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In regards to the planned music venue and office space on Chestnut street. I emailed my council person (Colby Sledge) to show my support of the project. He emailed back and said that no opposition showed up on Tuesday. I believe it is now going to the 3rd reading next council meeting.

I really think you're all looking at this the wrong way, there's no way Duke could have prepared for a situation like this when they make so little money off of NC citizens and businesses. Pointless investments like winterization and adding peak generation plants so that they actually produce enough power for NC instead of just buying it from other utilities are far too costly for a business that barely pays $3.75/share dividends annually and EPS of over $5 the last few years on about 769,000,000 shares owned by small time, local NC investors like Vanguard, Blackrock, etc. I think we can all agree that small sacrifices like unannounced rolling blackouts are a small price to pay when you can see how much value they create. Instead of making Duke pay for critical infrastructure with profit, we've already approved very tiny rate increases of 16% (18.9% for residential customers) by 2025 so that they can make needed improvements to privately owned infrastructure and continue producing such incredible annual results.

Oh good... residents of The Gulch don't yet have convenient access to a dry cleaners or pharmacy, but if they need a $10,000 sustainable diamond broach at a moment's notice it'll be just a short walk away!

Fixed it for you. [I am not criticizing your post, I agree that there are some positive aspects to the 11th st route] Transit is an investment, not an expense. The Charlotte economy produces around $155 billion a year, we can totally afford the same infrastructure that smaller (and less productive) cities like Barcelona, Porto, Munich, Milan, Cologne, Lyon, Bilbao, Vienna, Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Newcastle, Amsterdam, Perth.... already have. IMO the best routing for mobility and circulation is my, completely unrealistic, Charlotte Loop plan where the Silver from Matthews loops uptown on tracks built on 277, while the Silver to the airport / Gaston makes the same loop in the other direction. Second best routing (IMO) is a Trade street tunnel. Third best (without justification) is Trade Street surface running in dedicated ROW. I don't mean to be tearing into your preference, I don't feel like the 11th street route is awful, but it will create some problems that will need to be solved.

Amazon Two update: Some patio elements being added above the parking pedestal. Looking NE from Church Street Viaduct where it crosses over 11th Ave. North: Looking west from Ben West Library Building: Looking SW from 10th Ave. North, 1/2 block south of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. (Charlotte Ave): Looking south from parking lot behind 315 10th Ave. North: Looking west from TSU Avon Campus surface lot:

It should take most off Grundy and most all along 12 from church to Broadway.

The blackouts were not a good thing... but were way shorter in duration than the multiple power outages I have each year due to Duke not burying main power lines and the lines falling or getting hit by trees constantly in the severe thunderstorms we get in this region. The blackouts happened once.... The power lines outside my neighborhood falling over... CONSTANT. We have terrible thunderstorms in this region with a dense tree canopy, microbursts, ice in winter, occasional hurricanes / tropical storms, et... BURY THE LINES.

Charlotte based Fortune 500 company Nucor donates $1 M to the new library closer to its big goal. From the Biz Journal today ""Nucor Corp. has contributed $1 million to the CommonSpark Campaign for raising $143 million to build a new Main Library on North Tryon Street in uptown Charlotte. The contribution brings the campaign to $123 million collected. Nucor (NYSE: NUE) joins leading Charlotte names such as Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), the Leon Levine Foundation, the Howard Levine Foundation and Novant Health in contributing $1 million to the project. The largest gift announced to date is $10 million contributed in February jointly by The Tepper Foundation and the David and Nicole Tepper Foundation. "Nucor Terrace" to overlook Charlotte skyline Nucor CEO Leon Topalian calls supporting the library fund “a privilege.” “This is our home, and our teammates and their families have dedicated themselves to being stewards in the communities where they live and work,” he says. “The library and this ambitious campaign bring us closer to fulfilling our commitment to building places that are sustainable, equitable, and strong.” The fifth floor of the new library will feature the Nucor Terrace to honor the gift. “Designed to be a destination for community gatherings and beautiful views, the Nucor Terrace will be one of the few public spaces in Uptown Charlotte to enjoy (a view of) the growing skyline and reflects the corporation’s commitment to equitability and sustainability,” the campaign says in a written statement."" https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/01/04/nucor-uptown-main-library-commonspark-1m-donate.html

Progress today, it is definitely really filling in that space now!

