The Good News Report

[KJHburg]

I guess this is somewhat good news that the tree canopy loss is slowing in Charlotte.  But the bad news is our tree canopy is still shrinking.  And with lots more density and infill development it will shrink even further.  

Charlotte says tree canopy is still shrinking, but at a slower rate | WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte's NPR News Source

It is good we have more of a tree canopy than Atlanta which faces the sames pressures we do. 

[videtur quam contuor]

Your friend and mine:

https://treescharlotte.org/

Read The Leaflet for developer reaction for trees

[Windsurfer]

1 hour ago, videtur quam contuor said:

Your friend and mine:

https://treescharlotte.org/

Read The Leaflet for developer reaction for trees

Thanks!  Had no idea.

[KJHburg]

The Bahamas Bowl college football game will be played in Charlotte this year at UNCC campus due to renovations at their stadium in the Bahamas.  Now it has a new title sponsor I present to you the Famous Toastery Bowl and that guy in that NY Post article is going to choke.  (remember he claimed they gave him no silverware LOL)  Nationally televised even in New York City.

""Fast-growing Charlotte brunch concept the Famous Toastery has snagged naming rights to the Bahamas Bowl.

The Famous Toastery Bowl will be played at UNC Charlotte’s Jerry Richardson Stadium at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 18. It pits teams from the Conference USA against the Mid-American Conference.

That bowl game is being moved to Charlotte this year due to renovations at its usual stadium in the Bahamas. It’s part of the ESPN Events portfolio. That division of ESPN owns and operates collegiate sporting events nationwide.""

 

Famous Toastery nabs naming rights to ESPN bowl game in Charlotte - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

Get your tickets   Bahamas Bowl

[rancenc]

Good news for the state of NC as a whole concerning foreign investment!

https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2023/11/15/north-carolina-foreign-investment-charlotte-raleigh-durham

[TCLT]

32 minutes ago, rancenc said:

Good news for the state of NC as a whole concerning foreign investment!

https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2023/11/15/north-carolina-foreign-investment-charlotte-raleigh-durham

Charlotte is #1 city for foreign investment if you break the weightings!

[KJHburg]

Charlotte tech job growth is twice the national average and 5th best in North America.

""Charlotte's high-tech software and service jobs grew 21.3% in 2022, ranking fifth highest, behind Vancouver; Austin; Denver; and Salt Lake City. That is more than double the national growth rate of 10.1%, according to the report.

Raleigh-Durham also ranked high on the list, at No. 7, with 17.1% growth in tech jobs last year.""

Charlotte Inno - Charlotte home to one of nation's most active office markets for tech companies (bizjournals.com)

[RANYC]

On 11/16/2023 at 8:57 PM, KJHburg said:

Charlotte tech job growth is twice the national average and 5th best in North America.

""Charlotte's high-tech software and service jobs grew 21.3% in 2022, ranking fifth highest, behind Vancouver; Austin; Denver; and Salt Lake City. That is more than double the national growth rate of 10.1%, according to the report.

Raleigh-Durham also ranked high on the list, at No. 7, with 17.1% growth in tech jobs last year.""

Charlotte Inno - Charlotte home to one of nation's most active office markets for tech companies (bizjournals.com)

Is Austin not in a top 5 list somewhere?

[KJHburg]

3 hours ago, RANYC said:

Is Austin not in a top 5 list somewhere?

Charlotte tech jobs are growing faster but in  in total jobs yes Austin is  much bigger than Charlotte but this  was looking at the  growth rate.

Edited November 18, 2023 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Charlotte performs very high on the best affordable city to work in and best city to retire in according to this study.

The most affordable U.S. cities for working adults and retirees | Empower

[KJHburg]

Good news this Thanksgiving NC is still number one in Sweetpotatoes (and notice my correct spelling) 

Industry - North Carolina Sweetpotatoes (ncsweetpotatoes.com)

Despite NC having more than 30 Million turkeys  that only lands us in 2nd place after Minnesota with their 40.5 million.  (they must like longer winters and shorter summers)

Turkey Production by the Numbers - National Turkey Federation (eatturkey.org)

oh yeah and that live  Christmas tree many buy this time of year?  NC is #2 in that  only behind Oregon with our Fraser Firs and such.  Our trees are shipped all over the USA, the Carribbean, Bermuda, Mexico even to Canada.  

Welcome to the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association. Choose 'N' Cut, Wholesale, Retail Lots (ncchristmastrees.com)

so Happy Thanksgiving and just a reminder to those who love to talk politics all the time keep your opinions to yourself unless asked as some of your family members undoubtedly have different views than you.  

[KJHburg]

Good news is that Charlotte (and most large NC cities) are great places to start a business on this Small Business Saturday.  

Charlotte, Raleigh and Cary all 3 make it in the top 10 of cities nationwide.

Best cities to start a business in 2023 (policygenius.com)

Here is Small Business Saturday in a small town right outside of Charlotte that being Mt Holly.  And I must say it was crowded in downtown MH.

