/10/2017 at 6:40 PM, elrodvt said:

Yeah, I agree it doesn't impede anything on the street level. I have no idea about 10 years ago but from what i've read you're certainly right that the downtown area is more vibrant now (low bar). I see so many fairly inexpensive things, based on other much more vibrant places i have lived, that could make it better though. It's almost like the city doesn't even care. Why do we pay for these trips they take to benchmark themselves against other cities when nothing seems to come of it. I guess I'm getting this thread way off track so I'll stop now.

Re: All of the posts on Overstreet Mall

The network of hamster tubes are bad for Charlotte, and it's not about what it is; it's about how it could be different. Overstreet Mall is a vampire that sucks the lifeblood out of Charlotte's uptown retail scene. As an urbanist, I want to have all of the businesses that are in the tubes - even the chain stores - as a sidewalk-fronting business. 

Overstreet Mall doesn't "impede" foot traffic on nights and weekends because its closed. It does, however, corner the uptown daytime market. It allows for suburban workers to drive into uptown, park in a garage, use the tubes to get into their offices, buy a coffee, eat lunch, get their phone repaired, go to the dentist, optometrist, fill a prescription, and go back through the tubes to their cars and drive home - all without ever setting foot on the sidewalk. That is the essence of the problem. It's not that the mall precludes people from walking on the sidewalk. It's that it encourages uptown workers to never venture out onto the street and see what's out there. To that end, Center City Partners has counted pedestrians up there a few years back and there were about 13,000 - 15,000 people per day that use the Trade St tube. That's a lot of people that could be out on the sidewalk.

I have a friend who recently started working for Wells Fargo. We met up for lunch at Queen City Q after about three months of him working there, and he said that it was the first time he had gone outside of Overstreet Mall for lunch. I'm not making this up. This is a very real and very common phenomenon.

Center City Partners uses the uptown worker population (which they claim is around 100,000) as part of it's marketing pitch for attracting more retail businesses. Sure, people go outside to walk to lunch on nice days, but that's in every city. But if there is no reason for anyone to ever leave their office, then they are much less likely to actually go out on the streets and buy things on a day-to-day basis. That affects the market reality compared to how it's sold to retailers who would be interested in uptown, and hampers the growth potential of real retail.

Further - all of those businesses in Overstreet Mall are obviously in demand. What if the mall had never been built? Clearly they all want to have access to the uptown worker market... So, what if all of them had individual storefronts on Tryon St, Trade St, College St, etc instead. Then, imagine if all of those people who exclusively use Overstreet had to brave the elements and walk outside? It would be a dramatic difference in the appearance of vitality of Charlotte's retail scene and daily level of street activity. I bet Latta Arcade would be filled to the brim.

What if uptown had a Caribou coffee that was open on Saturday? Or Chic-fil-a? The mere fact that those businesses don't think it's worth their time to open on a Saturday speaks volumes. Can you believe that up until Pearl Dentistry opened on 5th St, uptown didn't have a single dentist or optometrist with a store that fronts a sidewalk? Can you believe there is only one barber shop in uptown that has a sidewalk entrance? Does anyone remember a couple of years ago when 4th Ward Bread Co burned down and Amelie's closed their Tryon St location and the only places to get coffee in uptown on Saturday morning was Starbucks and Dean & Deluca (edit: sorry, I forgot 7/11)? Even then, Caribou remained closed. That's why I blame all of this on the hulking/life sucking retail vampire that is Overstreet Mall. Things could be so much better if people had to get outside and walk a little and it would be a different experience for people who live and work in uptown.

 

On 2/11/2017 at 11:41 AM, Nick2 said:

They should connect it directly to one of the light rail stations (forgive my ignorance if they already do).

It does connect via Epicenter to CTC. 

 

On 2/11/2017 at 2:51 PM, caterpillar2 said:

I also wish that the Latta Arcade was open on weekends and there was a Steinmart uptown somewhere. They are cheap and have a variety of goods. It would also be nice if there was a place to get a watch repaired, see a travel agent, browse an antique shop, shoot a game of pool or throw darts; It is hard to believe that at one time uptown Charlotte had it all and shopping was excellent. Unfortunately, we went the route of other cities that grew out and had to build shopping centers. It will change I believe. The problem is that the old places like the National Shirt Shop, Tanners, and numerous small shops are no longer affordable.  It is so costly to keep anywhere open. Even shops, small bistros,  and pubs in London are closing because of the expense to run a small business these days. The volume of sales just isn't enough these days to sustain a business in many cases. 

Agreed. Latta needs to be open nights and weekends. It's such a huge opportunity. 

 

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CLT2014 Town

CLT2014

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If all the shops were closed in Overstreet, I think a tube system would still have its purpose, just without shops. For example, when I worked at 1BAC, I would use the Overstreet mall path in the middle of the summer to get to Latta Arcade or the Green and enjoy the different restaurant scene if I had the time. However, if I had to walk outside in August in the humidity all the way to Latta, I wouldn't be able to do it. I can't come back to the office after lunch dripping in sweat and looking like a mess before a presentation. Some people... maybe. But for most people their appearance matters at work, especially the Uptown bank scene. 

Without the Overstreet Mall, at least during the summer, people would further be segmented to their little corner of Uptown. You won't see BofA people and Wells people walking across town, they'll just go to the place on their ground level and spend as little time outside as possible.

Edited by CLT2014
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CriticalT Unincorporated Area

CriticalT

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1 hour ago, Dale said:

We know that Uptown lacks the quirkiness of a downtown Asheville. But does Uptown even the ingredients for quirkiness ? When I observe the people who work and play Uptown, I don't think quirky.

Similar to "Keep Austin Weird" that other cities also adopted, I want to make a campaign for Charlotte.  "Make Charlotte Interesting"  

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CLT2014 Town

CLT2014

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Maybe we will get a Trump Group's Scion hotel...

“Eric said they were hoping to locate Scion, offering a lower-price alternative to their Trump International Hotel brand, in large to midsize ‘trendy’ cities like Austin, Tex., Charlotte, N.C., and Nashville.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article132390604.html

Renderings of the first Scion hotel planned in downtown Dallas: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/02/01/new-trump-brand-hotel-project-proposed-south-side-downtown-dallas

 
Edited by CLT2014
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