A cool YouTube video with Nashville on a list

There's a very walkable Publix that would be even closer, just under White Bridge and thus avoiding having to walk across either White Bridge or Harding Pike (red route). Even if the Kroger were say where Flower Mart is now rather than the Belle Meade Theater that it is set to relocate to (blue arrow), I'd still find the Publix location more appealing from the standpoint of being a pedestrian carrying/pushing a bunch of groceries. But super bonus points if anyone would be up for taking the Richland Creek Greenway all the way around to Trader Joe's!

Folks, I thought we could have a look at how this potential new apartment building at 5th and E. Franklin might connect with other development downtown and contribute to the overall synergy of what has the potential to be a tremendous rebirth of central downtown. The location of this building is prime - and if there is significant construction (particularly something of any decent size similar to what had been previously planned with the original "City Center" project on E. Grace or the two empty parcels on E. Broad as envisioned in the Navy Hill plan - this new apartment building could really "connect" with the southern-most part of the new City Center District, given proximity catty-corner across 5th and Franklin. On the over map, the new apartment building is designated by the yellow box. The possible City Center developments are marked by the orange boxes. And a vacant lot at the northeast corner of 4th and Franklin (right next to the Richmond Free Press building) is marked by the light blue box. That vacant lot really is the only open/developable block along Franklin Street itself west of this new apartment building. Note the Sea of Parking Lots to the south and southwest of 5th and Franklin - SOOO much potential! The second is the rendering taken from the Navy Hill plan - showing the 20-plus story mixed-use/residential buildings on E. Broad and the mixed-used development on Grace Street. I've added in a "relatively" scaled block to represent the new apartment building to give some perspective of how close to what could rise in City Center this new apartment building is. The proximity is key. If this building is constructed - and if the City Center developments rise - we can see how this will significantly impact the central-most part of downtown. The "confluence" in this area (within a few blocks) of three primary downtown districts -- City Center, Capital/Financal District and Monroe Ward -- has SO much potential to add to downtown's transformation if fully built out.

The entire block from East Blvd down to Tremont would need to be a surface parking lot and you still wouldn't have enough parking as what they do in the deck. Parking is a function of leasing and driven by tenants. Parking costs money (a lot of it too) so developers would happily build less parking if it were accepted by the market. Changes in parking demand happen at a macro level as cities urbanize. What groups like Spacecraft are doing in Optimist Park where they're planning to build hundreds of multifamily units without parking and getting praised for it from "urbanists" is actually a really bad thing for the neighborhood because the market is still car centric and it'll create huge issues that drive user demand (residents, workers, business owners) out of the area. If they had stopped at the Joinery or done similar projects throughout in-town Charlotte, I'm all for it, but concentrating 1,700 apartments within 3 blocks without providing any meaningful parking is not something that's going to result in a good outcome for the neighborhood.

The original (I think) is inside the mansion.

