The EPIC building is going up rather quick. At least 3 floors (iron frame) are done in the one section which shocks me as to the speed from groundbreaking. The new residence hall is moving along at a quick quip as well.

FInally - while not construction per se, many may not be aware that UNC Charlotte has expanded their footprint in the University Area. They bought a 3 story building across the street from the campus (across 49) it sits on the hill overlooking the Harris Teeter shopping plaza. Very close in brickwork to the campus buildings.

I know people probably prefer the Voltron or the Handle, but while I was looking at the building tonight (handle lit up in orange), I really think it should be called the "Taser". But that's just me.

I think they should do up the handle like an arc of electricity. It looks like a giant taser to me .

Anyway, I suppose ENN could be the big news, though I have anticipated it to be smaller in scope and further into the future, but that is just based on my gut feeling. I'd love to be completely surprised, and have a move be announced that no one anticipated......lets say, US Airways? The Hartford? Time Warner Cable?

Im watching the crane come down right now...

Its pretty neat to watch the sequence of events for a crane to dismantle ITSELF (perhaps worth of Discovery Channel or something)

Going to start another topic here as it doesn't appear to exist. With St. Patrick's Day coming up ( my favorite parade and festival in Charlotte) I've been thinking that there are a lot of events that happen here in the Queen City that probably do not get as much notice as they deserve.

That is good news primarily in that a locally headquartered business is coming out of bankruptcy, and good for uptown employment in that they are consolidating from their Ballantyne and South Park locations into uptown.

I had my print framed and got it back from the framing shop a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd share how it turned out:

photo.jpg

EQ3 is having an "end-of-season inventory liquidation" that looks suspiciously like is a store going out of business sale.

The commercial real estate available sign in front isn't too promising, either. It's really too bad, I like EQ3's merchandise quite a bit. Well, it's primo retail space, so I hope it isn't empty for too long.

The crux of the proposal is that companies that either are or own subsidiaries which depository institutions may not engage in proprietary trading or maintain ownership interests in hedge or private equity funds (unless such ownership is for the benefit of customers). That's obviously subject to tweaking by the White House and by whichever incarnation it receives in Congress. I'll spare the main board my thoughts on whether or not that would be effective to prevent something similar to what has happened the past two-and-a-half years, but many people think that it would cause GS and MS to rescind their bank holding company election, which would likely cause MS to back away from the direction it has been headed w/r/t building a deposit capital base. After that, there's not much of a reason to keep Cece and the rest of any depository infrastructure in Charlotte or elsewhere.

Another key provision would prevent large bank holding companies, such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., from shedding their charter to elude the Fed's scrutiny. The bill is expected to include this provision to prevent banks from trying to game the regulatory architecture.

if the idea is to sit until a large office tower can be built here, its going sit in rubble for many more years. is the land so valuable that a few mixed-use midrises or something won't fly here?

You don't even have to click back a page to understand why this thread was idle, but I will elaborate. This project is virtually dead. The main tenant expected here was to be First Charter, contingent on them selling their University Research Park headquarters. Since that time, First Charter was sold to 5/3 (Fifth Third) Bank, the economy failed to the third degree, and 5/3 had to receive TARP (bailout) funds.

Recently, Electrolux has purchased the old First Charter HQ to become their US HQ, but instead of that triggering this project to start, 5/3 announced they will obtain uptown space in 201 N Tryon instead to make their NC HQ.

All of the above lead completely to this project not being anywhere near the horizon. If the economics changes or a tenant appears, then maybe.

I come home via the Graham Street exit on th Brookshire and often wait at the light at Graham facing the Garrison and can report I've consistently seen lights on in 2-3 units for the past several weeks around the 6-7 p.m. time.

The units I see lit usually are the 2nd and third floors which in my guess must have horrible views of the roof of the gas station (at least the 2nd floor unitt).

I don't know if there are people actually moving in/moved in or if there is final touches being made. If it is people moving in/moved in though (and this is just speculation on my part) I would guess the lower apartments must be a size-able price discount considering the gas station roof issue.


Lastly, I do think that there are two apartments per floor though based on how it seems lit at times. I may be wrong but this is just my perspective from what I see when some are lit.

Oh, so you're the one that misspelled "Siemens" in the Observer!!! (j/k) To your question, I think ENN may be a possibility since that has to be a sizable HQ move here. Given Perdue's small hints that more large coups are coming I would believe it has to be more energy sector jobs. It didn't take long for that RadioShack move to lose steam.

So....if the Chamber really is working on something bigger than 825 new Siemans jobs, what could it be?

On a related note I had something in my reader feed (and for the life of me can't find it now) that was from another forum. The poster was in Fort Worth and claimed their connections were deep inside Radio Shack who confirmed there was never any real intention to move so much as wring out some new incentives in their existing locale.

Not sure what that's worth and again - I can't find the original link - so take with a grain of salt.