Charlotte Knights AAA Ballpark in Third Ward

[ah59396]

Yes, the baseball field will encompass two city blocks. They will likely be shutting down 3rd street fairly soon to begin construction. The field will be anchored by Graham, MLK, Mint and 4th. The footprint will be similar in size to the NASCAR HOF/Headquarters, as an example.

[WesleyHeightsWay]

Yes, BBT Ballpark will use both lots on either side of 3rd. That's why I was wondering about the VPC building and access to Uptown from West Charlotte.

[dubone]

The stadium will be roughly on 1 1/2 of those two blocks, the rest of which (along 4th St) will be a couple of plazas and a hotel. It has been long determined that the Virginia Paper building will be torn down for this project, which is definitely a shame, but could not be included in the designs for the stadium.

3rd Street will be removed from the beginning of the 4th Street connector to Mint Street. The 2-way 4th street will be extended east all the way to Mint, so that eastbound drivers on 4th will continue east and then use Mint to connect to 3rd Street. I'm not sure if it is paid for in this project, but the plan is also to make Poplar 2-way, so they may make 4th two way to Poplar so that drivers can either use Mint or Poplar to connect over to 3rd.

You can see that in this rendering:

[kermit]

Yes, BBT Ballpark will use both lots on either side of 3rd. That's why I was wondering about the VPC building and access to Uptown from West Charlotte.

Virginia Paper Company demolition will begin Monday at 7am

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/09/28/3563489/crews-to-tear-down-virginia-paper.html

[ah59396]

Virginia Paper Company demolition will begin Monday at 7am

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/09/28/3563489/crews-to-tear-down-virginia-paper.html

I'm not sure that building was salvageable anyways… But on a good note it's amazing to see how much has already begun on the site with dirt movers, fences up and obviously the VPC building destruction taking place.

[nonillogical]

Yeah, sad to see VPC go but definitely a net positive anyway. When I passed by it looked like they might also be getting ready to start construction on 3rd to make it 2-way around the ballpark, judging from some of the equipment that was in place around the split at 3rd and Graham.

[grodney]

VPC still standing. I suppose when they say demolition starts yesterday, that doesn't mean they're going to implode it right at the stroke of 7:00am. Some plywood got moved around yesterday, and there's already guys in orange vests out there this morning, so maybe they'll start bashing bricks today.

Unless some nutjob has chained himself to the building, demanding that Charlotte wait for an MLB team.

[Urbanity]

^Demolition starts today

FYI - WFAE has a nice little story about the building http://www.wfae.org/post/1930s-building-goes-down-today-make-way-uptown-baseball

Edited October 2, 2012 by Urbanity

[RiverwoodCLT]

On the 5PM news on Channel 3 and 36, they show that about 1/3 of the building is gone.

Edited October 2, 2012 by RiverwoodCLT

[HopHead]

You know construction is finally official when we have a BB&T Ballpark Web Cam: https://mds.multivista.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=webcampub.page&wcpp=4ea6ec27-b1f3-4bcc-8a01-32f9e0d49d93 . Updated every 60 seconds.

[ah59396]

^so good. Really gives you an idea of the footprint. It looks like the Virginia paper company building is also almost torn down.

[HopHead]

Yea, looking at the footprint, there is no way they could've included the VA Paper building in the design. Now I have something to watch on a daily basis

[New Name]

Wow VA Paper Building is officially pulp as of 10:22am. I clicked the webcam this morning when I got in at 8:30 and you could still see some walls standing - and two hours later it is updated: gone.

[dubone]

Now let's focus on getting other old pre-WWII commercial buildings into a state of adaptive reuse. In the last decade, we lost the buildings at 8th & Blue Line (for the mythic First Ward Park), at MLK & Church (for Bearden Park), VA Paper building for BB&T Park, the historic Duke Power headquarters for Ally, the row of Trade St buildings (old Carpe Diem) for the TWC Arena... They are dropping like flies. In most of these cases, it is a necessary evil because the progress created important infrastructure and growth. But there are still buildings like Treloar House, the Polk/Coddington Building, the building that seems set to become the Fourth Ward Bakery at some point. I'm sure there are many others just outside of uptown as well.

[CLTNative]

Update from this afternoon:

[ah59396]

So the Knights have submitted some additional rezoning requests for more signage at the baseball field. The new rezoning request also includes a PDF with some more renders.

http://ww.charmeck.org/Planning/Rezoning/2013/001-006/2013-005%20site%20plan.pdf

I especially like the brick exposed walls along the stadium with "retro" style paintings commemorating the history of Charlotte baseball. This should be a good looking ball field.

[New Name]

I love that baseball parks aren't 20 stories tall like Arenas. They blend into a neighborhood better and have a much less imposing street presence in regard to human scale.

[ah59396]

I'll also say, as a baseball fan, when I'm in a new city that has one I always make a point to go check it out. Even if that just means walking around it. Baseball has a special place in many hearts and the "park" is an extremely important aspect of the sport. A well done, accessible ballpark is a nice place to visit, even when not open to play.

[HopHead]

I also like how they are going with the retro look on the exterior of the stadium. It will definitely give a different feel in the area which mostly absent among the shiny towers that encompass uptown.

[HopHead]

New rendering of the ballpark from behind home plate. Very cool glimpse of the Charlotte skyline:

[tiblerbrit]

Is the hotel in the outfield being constructed now or is it part of a future phase? Who would be developing it? Will the Knights profit from it? I'm all for using tax payer dollars to subsidize the ballpark, but I think it's ridiculous that the Knights asked for extra money essentially to build more for profit ventures on free land.

[Urbanity]

Unless I'm completely mistaken - The hotel is not part of the stadium financing.

[Guest]

Unless I'm completely mistaken - The hotel is not part of the stadium financing.

I think it's technically an outparcel of the land that the city leasing the land to the Knights. So the city would make property taxes off the outparcel. Someone would have to bid to develop?

[tiblerbrit]

I think it's technically an outparcel of the land that the city leasing the land to the Knights. So the city would make property taxes off the outparcel. Someone would have to bid to develop?

Ok this makes the most sense.

[jednc]

How would you like to stay in one of the rooms behind the scoreboard?