Misc. Uptown Projects/News

[TCLT]

The Alley?!
Is that a joke? 

Seriously. They already had an established, well known, and well regarded name they could brand. And they paid someone to come up with some generic garbage. It’s not even an alley! It’s inside ffs. There are some staggeringly stupid people given control of way too much money.

[KJHburg]

miscellaneous uptown photos.  The B Tower is a great new infill small project.  We need variety in size and height in uptown to make it more human scale.  

[RANYC]

Anyone know whether the Daniel corp bread factory residential project at 6th and Graham is still moving forward, and if so, what’s timing of ground-breaking?

https://charlottenc.gov/planning/HistoricDistricts/Documents/HDC_Cases_2022_2022-00126.pdf

[KJHburg]

31 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Anyone know whether the Daniel corp bread factory residential project at 6th and Graham is still moving forward, and if so, what’s timing of ground-breaking?

https://charlottenc.gov/planning/HistoricDistricts/Documents/HDC_Cases_2022_2022-00126.pdf

Someone told me he saw soil testing on the site 2 days so.  It is going to be built.

[RANYC]

33 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Someone told me he saw soil testing on the site 2 days so.  It is going to be built.

That’s great news.

[Take2]

14 hours ago, jtmonk said:

This is actually Chicago developers,  but I agree that the name change is stupid. 

Developers just seem to be super boring with naming their projects imo. I mean even Malls tend to be named based on location in a city... the county or state they are in. Oh well..  

[J-Rob]

An interesting note in contrast to some of the property reevaluation discussions on other threads: There is an article in the CBJ today about the aging office population. Seems ominous, and I have to wonder if it is just the start as more offices comes online in South End.

 

"At least four significant office properties in Charlotte are now in the hands of a special servicer — tasked with monitoring buildings tied to debt in loan portfolios with commercial-mortgage-backed securities — due to a steady decline in tenant base. One Wells Fargo, thExchange office park, Charlotte Plaza and the former Belk headquarters building at LakePointe owe a collective $402.5 million on CMBS loans. By May, debt on three of the four properties will have reached maturation. "

“What we’ve seen in the office market is a pretty rapid and transformational change in the way buildings are looked at, occupied and built,” he said. “It used to be developers would build a great building to have an environment to hire the best employees, and that absolutely remains the case, but now it needs to be an environment that is compelling enough to get people to want to come into the office.”

 

 

bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/03/17/charlotte-plaza-belk-hq-office-market-cmbs.html

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by J-Rob

[KJHburg]

^^^ this above shows the need for new uses of some of our aging office buildings.  As I pointed out in the Learning from other places thread Dallas is doing it great and with huge 1980s buildings.  While I believe One Wells Fargo or 301 S College is a great office building some of the others are not.   We will have defaults on some of these commercial loans and some one will pick up for pennies on the dollar.  Watch.  

[Madison Parkitect]

Relevant to a topic we've discussed here a lot lately: the conversion of office buildings to residential. This is a really great explainer with graphics showing when and how it can be done.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office-conversions.html?unlocked_article_code=bJ-haUHN-UyI_PJyenQJNk3h4QYp4dQxoMlyz5DPIcxaGFIrTp7H3VstEI9TglpOS3-9zjPykuTw5fGJvjK9UOBda6ts7GT34gTmrWLl2A08YwcXXA-Y5g-5KYdd_1mx6zjvvFdg8LUWqoHQ3Z3cu8wazkmwvQPikN-8LlyqzxUk7AAZHf9v-V0FT09e2YJSDejTRigorfvTmqmhLaf_Rz7_zU73MggOLWR-a4lXS9b_tbDSQgol9D0mAq-pIXEtbFXVlJrU1XyozAPttWsdauzhJCqB_zj-GgGl36dxYI8s07u7XNNeAzGmeCwnrzbT6yR9CW0Beo9SL1FehMPBbtquk33fceEnQBrt&smid=url-share 

[KJHburg]

On the good news uptown retail front Amelie's is getting ready to reopen. 

""Amélie’s French Bakery & Café plans to reopen its uptown Charlotte location this spring after shuttering the store in late 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

The bakery, which debuted in uptown in 2015, will reopen at 380 S. College St. in late May. Renovation work is underway on the 14,000-square-foot interior space — the company's largest storefront.

