Charlotte Development News

[LLoydGeorge]

Is 210 Trade Street the same as the Epicentre?

[uptownliving]

Originally Posted by UrbanMyth

does anyone know the height of 210 Trade in feet? It's 53 stories - does that = 530'?

No it will be closer to 630'...it will be about 12 ft per floor.

[uptownliving]

Originally Posted by LLoydGeorge

Is 210 Trade Street the same as the Epicentre?

No, it is easy to get them confused but 210 Trade is just the condo tower and EpiCentre is everything else (movie theatre/retail/restarants)

[UrbanMyth]

Originally Posted by uptownliving

No it will be closer to 630'...it will be about 12 ft per floor.

Wow. Thanks for the estimate of 12' per floor for residential toweres. I guess this means that "The Vue" will also be in the 600' range. Amazing.

[krazeeboi]

Originally Posted by uptownliving

No, it is easy to get them confused but 210 Trade is just the condo tower and EpiCentre is everything else (movie theatre/retail/restarants)

For all practical purposes I consider them the same thing, since it will all just be one big complex on the same site.

[oresaw]

That green glass is beautiful. This building is truley shaping up to be great. Now I really can't wait.

[NCtarheel]

The green glass looks great! it gives the building a sort of tropical/coastal kind of feel. I like it.

[krazeeboi]

The green glass is "different," that's for sure. For some reason, I think an old First Union logo belongs at the top.

[Justadude]

The green glass is pretty, but none of the renderings I've seen to this point gave any indication of it. Are we sure that the actual building will have green glass? If so, great for the skyline; if not, poo on them for tempting us to think so.

[LLoydGeorge]

Originally Posted by krazeeboi

For all practical purposes I consider them the same thing, since it will all just be one big complex on the same site.

That's what I meant. It's the same sight and the same developer, right?

[uptownliving]

Originally Posted by LLoydGeorge

That's what I meant. It's the same sight and the same developer, right?

Same block, but not the same developer. 210 Trade is being done by Flarhety & Collins, they actually bought air rights from The Ghazi Co to build the condo tower. Same thing with the aloft hotel, which is being done by the Noble Group....the rest of the project is being developed/owned by The Ghazi Co.

[LLoydGeorge]

Originally Posted by uptownliving

Same block, but not the same developer. 210 Trade is being done by Flarhety & Collins, they actually bought air rights from The Ghazi Co to build the condo tower. Same thing with the aloft hotel, which is being done by the Noble Group....the rest of the project is being developed/owned by The Ghazi Co.

Thanks. Are any other retail/entertainment developments planned for Charlotte? The downtown is beautiful, but it's dead. Something like Philips Place should be built in Uptown.

[TheCharlottean]

Originally Posted by LLoydGeorge

The downtown is beautiful, but it's dead. Something like Philips Place should be built in Uptown.

Downtown is NOT dead. Anybody who's been upown on a Saturday around the square knows better than to entertain that notion. Late nights and such, yeah, it is slow, but compared to five years or so ago it's Times freakin' Square.
Semantics aside, you should check out the N.C. Music Factory development just inside the loop. Once it's completed it will increase Charlotte nightlife presence by magnitude. Sorry I don't have a link.

[Justadude]

I agree, "dead" isn't the word to describe central Charlotte anymore. This weekend Tryon St. was packed sidewalk-to-sidewalk for Taste of Charlotte. Granted, that's only a once-a-year event; but last week it was even more crowded over a larger area for Speed Street. And in less than a month there's the 4th of July show that drew over 100,000 last year.

Lloyd, I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind by "retail/entertainment", but the conversion of Midtown Square into a massive new shopping district is going to do big things for the southern edge of Uptown. And the complex that Wachovia is building on South Tryon is going to be pretty diversified as well, though it looks to be aimed more at a daytime crowd with museums and such.

If you put all that together, and add the thousands of condo units that are being built, the city in 2011 will be as different from today as today is from 2001.

[LLoydGeorge]

Originally Posted by Justadude

I agree, "dead" isn't the word to describe central Charlotte anymore. This weekend Tryon St. was packed sidewalk-to-sidewalk for Taste of Charlotte. Granted, that's only a once-a-year event; but last week it was even more crowded over a larger area for Speed Street. And in less than a month there's the 4th of July show that drew over 100,000 last year.

Lloyd, I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind by "retail/entertainment", but the conversion of Midtown Square into a massive new shopping district is going to do big things for the southern edge of Uptown. And the complex that Wachovia is building on South Tryon is going to be pretty diversified as well, though it looks to be aimed more at a daytime crowd with museums and such.