Plans for a massive mixed-use development in Madison advanced Tuesday after Nashville's council approved at least $37 million in tax incentives to help pay for the project's infrastructure. Designs for the 1.7-million-square foot "Madison Station" development include 1,694 multi-family residential housing units, office, and retail space, public parks, greenways, and multimodal roads. The site's developers — Texas-based Artesia Real Estate and the Nashville-based Cauble Group — will privately fund infrastructure construction, demolition and site preparation, according to the Economic Impact Plan approved unanimously by the council Tuesday. Metro will repay those costs, plus interest, over time using a portion of the site's incremental property tax revenue. This kind of incentive, known as "Tax-Increment Financing," allows developers to use a portion of a project's expected future tax revenue to pay off infrastructure construction loans. The Madison Station incentive stands to be one of the largest of its kind in Nashville's roughly 45-year history of using the tool. While the initial TIF loans are expected to total $37 million, project estimates show public infrastructure costs will likely approach $69 million. The total estimated private construction cost rings in at $631 million, according to plan documents. In total, the planned development includes: - 87,050 square feet of ground-floor commercial space - 236,000 square feet of office space - 1.3 million square feet of multifamily residential space (1,694 units) - 3,855 structured and surface parking spaces - roughly 15 acres of parks, open space, paths and streets More behind The Tennessean paywall here: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/davidson/2023/01/05/madison-station-development-wins-council-approval-tax-incentives/69775371007/?utm_source=pnas-DailyBriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-briefing-with-greeting&utm_term=hero&utm_content=1056TN-E-NLETTER65

Up to 15th floor. Looking SE from Church Street Viaduct at Upper 10th Ave. North (Platform Way): Looking south from Ben West Library building: Looking SE from intersection of Commerce St. and 9th Ave. North: Looking NW from 9th Ave. North, 1/2 block north of Broadway: Looking NW from Rosa L. Parks Blvd., 1/2 block north of Broadway: Looking SW from intersection of Rosa L. Parks Blvd. and Commerce St:

Too bad there’s no developer with a lot of land in 1st ward near the 277 alignment that could’ve partnered with the city to build a mixed use bus hub project that could make blue and silver connection better and try to create a mini stroll District along the major transit connection point close to a park, UNCC, etc….

These systems are complex beyond the minds of the general public. Complex to manage under normal Circumstances, imagine under unusual, infrequent, and hazardous conditions…personally they did what they had to do to protect the grid and the long term access to power to all their customers. It’s impossible to guarantee that a situation like will NEVER happen again, but at least these problems should be mitigated significantly. Solutions should definitely be in place to prevent these plants from operating under optimal capacity and better predictive modeling of the grid. I would also reemphasize that North Carolina faired far better than Texas (as it was compared to) and Duke did a far better job at managing this issue with no excess power available to compensate for their under prediction of power use. Hours (NC) versus Days (TX). I totally agree that this should be mitigated and situations like these kept to minimal disruptions. My main issue is the dramatization of the situation. Not to also minimize the dangerous situation it could have been if the power went out for much longer. It’s been shown that an average homes will stay warm for 8-12 hours before it starts to cool to equalize to the outside conditions. It could have been a dangerous condition if the outage lasted the entire day or several days, but it didn’t. Thankfully Duke Energy employees restored the power to most people in a matter of hours after their automated system failed. Again, definitely lessons to be learned here and solutions to be implemented for the extremes.

Taken yesterday, couldn’t believe how much taller it was since I got back from MN!

Everything appears to be done in the plaza, they still have it gated off though:

Ichigo Ichie Japanese Cuisine will be opening in the space last occupied by Caviar & Bananas in the Aerston Midtown development at 2031 Broadway. They have a $750,000 permit for internal construction. Powell Architecture is handing the design. A spring opening is planned. More behind the Nashville Post paywall here: https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/retail/japanese-restaurant-slated-for-midtown-tower/article_60d07040-8d29-11ed-a6ad-8fea2eb5081b.html

I’d be shocked if this lot doesn’t sprout something over 10 stories. The 15 story tower going up in Monroe Ward along Grace Street has 171 units. If you add in parking, to this development, which I hope there is very minimal to none, we could easily see 15+ stories on this site.

I don't get why people act like they are entitled to make a left just because there is a turn lane. Personally I plan my route so I can make only right turns. It's very frustrating when people block the exits to businesses in a futile effort to turn left when it would be much faster for them to turn right and make a left further down the road.

What an absolute folly of a list. Whoever published that should be embarrassed, and their definition of "green space" should be mocked publicly.

The I-85 South to 77 South transition has long been a wicked and unsafe feeling interchange and I always use the toll portion of that because of the sense that the merging lanes and lost lanes and high speeds are a fright along with the trucks. And general incompetent drivers which, in my experience, tend to avoid toll lanes.

