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Fifth Street Pedscape / Ivey's Building Retail Improvements

ScottCLT

By ScottCLT
in Charlotte

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ScottCLT Burg

ScottCLT

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I have heard from several friends that live at the Ivey's building that there was a 3-hour home owners meeting tonight. The topic of discussion was an entire first floor redevelopment. Supposedly, a developer has bought the entire first floor of the Ivey's building. The developer plans to evict all current tenants (Just Fresh, Bombay Cuisine, Bojangles, China Queen, Quizno's) and redevelop the first floor as a pedestrian friendly area on 5th Street. The plan is to draw upscale restaurants and retailers and have entrances along 5th Street instead of having to go inside the Ivey's building to get to the retailers. From everyone that I talked to, it seems like the motion has passed. I think this is awesome. If it happens, 5th street will be the place to be in downtown. Already, there is Buckhead, Blue, City tavern, Conolly's, Madison's, Phil's, Brick and Barrel, The Attic, Verona, Capitol Grille, Belle's, Menage, Latorre's, and Daddy's. Adding several more will make this a really happening spot.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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I have no clue what thread it was in, maybe the Belle's BBQ thread, but when LaTorre bought it, I said I really hoped the would turn it around to face his other retail on 5th, rather than be an interior food court.

The center city transportation plan calls for removal of street parking in order to provide proper urban sidewalks on that block of 5th. It is a shame that there is that trade off, but I agree with the choice that sidewalks are more important than 5 spaces.

With Avenue, and its street retail, the various retail that Latorre owns on 5th, and all the retail at the base of 201 N Tryon (nee IJL), this little section could be quite an amazing little spot for retail. The block around Hearst is already pretty lively at night, and with the old Montaldos coming available in a few years, this section might become our hub of shopping.

The food court in Ivey's really wasted a lot of space, and was entirely closed after hours. A new configuration to face 5th Street could really make it retail that stays open late and hopefully something besides restaurants.

Also, with the food court gone, I guess Belle's will be more successful. :)

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RiverwoodCLT Burg

RiverwoodCLT

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Glad someone was thinking. With the Avenue and Trademark coming on line this year, and add to the already residents in the area, it makes sense to make more retail entrance to the street. I sure there will be support from them.

This gives the retailer the choice of what hours to operate independent of other retailer in the building. It also adds value to the owner of the entire first floor, because it will be able to generate more income.

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nmcheese Whistle-Stop

nmcheese

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I hope Bombay Cuisine survives into the new food format for that building - that's one of my once a week lunch spots - in any case, this is a positive development that highlights what I think is one of the main problems with downtown Charlotte - narrow sidewalks that don't accommodate real-city foot traffic nor outdoor seating for a cafe/restaurant.

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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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Eh....I like the reformatting, but I don't like the trend of making everything so upscale....I used to work a few block away, and when I wanted some food to take back to office, I'd wander around the food court. Every place in the city doesn't need to be a sit down lunch/dinner restaurant. I really hope he keeps a couple of the retail spaces small, and more geared to lower-cost take out.

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PlazaMidwoodGuy Whistle-Stop

PlazaMidwoodGuy

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Could a place along the lines of Athens / Waffle House / IHOP / etc do okay there? There's a lack of breakfast food uptown (especially if they close Bo's).

I'd love to see such a place go in there...or basically anywhere downtown for that matter. In my opinion, there's a serious lack of breakfast diner type places in Charlotte in general. Anyway, I think this is good news for the Ivey's building and that block!

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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

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A wall, with a narrow sidewalk, and greasy exhaust vents from the restaurants in the Ivey's. It's probably a lost cause... better to think about ways to make the Avenue/IJL side more inviting.

I think those issues are exactly what they are talking about fixing and addressing. Narrow sidewalk, can't really fix that, but the rest are certainly able to be "fixed".

