Metropolitan, Midtown Redevelopment

[dubone]

There are lots of construction barrels out there now. I hope the Wendy's suffers greatly because of it .

[DigitalSky]

There are lots of construction barrels out there now. I hope the Wendy's suffers greatly because of it .

LOL

[dubone]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/new...al/13659006.htm

I didn't realize they were tearing down and rebuilding the bridge. That is interesting.

This project has been so long coming, it is great that it is finally here.

In the next few months, the Midtown Square/Charlottetown Mall building will be demolished.

By next year, we'll have a Target uptown!

[DigitalSky]

Someone's gotta get pics before Midtown Sq/Charlottetown is all gone! But yay for the Target uptown coming

[dubone]

The big box debate has been moved here:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=21761

[dubone]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/13875071.htm

A $20m building permit has been issued for the Home Depot at Midtown. Looks like we'll be seeing some construction at the site rather than just site clearing and road work.

[dubone]

It looks like Midtown Square is either starting to be demolished, or they have opened up a hole to make a garage for all the equipment

Here is the site for the, um, Target and Home Depot.

Here is the roadwork for the new Independence bridge:

[DigitalSky]

thanks for the pics d

[redjeep77]

Is that wendy's scheduled for destruction as well?

[dubone]

Yes, but they are building another suburban style Wendy's about 20 yards away. Argh!

[reverbandwhiskey]

Is this Whole Foods going to be part?

"The new store

[nyxmike]

Is this Whole Foods going to be part?

"The new store

[DigitalSky]

Whole Foods will be in Elizabeth, 1/3 of a mile away.

[dubone]

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3500

[dubone]

It looks like they are starting to tear down the old Midtown Square mall.

[dubone]

Also, Pappas and Collett now officially own the Midtown property. The article has a recap of the $200m project. The article says Home Depot Expo and Target won't open until ~2009, which I thought was the second phase timeline. Hopefully, they are wrong and they'll still plan to open those stores earlier.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte...13/daily49.html

[browngeo]

Can someone explain to me the Cherry neighborhood ? It's so close to downtown but I drove through it the other day and there are about 25-30 houses borded up. Is this area going to be rennovated ? I would consider buying a home in this area but I can't understand why it's not starting to change. Especially with the new midtown square. Thoughts ?

[monsoon]

Cherry is one of Charlotte's traditionally Black inhabited neighborhoods. I believe it was that way back in the days of segregation. This is a bit different than neighborhoods that were abandoned by Whites after WWII and then turned Black. This is similar to the Brooklyn neighborhood which doesn't exist anymore as it was destroyed by Charlotte's 1960s urban renewal cycle.

I don't remember all the details but I believe it is very difficult to get a clean title to property in Cherry and because of the history of the place there is a lot of resistance to letting it become redeveloped. The city did give a grant of several million dollars to the Cherry HOW association in the late 1980s, (I believe) for rennovation purposes. However the money kinda "disappeared" and nothing really got rennovated. There were a lot of charges made against the leaders of the HOW, and since then the city has been reluctant to give them more money.

It is a bit of an oddity given that it backs up to some of the most expensive real estate in the city.

[redjeep77]

In reference to cherry, i too wondered why it was backed up to such an afluent neighborhood. I asked my grandfather who has lived in charlotte since the 1930's, and i got some answers.

Back then, the trolly line went all the way down that road (the grassy median is where it was). Cherry was a neighborhood that many of the household workers lived in when they worked in the large homes in the area. It really made sense after he explained it to me. That's a piece of history that needs to be preserved imo. It would be nice to see renovation efforts though.

[browngeo]

In reference to cherry, i too wondered why it was backed up to such an afluent neighborhood. I asked my grandfather who has lived in charlotte since the 1930's, and i got some answers.

Back then, the trolly line went all the way down that road (the grassy median is where it was). Cherry was a neighborhood that many of the household workers lived in when they worked in the large homes in the area. It really made sense after he explained it to me. That's a piece of history that needs to be preserved imo. It would be nice to see renovation efforts though.

I was just curious because I took a wrong turn yesterday and ended up in Main Street where I saw so many homes boarded up. I figured they would be rennovated or something. They should try and do something to preserve the area with some historic homes/parks/landmarks but also put an infill project around the edges since Midtown Square is going to be really nice and I think the greenway will be connected.

I also cannot figure out why the whole development is centered around Wendys. Some franchisee or Wendy's corp could sell that land and buy a whole bunch of potatoes.

[browngeo]

Also, I was more interested on the history of the area and how the land could be used to infill the area around midtown square.

They need to be very creative with the parking situation or continue to improve the footraffic. When I look at the Cherry neighborhood, it's not highly populated so I am curious on how people will come to the site without using a car !! I imagine anyone going to Home Depot will drive but what about the restaurants and greenway ?

[dubone]

They'll definitely have plenty of parking for all the Midtown retail, as there are decks all over the plans.

Cherry isn't that heavily populated. It is almost like entering another world when entering Cherry, and there are quite a few areas that are empty or have just a couple residents. Foot traffic from Cherry should be more than adequately covered by the sidewalks and gridded neighborhood in Cherry. Foot traffic from other areas will be supported by the new Little Sugar Creek Greenway, and new pedestrian connections along Stonewall and Independence.

[DigitalSky]

Cherry isn't that heavily populated. It is almost like entering another world when entering Cherry, and there are quite a few areas that are empty or have just a couple residents. Foot traffic from Cherry should be more than adequately covered by the sidewalks and gridded neighborhood in Cherry.

Yeah http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=...&style=h&lvl=17 this is the extent of the Cherry Neighborhood pretty much

[dubone]

Yeah. I think Cherry must have the highest churches per capita ratio .

[OE-305]

That neighboorhood is a real dump and needs to be flattened. Some of the streets back there in the mid-90s were not even paved (e.g. Waco Street). I hope those apartments facing Midtown Square get bulldozed too.