Sauer planning 780-home mixed-use development near VCC - Richmond BizSense Big development coming to VCC. Combined with Green City, this could be the development of a major northern node for the metro.

Brickwork continues to rise on north side. Looking NE from intersection of Broadway and 20th Ave. South: Looking NW from intersection of Broadway and Lyle Ave: Looking SW from Lyle Ave., 1/2 block north of Broadway: Looking SW from Hampton Inn surface lot: Looking south from Hampton Inn surface lot: Looking SE from 20th Ave. North, just north of Terrace Place: Looking east from 20th Ave. North, 1/2 block north of Broadway:

Looking SE from surface lot behind 315 10th Ave. North: Looking NE from Asurion Plaza, 1/2 block south of Church Street Viaduct: Looking east from Church Street Viaduct at Upper 10th Ave. North (Platform Way): Looking west from Ben West Library Building: Looking north from 9th Ave. North, 1/8 block south of Church St:

Looking SW from alley between Broadway and McGavock St., 1/2 block east of 13th Ave. South:

TBT: 1857, Belmont Mansion and grounds.

I work in Monroe Ward quite a bit and I can tell you, the vibe is changing around there. More professionals walking around, meeting for coffee, drinks etc. I lived in DC for a while and it (sometimes) makes me feel I am back in a “big” city.

Not really the right thread for this but... about once a year I get the Moody's metro growth forecast for Charlotte for work purposes. They are relatively coarse projection models, so don't put too much faith in these (and they always miss economic transitions). Anyway, here is an excerpt of the quantitative 5 year forecast for Charlotte. What I found interesting was projected population growth remains relatively weak (in comparison to the past), but projected GMP growth looks OK, marginally lower than Raleigh and significantly higher than what is projected for Nashville. Income growth looks good at a glance, but it is largely driven by inflation. If the Moody's projections pan out, then we are looking at a pretty blah stretch for the next 5 years. While the specific numbers shown here are pretty unreliable, this is a good representation of what corporations see when making expansion decisions.

Today this evening. 2 British airways at BNA. That 3rd time.

Big news the Greensboro Outerloop I-840 may be complete by Jan. 20 like in a few weeks. with all the job growth SE of the city with Toyota and at the airport with Boom this makes the labor pool even larger for both allowing quicker access to both. from the Biz Journal ""The northern section of the Greensboro Urban Loop, also known as Interstate 840, is expected to be completed ahead of schedule, perhaps as early as the next few weeks. Though the N.C. Department of Transportation's website lists spring 2023 as the expected completion date, Patty Eason, an NCDOT construction engineer, said completion of the final piece of the Urban Loop from North Elm Street to Interstate 40 is now expected to open this month, perhaps as early as Jan. 20. Soon, travelers will have another option for getting from one side of Greensboro to the other without negotiating traffic and traffic signals on major east-west corridors such as Wendover Avenue/Burlington Road and Gate City Boulevard, and for bypassing traffic on Battleground Avenue and U.S. 29 from the north. Plus, the loop will make for easy access to Piedmont Triad International Airport from just about anywhere in and around the city. The Greensboro Loop has already been credited for major new development in southern Rockingham County, where trucks and other motorists can trim significant time off trips to the airport by avoiding traffic on Battleground, and in east Greensboro, where Publix opened a massive distribution center within a mile of the loop earlier this year.""

I think that since this inevitably going to be a political discussion (even though everyone is doing a good job staying in their lane), let's leave these discussions for Facebook and move on.

Nice video. However, Nashville actually has 17 towers currently u.c. that fit in the 150'-327' category...not 5 as the video states. The video is correct on the amount of 328'+ currently u.c. at 7.

We made that list by being #2 in "highest average yard square footage" ... which feels like winning the wrong way. I'd prefer to be on the list for large public park space, rather than large yards restricting the number of neighbors we can build homes for in our neighborhoods.