 

[KJHburg]

 

Temporary good news I would call this rents are actually decreasing but read to end of the article.

From the Charlotte Ledger today

""Charlotte’s apartment construction boom is leading to lower rents, data shows; -4.6% in South End
The recent surge of apartment construction in Charlotte is pushing rents down, even in some of the hottest areas of town.

New data from real estate information company CoStar Group shows that average rents are down 4.6% in South End, 3% in uptown and 2.2% in SouthPark, compared with a year ago. Apartment vacancies in the Charlotte region have hit a record high of 10.7%.

It’s simple supply and demand at work: The number of people moving into apartments in the Charlotte region is increasing (+6,500 this year), but the number of apartments available is increasing even faster (+11,000), resulting in higher vacancy levels that are forcing apartment owners to drop rents.

“We have started to see supply catch up with and now exceed demand, which is leading new and existing properties to compete for renters by lowering asking rents and offering concessions,” says Chuck McShane, CoStar’s director of market analytics in the Carolinas.

In early November, the average rent for market-rate units was $1,559/month, down from $1,589 a year earlier. But it’s still above the $1,271/month in November of 2019.

And don’t expect spikes in rents anytime soon, McShane says, because there are 31,000 apartments under construction in the Charlotte region. But fewer groundbreakings this year could translate to tighter supplies and higher rents in late 2025 and 2026, he says.""

 

I would say in 2024 much fewer apartment complexes will begin and the pipeline will slow due to lot of factors cost of money, construction costs etc.  But smart developers with other sources of money will see this an opportunity but there are just fewer of those kind of developers.  

 

 

 

[15895]

Earlier this year Lenders already noted they’d start shifting from the south to Northeast & California & a few other markets (for market rate apartments.) 

The reason being rents are going up there and falling in the south. It’s good for society but housing has become a national game dominated by lenders who want to see large rent increases YoY. The bad thing is, the southern boom towns generally don’t funnel money into urban affordable housing programs as much so construction pace could slow down. Yet the population boom will not slow leading to more forced sprawl. 

It’s crony capitalism and people will be poorer because of it. *sigh* 

Edited November 28, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[rancenc]

Good news for a underdeveloped part of the city!

https://www.wcnc.com/video/money/markets/real-estate/new-commercial-development-coming-to-west-boulevard-corridor/275-91d2c9f5-382f-418a-a513-cc854877614b

[KJHburg]

this seems to be good news major music festival in uptown in 2nd Ward and on the barren land owned by Levine.

""Charlotte-based music festival and live entertainment company Southern Entertainment is bringing a 40-act, three-day outdoor concert to First Ward in uptown next spring as part of what they hope will become a major annual event.

Southern Entertainment partners Bob Durkin and Rob Pedlow confirmed to CBJ details of what will be known as the Lovin’ Life Music Fest. The music festival will run May 3 through May 5 on a 20-acre site that includes county-owned First Ward Park and adjacent, privately owned parcels. 

Levine Properties controls much of the site that will be used for the event.  

Lovin’ Life is nowhere near that scale, but it’s sizable for a new event. Forty artists will play on multiple stages with estimated daily attendance of 30,000 people, or 90,000 for the full weekend.

Referring to Lollapalooza, Pedlow said, “That’s the prime brand out there in an urban setting. We feel like Charlotte’s ready.”

Tickets will cost $199 to $999 each for the three-day weekend. Organizers said they are planning on selling tickets for the weekend and not for individual days.

Headliners for Lovin’ Life will be announced next week. Tickets will go on sale Dec. 14 through a dedicated website.""

Charlotte events company launching outdoor concert festival - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

Since currently the biggest music festival in NC is Dreamville at Dix Park in Raleigh that attracts 50,000 people per day it will be great to have a big music festival here. 

Delayed Dreamville festival’s economic impact (spectrumlocalnews.com)

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

this seems to be good news major music festival in uptown in 2nd Ward and on the barren land owned by Levine.

""Charlotte-based music festival and live entertainment company Southern Entertainment is bringing a 40-act, three-day outdoor concert to First Ward in uptown next spring as part of what they hope will become a major annual event.

Southern Entertainment partners Bob Durkin and Rob Pedlow confirmed to CBJ details of what will be known as the Lovin’ Life Music Fest. The music festival will run May 3 through May 5 on a 20-acre site that includes county-owned First Ward Park and adjacent, privately owned parcels. 

Levine Properties controls much of the site that will be used for the event.  

Lovin’ Life is nowhere near that scale, but it’s sizable for a new event. Forty artists will play on multiple stages with estimated daily attendance of 30,000 people, or 90,000 for the full weekend.

Referring to Lollapalooza, Pedlow said, “That’s the prime brand out there in an urban setting. We feel like Charlotte’s ready.”

Tickets will cost $199 to $999 each for the three-day weekend. Organizers said they are planning on selling tickets for the weekend and not for individual days.

Headliners for Lovin’ Life will be announced next week. Tickets will go on sale Dec. 14 through a dedicated website.""