Changes will include new flooring, a revamped dining room and a large catering and event area that will be available by reservation. The redesign also includes a dedicated section for pick-up-only orders, as well as a new ordering system. The uptown bakery will reopen with limited hours at first.

Justy Martinez, Amelie’s operations director, said they're looking forward to getting one of the bakery's staple locations back up and running.

"We have so many improvements and updates throughout the uptown location that we’re excited to introduce," he said. """

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/03/22/uptown-amelies-to-reopen.html

[Desert Power]

On 3/22/2023 at 4:00 PM, KJHburg said:

On the good news uptown retail front Amelie's is getting ready to reopen. 

""Amélie’s French Bakery & Café plans to reopen its uptown Charlotte location this spring after shuttering the store in late 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

The bakery, which debuted in uptown in 2015, will reopen at 380 S. College St. in late May. Renovation work is underway on the 14,000-square-foot interior space — the company's largest storefront.

Changes will include new flooring, a revamped dining room and a large catering and event area that will be available by reservation. The redesign also includes a dedicated section for pick-up-only orders, as well as a new ordering system. The uptown bakery will reopen with limited hours at first.

Justy Martinez, Amelie’s operations director, said they're looking forward to getting one of the bakery's staple locations back up and running.

"We have so many improvements and updates throughout the uptown location that we’re excited to introduce," he said. """

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/03/22/uptown-amelies-to-reopen.html

They've been working on it for a while, still looks like some time to go.

[DMann]

Have I missed the news?  The old Duke Data Center is cordoned off and I saw a demo machine there yesterday.

[KJHburg]

3 hours ago, DMann said:

Have I missed the news?  The old Duke Data Center is cordoned off and I saw a demo machine there yesterday.

the property was sold and part of the resale (basically property swap) of part of the property to the Charlotte Convention Bureau for possible expansion of the convention center that is cleared.  

[DMann]

Thanks KJH, I knew that, but it looks like activity is imminent!

[KJHburg]

this article was originally in the Atlanta Business Chronicle talking about downtowns and it does surely apply to Charlotte's uptown as well.   BOLD is my emphasis.  

""Richard Florida is ever the optimist when it comes to the resilience of America’s cities, but even he concedes we’re in for a rough ride.

A pandemic-driven shift in how and where people work has reinforced what Florida, through his best-selling books and advisory work as an urbanist and historian, has been preaching for years — that the office properties defining our city skylines are relics of a bygone era.

Florida recently spoke with the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Crystal Edmonson, senior editor of community engagement and live journalist, about what’s needed to get America’s cities back on track and the painful challenges that path will entail. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation.

I read recently a quote where someone was talking about the layoffs in the technology sector and a possible slowdown in the overall economy really was a sign that we were entering into the post-pandemic era. I’d like to get your take on that. Is this accurate?

Here’s what I think. Our downtowns are uniquely troubled. People aren’t going back to the office. Offices have high vacancy. What I want to say is kind of a preface; the old way wasn’t great. My mentor, a lady named Jane Jacobs, wrote in about 1958 an essay called Downtown is for People. It’s what made her famous before I was born. She basically said monocultural downtowns filled with these giant office towers were not what they should be. They should be better neighborhoods. 

Now it took us a long way to get here, but it’s finally dawning on people — city leaders, chambers of commerce, advocacy groups, landlords, real estate owners, banks — that we’re going to have to change the way we create our downtowns. The good news is we’ve done that a lot over the past century, and I think we can do it again.

Does this post-pandemic economic environment slow or even end the work-from-anywhere movement that we saw during the pandemic?

No, I don’t think so. This has been building up since before the pandemic. Historically, only about 1% of people worked from home. Before the pandemic, it was about 6%. That’s up to about 18%. We’re tripling. It’s not everybody, it’s not a majority of the workforce. It’s not even a fifth of the workforce. I think what happened is that we became untethered. That’s the word. 

I don’t work at a desk anymore. I think that’s happened to many people. As we become untethered and desks no longer became the main workspace, people could spread out. I think that was happening before the pandemic. I think the pandemic supercharged that.

The office that we have is really a 150-year-old artifact. In many cases it’s not a great place to work. There are fluorescent lights, there are cubicle farms. There isn’t a lot of privacy. I think the trend now is to make the office look more like your living room or your den, to look more like a really nice hotel lobby. I think that people are going to have to up their game, in terms of what they provide to bring workers back to the office, and realize they’re not going to come in every day.