The 1 acre site of the Greyhound Bus Station that was opened less than 12 years ago at 709 Rep. John Lewis Way South (5th Ave. South at Lafayette) has been purchased for $14.55 million by a trust related to Twenty Lake Holdings out of Connecticut. Greyhound had bought the site in 2010 for $2 million when they had to relocate from their former site where the Music City Convention Center is currently located. Twenty Lake has also purchased many other Greyhound Stations in other cities across the nation. No word on plans for the property, or if Greyhound might be relocating their station somewhere else. More behind the Nashville Post paywall here: https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/downtown-greyhound-site-fetches-14-55m/article_b5952022-8c79-11ed-b920-7bee5c4cbcbc.html This screen shot from Smeagolsfree's excellent development map shows the site highlighted in purple at the center of the frame:

Heck, forget Levine, the Hal Marshall Annex property is already owned by the County. This public property along the Blue Line even stretches from 9th to 11th Streets. Imagine a "climate-controlled concourse" that actually connected Silver Line and Blue Line.

Munch would’ve liked this. Michael Anthony Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm OOTL - will the Silver Line have 2-car trains or 3-car trains at the moment? I really hope the answer is to at least build all the stations for 3-car capacity. Plan for the future. Charlotte is becoming dense and highly populated, it will need more than just 2 cars per train soon. The Blue Line already needs more considering the low frequencies.

Bad connection to Blue Line and a complete miss of connection between the yet to be built/alignment decided silver line and yet to be built bus hub… I just don't think that’s smart. If buses start to use various silver line stations as major bus stops (like blue line) and the silver line becomes a major transit line and serve as a backbone of the transit system along with the blue line, it seems connections to bus routes at CTC would be terrible? In a perfect world, CTC would be a major multi level transfer point between the blue line, silver line & a major bus hub for city buses (which I thought CATS had wanted to move away from) & Epicenter would be renovated. Imagine a renovated epicenter connected to a Blue/Silver & renovated CTC Station. That would be so awesome. Also seems some infrastructure $’s could be consolidated if silver line & CTC bus hub shared facilities? But it’s odd to me they actually care a lot about silver line hitting Gateway Station. I don’t think Gateway is that necessary to be served by the silver line. It’ll likely generate very small ridership for the silver line (Gold Line seems adequate for gateway).

I think you may see more of this happening with the reduction in height by reducing the floor to ceiling height. It is a cost cutting measure. Adding the extra floor was a surprise. This is ACC’s first venture into market rate housing too. I think the other thing that slowed this project was the street collector plan and now that it passed, it opens the flood gates for a lot of projects in Mid Town.

KJHBurg, I hope your use of the word "interesting" is intended as an expression of doubt as to the legitimacy of the ridership numbers now being circulated and the competence of the selected proposal? If so, I suggest a new font color for "sarcastic" commentary! Maybe purple? If you are being sarcastic, I agree...the latest numbers are "interesting". They are also entirely fictitious and transparently self-serving. You only need to read Brent Cagle's and Andy Mock's responses in the article to realize this, as they are left to babble their way toward partial cover by offering to "go back and take a look at what changed". I nearly chocked on my drink in laughter reading this...imagining the look on their faces as they uttered such nonsense! It must have physically hurt their mouths to speak that response, lol! Such public facing, bold faced ineptitude must have a formidable behind the scenes reason for being. Why are CATS and Council conspiring to generate self-serving studies to promote an obvious transit planning failure? Since the selected Option has no bearing on transit and transit usage, (and as discussed previously, even less so on sustainable/resilient development) whatever has happened "behind the scenes" must be one hell of a barrier to common sense. I can only deduce that it is politically based, as such motives are usually the most idiotic, and drenched in special interest ideologies. As discussed in my previous post, no competent and respected transportation firm, transit financing authority, or transit advocacy group would have their name anywhere near a recommendation as asinine as this. Maybe the real reasons will be made public some day when, after the proposal fails to secure funding after multiple tries, people with hands raised will ask why one of the most important infrastructure investments in the City's history was so poorly managed. I look forward to that day when we are made privy to the special interests and their cronies responsible for this fiasco.