Charlotte events company launching outdoor concert festival - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

Since currently the biggest music festival in NC is Dreamville at Dix Park in Raleigh that attracts 50,000 people per day it will be great to have a big music festival here. 

Delayed Dreamville festival’s economic impact (spectrumlocalnews.com)

No, not good news at all.  It means Levine digging in on leaving this gaping moor in the pit of our city center, devoid of any life for almost the entirety of the year except for what will be this 3-day, overpriced, litter-generating, drug-binging revelry. 

It’s also not good news because it means Levine is spending time on other pursuits besides cleaning up that high-profile, extreme-conspicuity ass-wipe of a construction job that is the miserably failed garage project.  Rectifying that multi-story eyesore should be his all-day/everyday preoccupation or else 1st ward is failing.

Frankly, a better music fest location in my opinion would be the cleared parts of Brookhill.  It’s leased land.  It’s right off I-77, yet proximal to light rail or at least walkable enough to light rail for the demographic likely to attend this event, and it’s one less reason for vacancy in Uptown.

Edited December 7, 2023 by RANYC

[KJHburg]

Okay I am not that cynical.   I think it will bring people into the area and stay at hotels and spend money at restaurants.   as for the Levine empty quarter I dont think it would affect it as he seems to have no desire to sell or develop anything.  At least we could be putting heads in beds uptown!    

 Or we can be content on letting Raleigh have the large music festival in the state.  Or Myrtle Beach to get all the tourist dollars they do from their music festival in June.  

[TheMightyBK]

3 hours ago, RANYC said:

No, not good news at all…will be this 3-day, overpriced, litter-generating, drug-binging revelry. 

Music heals…try it, you might like it!

[RANYC]

11 hours ago, TheMightyBK said:

Music heals…try it, you might like it!

Have attended several Miami Ultra festivals, a couple Governors Balls, and a few Electric Zoos.  I'm all for Music festivals, but have never been to one where drugs didn't run rampant.  The drug binging in and of itself isn't a reason not to have a music festival.  Just would rather see this part of uptown filled in than reserved for an annual 3-day festival.

Edited December 8, 2023 by RANYC

[KJHburg]

10 hours ago, RANYC said:

Have attended several Miami Ultra festivals, a couple Governors Balls, and a few Electric Zoos.  I'm all for Music festivals, but have never been to one where drugs didn't run rampant.  The drug binging in and of itself isn't a reason not to have a music festival.  Just would rather see this part of uptown filled in than reserved for an annual 3-day festival.

Oh I want it to be developed too.  It should look like Southend with lots of mid rises apartments and a few high rises and with the last boom that is now coming to end or major slowdown it should have all been developed by now.  He seems to be waiting for some magical perfect time to sell or develop and there is no such time period.   You would think he would sell off a major block or parcel every year to pay the taxes and spread the gain out.  

if we are going to host only events that do not attract heavy drinking or drug use then it will be slim pickens around here.  And that is where police enforcement comes in too.  

[CLT2014]

Interesting podcast with Daniel Levine from 2018.... but you can hear his thoughts directly on why he is so slow around the 3:30 mark: https://www.onlifeandmeaning.com/podcast-episodes/daniel-levine

The guy basically says "The city was changing faster than I could keep up because I analyze everything too long, and I want to build something that is amazing but I can't decide what is the right thing because by the time trends come and go, I couldn't make a decision." 

He also explains why they stopped the parking garage and apartments... "we realized we were underutilizing the site. So we just stopped. We are now focused on a 420 unit apartment that is superior architecture."

He's just not the right person to be in development because he gets paralyzed by ideas versus execution. He's famous for his quote "I'd rather do nothing than not do it well." He's in his 60's now... average life expectancy for a US male is 73... so maybe we are getting close to the end?

Edited December 8, 2023 by CLT2014

[carolinaboy]

49 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Interesting podcast with Daniel Levine from 2018.... but you can hear his thoughts directly on why he is so slow around the 3:30 mark: https://www.onlifeandmeaning.com/podcast-episodes/daniel-levine

The guy basically says "The city was changing faster than I could keep up because I analyze everything too long, and I want to build something that is amazing but I can't decide what is the right thing because by the time trends come and go, I couldn't make a decision." 

He also explains why they stopped the parking garage and apartments... "we realized we were underutilizing the site. So we just stopped. We are now focused on a 420 unit apartment that is superior architecture."

He's just not the right person to be in development because he gets paralyzed by ideas versus execution. He's famous for his quote "I'd rather do nothing than not do it well." He's in his 60's now... average life expectancy for a US male is 73... so maybe we are getting close to the end?

Damn. Seriously? In case it's unclear, my comment is about the sheer stupidity of the age comment.

Edited December 8, 2023 by carolinaboy
needed it

[AltNative]

haven't listened to the podcast but damn, that first quote makes him sound like a moron...among other choice adjectives that i'll refrain from using

scared money don't make money, foo'

[rancenc]

Glad to see this center rejuvenated.

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/health/east-charlotte-doctor-offices-development/275-17012d24-9b1c-4fcd-b646-bcf6e7f91033