How can cities prepare for what the future holds in this work from anywhere environment?

Here’s what I think. Even though work may shrink at the margin in the central business district, it will expand in areas outside the central business district. You’re also going to have tremendous opportunities for workspaces in suburban areas, in outlying areas. People don’t just want to work from home. They want to go somewhere to work, and they want to meet with people. It’s also finally dawning on people that we’re going to have to change the way our downtowns operate. We’re going to have to make them better neighborhoods, better communities, not just office tower districts.

 

I want to talk a little bit about commercial real estate and real estate in general. What advice do you have for landlords?

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. We can’t waste this crisis. The greatest challenge that ever hit our cities in our time was industrialization. That was an existential crisis. Our cities, which were once filled with factories, all of those factories boarded up within a very short period of time … they moved out, leaving massive holes, massive unemployment, massive fiscal shortfalls. Cities went bankrupt. No one thought cities could bounce back, but they did. 

This is a challenge, which is not that great, but somewhat analogous. Here’s what will happen. Some buildings which are not great will have to come down. That’s the reality. Some of these older buildings built a half a century ago with the wrong kind of floor plates and windows, they were good for their day. Already commercial real estate firms, large ones, are giving those buildings back to the bank. 

The people who own those buildings will get hurt. New actors will come in who want to buy up some of those buildings, only highly discounted. Cities will take a revenue shortfall. It’s going to be hard to make up the revenue. There’s going to be struggles. The people who will be hardest hit are going to be the people who work in those service businesses and the retail shops and the coffee shops and the lunch places and the restaurants who have to go out and find another job in hard times. Ultimately, this will happen. We’ve seen it happen before. ""

— Edited by Craig M. Douglas

[KJHburg]

I will put this here and this is quite interesting development in terms of sports betting getting closer to be approved now casinos could be next?  VA had approved casinos in a few select cities including Cherokee Indians half owned Ceasars in Danville VA and the Seminole's Hard Rock Casino in Bristol VA.  (Both of course within 5 miles of their state lines) 

IF and it is a big IF I could see one casino being allowed in Charlotte most likely uptown and like the Ledger's April Fools Day story said who knows on Levine owned land.  We have plenty of land uptown to build such for sure 1st Ward, 2nd Ward.  

https://www.wunc.org/politics/2023-04-12/sports-betting-casinos-considered-north-carolina-lawmakers

I am sure the Cherokees and the Catawbas would be against this but a couple around the state could be in the future.  

[DamicoKaren]

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/04/12/seventh-and-tryon-redevelopment-uptown-real-estate.html

[QCxpat]

9:55 a.m.   550 South Caldwell Street  -  "Don't look down!"

Edited April 13, 2023 by QCxpat

[KJHburg]

Midnight Diner and their patio out front on E Trade.  

[KJHburg]

oh yeah this new restaurant coming to 400 South Tryon uptown.  

[j-man]

Parking garage retail conversion. 

[Blue_Devil]

Uptown is really starting to feel lively again.

on a separate note, regarding the Alley, I believe the whole site is still Latta Arcade, and the Alley is just a name for the second floor food hall.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Agree! Just wish we didn’t have to have events like shout to attract ppl to center city. Need to  have some of those attractions on a rotational basis. Esp Levine Avenue. No reason that needs to be open to cars 24/7. It has been great seeing all the families and kids in that area that normally wouldn’t be there. 
 

Pertaining to Latta arcade, I believe the boba tea lady said the alley is considered everything on the inside (1st & 2nd floor). 

[Madison Parkitect]

56 minutes ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

Pertaining to Latta arcade, I believe the boba tea lady said the alley is considered everything on the inside (1st & 2nd floor). 

You know, the part that's specifically NOT the alley part.

[RANYC]

6 hours ago, Blue_Devil said:

Uptown is really starting to feel lively again.

on a separate note, regarding the Alley, I believe the whole site is still Latta Arcade, and the Alley is just a name for the second floor food hall.

 Very lively, indeed.  A shootout took place in Romare Bearden yesterday afternoon just as families were starting to leave Truist Field.  They had to be ushered back into the stadium until the low-IQ savagery ended.  Two people were critically wounded.  I believe the culprit was arrested today.  Stuff happens in any city, but these incidents do hurt efforts at uptown’s progress, and every news story like this just chips away at the size of the target market for a truly thriving, livable uptown.