Well the best article I read about what happened is from the Biz Journal. There were power plant problems that reduced output at the same time no outside power sources were available to help. This was Duke's first rolling blackouts and it needs to be their last! They created a dangerous situation with people in the record cold and while some was plant malfunctions some were errors on their part in terms of forecasting power. They forecasting less power than in extreme cold situation in 2018. https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/01/03/duke-energy-christmas-eve-blackouts-nc-regulators.html this is most of the story from the Business Journal about the state utility meeting. """Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) says frozen instruments at three plants forced it to reduce 1,035 megawatts of production capacity at those sites between midnight and 6 a.m. on Christmas Eve leading up to the rolling blackouts that morning. That, combined with greater-than-expected demand and the cancellation of 1,150 megawatts worth of power purchase contracts from third parties that morning, made the forced outages affecting 500,000 Carolinas customers at Duke necessary, the company says. “We made the only decision that we could,” Duke’s N.C. president, Kendal Bowman, told the state's utilities commission in a special presentation this morning. “For the first time in our company’s history, we began rolling services disruptions.” Then, a failure of an automated system designed to rotate blackouts among 269 circuits at 15-minute intervals failed at 7 a.m. That extended the blackouts for customers as Duke had to revert to manual restoration of power on the system. Charlotte-based Duke says all the blackouts ended by 8 p.m., but for many that amounted to hours of interrupted service. Enlarge The N.C. Utilities Commission questioned Duke Energy executives about the causes of, and potential solutions for, the power blackouts that struck the Carolinas on Christmas Eve. 'We own what happened' Without the blackouts, Duke executives told the commission there would have been uncontrolled outages as demand exceeded generation capacity. That would have led to more widespread outages of longer durations and could have even threatened the power grid for the Southeast, causing events similar to the Northeast blackout in 2003 that impacted 50 million people. “We are deeply sorry that any of our customers’ holidays were disrupted,” said Julie Janson, Bowman’s superior and the CEO for Duke operations in North and South Carolina. “We own what happened,” she said. "We have set on a path to ensure that if we are faced with similar challenges, we will see a different outcome.” Janson said that includes a thorough internal investigation of Duke’s systems and procedures and a review of how other utilities in the region handled the emergency as many experienced the same difficulties. Duke says that none of its generation equipment failed due to weather, which was a major issue in the February 2021 outages during a Texas winter storm that caused more than 250 deaths. But instruments unexpectedly froze at the 726-megawatt Dan River Combined Cycle Plant, the 2,422-megawatt Roxboro and 727-megawatt coal plants, making it impossible to run those units at full capacity. Dan River was reduced, or “derated,” to 360 megawatts capacity at midnight. Roxboro lost 325 megawatts of its available capacity (which was about 725 megawatts) at 2:30 a.m. and Mayo lost 350 megawatts capacity at 6 a.m. From confidence to failure, how quickly power reserves disappeared on Duke Sam Holman, vice president of transmission, walked the commission through a timeline of how Duke went from believing that it had sufficient generation and reserves to handle demand on Dec. 24, despite the weather extremes, to realizing by 4 a.m. that it would not, even using standard demand-side reduction programs, and opted for discretionary temporary blackouts. Duke Energy Carolinas estimated at 6 p.m. on Dec. 23 it had sufficient power online and lined up in purchase contracts to meet the expected high demand on Dec. 24, with 1,500 megawatts of reserve energy. But by 7 p.m., it recognized that demand was already trending higher than anticipated. Despite that, the company expected to have enough power and 900 megawatts of reserve capacity as of 10 p.m. Then at midnight, the instrument problems at Dan River led to halving the capacity at that facility. By 2 a.m., as demand continued to rise higher above projections (and the weather turned colder than expected) the company knew it was in for a challenge with just 200 megawatts of reserve capacity. That