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voyager12 Town

voyager12

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I think having a mix of casual and upscale establishments would be nice. Ivey's has good bones but that building is very aggravating to deal with now. The interior of the building is so bland and sterile even on the condo level and needs to be updated. I used to walk a dog that lives in one of those units and the parking garage is like a dungeon and hard to get around in. I hope they revamp that too. Security also watches you like a hawk and residents will box you in even if you are just occupying a space temporarily :whistling:

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DigitalSky City

DigitalSky

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I'd love to see such a place go in there...or basically anywhere downtown for that matter. In my opinion, there's a serious lack of breakfast diner type places in Charlotte in general. Anyway, I think this is good news for the Ivey's building and that block!

This is true. I think Greensboro has more diners than Charlotte.

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Mobuchu Burg

Mobuchu

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This is great news, that section of 5th and Ivey's is something I've always b*tched about.

The center city transportation plan calls for removal of street parking in order to provide proper urban sidewalks on that block of 5th. It is a shame that there is that trade off, but I agree with the choice that sidewalks are more important than 5 spaces.

Defenitely, its currently less then 5ft of sidewalk if you take into account the parking meters and light poles. That is terrible considering it is directly connected to our signature street Tryon, and only 1 block from the square. They could recess the ground floor of the building except for the pillars to allow sidewalk seating, like college between 5th and 6th. That would leave the extra space gained from the parking spots as all sidewalk.

Either way, anything is better then this:

large.jpg

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hinsp0 Whistle-Stop

hinsp0

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Overall I love the idea. 5th street, atleast on the Ivey's side of the street is a real eyesoar.

Let's just hope Jim Grobe doesn't botch the plan.

You mean Jim Gross, right? Jim Grobe is the football coach at Wake Forest.

Gross has a knack for shoddy plans... he messed Ivey's up the first time around.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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This is great news, that section of 5th and Ivey's is something I've always b*tched about.

Defenitely, its currently less then 5ft of sidewalk if you take into account the parking meters and light poles. That is terrible considering it is directly connected to our signature street Tryon, and only 1 block from the square. They could recess the ground floor of the building except for the pillars to allow sidewalk seating, like college between 5th and 6th. That would leave the extra space gained from the parking spots as all sidewalk.

Either way, anything is better then this:

large.jpg

That's right, so take half the width of those parked cars and imagine it added to the sidewalk shown in this photo, and then the other half of that width added to the other side of the street.

Then imagine the ugly brick wall cut into to make doors and windows to street retail rather than internally facing retail. In other words, there is a lot going on to improve that single block from the perspective of pedestrians.

In part, this is self-interest, as LaTorre controls the historic street front retail buildings on the other side of 5th, so by facing the retail in Ivey's toward 5th, it creates a nice stretch of concentrated street retail.

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mallguy Town

mallguy

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There was an article about this in the Observer a few months ago.

It would be funny if an expanded Belk store opened in part of the Ivey's space.

In all seriousness, I hope the food court is just improved (it was so cheaply built, it seems) and at least that Bombay Cuisine re-opens. I looked at buying a condo in the Ivey's building and the "aroma" from the food court was even more of a turnoff than the heavy traffic into the building, so I'd figure the residents might want regular stores, though.

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Justadude Burg

Justadude

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Hooray for 5th Street! That's one of the toughest places to walk uptown, and it will be turned into one of the most attractive retail streets. Quite a reversal :-)

Charlotte does need some more diners, maybe some even open 24 hours a day!

It's called Waffle house :-) Seriously though, there are a number of 24-hour joints in town. After losing Athens, Uptown could use a new diner to catch the 4am crowd.

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AuLukey Town

AuLukey

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This is awesome news for uptown, this should have been done in the first place. I hope that this will include both retail and dining. Higher end dining doesn't really get me excited although it may be a little more appropriate for this stretch than McDonald's, even though there is something 'gritty' about having one of those good ol' M's lighting a street up. In addition to what is already there, I'm hoping for a small bar (like Phil's,) a nicer restaurant, a retailer or two, a fast food place, and a 24 hour diner along 5th. That would make me happy.

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