If you put all that together, and add the thousands of condo units that are being built, the city in 2011 will be as different from today as today is from 2001.

What will be the location of Midtown Sqaure and what types of tenants will it have?

I am not knocking Charlotte. I really like it. However, I noted that two suburban cities outside of NYC (White Plains and Stamford, Ct.) have more weekened activity than Charlotte did when I was there during the last weekend in May.

[TheCharlottean]

Originally Posted by LLoydGeorge

What will be the location of Midtown Sqaure and what types of tenants will it have?

I am not knocking Charlotte. I really like it. However, I noted that two suburban cities outside of NYC (White Plains and Stamford, Ct.) have more weekened activity than Charlotte did when I was there during the last weekend in May.

Every city is different. I'm sure those two have had alot more time and initiative to encourage pedestrian activity, since the Norheast was the first part of America settled by Europeans. Charlotte is still a very young city, and all good things take time.

Midtown Square is the old mall once called Charlottetown mall, the first enclosed shopping mall in NC. It's already been demolished and is being reconstructed as Metropolitan, which is like Birkdale Village only on a much larger scale. (Birkdale, if you're not familiar with it, is a huge complex of ground-level semi-upscale retail with apartments and condos over them in suburban Huntersville). Metropolitan will include bistros and other upscale eateries under housing undoubtedly more expensive than Birkdale, and will include a rather interesting development on extra land beside the old mall: A Target built on top of a Home Depot EXPO Design Center (The rich man's answer to a regular Home Depot). And all of it will be constructed beside the new Sugar Creek Greenway. The renderings thus far have looked fabulous.

[uptownliving]

Originally Posted by LLoydGeorge

What will be the location of Midtown Sqaure and what types of tenants will it have?

I am not knocking Charlotte. I really like it. However, I noted that two suburban cities outside of NYC (White Plains and Stamford, Ct.) have more weekened activity than Charlotte did when I was there during the last weekend in May.

If you were here in the last weekend in May then I'm not sure how you missed the 400,000 people that were downtown then.

[LLoydGeorge]

Originally Posted by uptownliving

If you were here in the last weekend in May then I'm not sure how you missed the 400,000 people that were downtown then.

I was there on 5/28 and 5/29, and Uptown was empty.

As I noted, I really like Charlotte and hope to see more retail/entertainment venues built.

[uptownliving]

Originally Posted by LLoydGeorge

I was there on 5/28 and 5/29, and Uptown was empty.

As I noted, I really like Charlotte and hope to see more retail/entertainment venues built.

Yes Sundays and major national holidays with the exception of July 4th I would expect downtown to not be very active. If you had gone down there 1 day earlier it would have been the exact opposite...wall to wall people...literally.

[uptownliving]

Got an update on the Wachovia Tower and associated facilites today from Bob Bertges.

- In July Wachovia plans to publically release their renderings including 3D animation of the new tower.
- It will be 46 stories tall and 1.3M sq ft (approx 700+ ft)
- Bob describes it as "magnificent"
- The associated condo tower on Church St will be 30 stories tall (approx 375ft)
- With this tower Wachovia will bring 1700 NEW jobs to Charlotte with avg salaries of $500K (yes that is $500,000)

He also showed some sketches of the Mint, Bechtler, Dance Theatre, and Afro-Am center. They were very prelim, but he hopes to have better ones next month. What I did see looked nice. All of the buildings are angular, not many curves

Mint- Will have an angled roofline with an inverted angled front entrance. Almost the entire 1st floor of the Mint will be retail with the artwork on floors 2,3,4.

Theatre and Bechleter will share a large glassy main entry hall and loading dock. The 300 seat Wachovia amphiteatre will be below ground under the Bechtler. The Theatre will have a large flat/windowless wall that will face 1st St...they want to animate it somehow, still working on that. The Bechtler will be a cube with 1/4 of the cube cut out on the Tryon St side. The top floor of the Bechtler will be the main gallary with lots of skylights.

Afro-Am center will have its main lobby on the 2nd floor with gallerys on the 3rd and 4th. It will also have a large 4th floor outdoor terrace on Tryon St. It will have a large blank wall facing the parking lot that Wachovia has agreed to spend money to "animate"...my guess is that they will commision an artist to paint that wall with a large mural.

They are still hoping to get the local rental car tax increase passed in the NC Legislature by the end of July. That is the last main hurdle before this is a done deal.

In total this is approximately a $1 Billion dollar investment by Wachovia. All I gotta say is "damn"