had evaporated by 6 a.m., after firm power purchase contracts for 400 megawatts of capacity from the PJM Interconnection System, were canceled along with 250 megawatts of non-firm capacity. At 4 a.m., it lost 350 megawatts of firm capacity when Broad River Power tripped off. The rolling blackouts began at Duke Carolinas at 6:14 a.m. Extreme weather exercise in mid-December failed to predict problems Duke Energy Progress had expected to have capacity to meet Christmas Eve demand and 1,100 megawatts of reserve at 6 p.m. on Dec. 23. And it seemed to be in good shape for a good bit longer than Duke Carolinas, Holman said. As late as 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Duke Progress was still projecting sufficient capacity and 1,000 megawatts in reserve. Then it changed quickly. At 2:30 a.m., the instrument failures at Roxboro cut 325 megawatts of available capacity. By 5 a.m., Duke Progress was seeing the kinds of increases in customer demand that had concerned Duke Carolinas hours earlier. At 6 a.m., the Mayo instrument failure led to a reduction of 350 megawatts of capacity as nearly 500 megawatts worth of power purchase contracts were canceled. The rolling blackouts started at Duke Progress at 6:25 a.m. Preston Gillespie, chief generation officer for Duke, said that the company had run a simulation of extreme winter weather Dec. 12, and the results showed that the utilities’ systems could handle them without a loss of power. But the simulation failed to forecast the instrument freezes at the three plants. The company is determining why that model failed. Regulators want detailed answers Nelson Peeler, chief transmission officer, said that Duke’s general forecasting model also failed to predict how much demand there would be on Dec. 24. Partly, that was because temperatures were colder than had been forecast, winds were significantly higher and the dew points were lower — all weather factors that impact demand. But also it just failed to accurately predict how customer demand would respond to the plunging temperatures. Gillespie said Duke’s information technology staff and the software provider for the modeling have been working since Dec. 24 — including on Christmas and New Year’s Day — to determine if there is a fault in the modeling system."" END OF BIZ JOURNAL QUOTE and from the Charlotte Ledger this morning: In the midnight hour that Saturday morning, customers in Duke Energy Carolinas, which includes Charlotte and most of central and western North Carolina, were needing just below 20,000 megawatts of electricity — a rarely surpassed number. The previous record, according to data submitted to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, was 21,608 megawatts, in January 2018. Typically, Duke customers require much less: On New Year’s Day, for instance, the figure barely rose above 10,000 megawatts in the busiest hour. >>>>My comments about the above information is why was Duke not projecting at least 21,600 megawatts of electricity used. Was it because it was the Saturday before Christmas 12/24? Many people had relatives and family in town using more power than ever. Every store I know of was opened that day except for my local Harris Teeter closed all day 12/24 due to this outage? This is not about their mix of generation of power I am ALL of the ABOVE gas, nuclear, solar wind and hydro. But their job is provide power to this community and they failed us and it NEEDS TO never happen again.

I'm an architect on the project. I believe the latest is that they hope to start a portion of their production lines later this spring, but don't expect any drawdown of Charlotte operations until the fall. That was my latest understanding, but it may have changed. I assume that it'll be several years before the site is "shovel-ready" for any new development.

NASHVILLE URBAN PLANET MEET-UP AGENDA, JAN. 7th, 2023 Here's an overview of what can be covered at the Dave Luna Urban Planet Meet-Up IN-PERSON this Saturday, Jan. 7th, from 10 AM to noon at The Copper Branch inside the Downtown Library (on the SW corner of 6th Ave. North and Church St.). Smeagolsfree (Ron) and Brian (PredsBoy18) will arrive early to help get tables set up. Bob (LA_TN) will be with us again to serve as our AV tech to get the proceedings captured for anyone who wishes to attend via Zoom. Please PM me by Friday evening at the latest if you would like to get the link to join us remotely. INITIAL BUSINESS: Meet any new folks in attendance. Get reports from anyone who traveled to other cities in the past month for quick overviews of what they experienced. Cranes up: Hillsboro Town Center (1); Peabody Union (1); WeHo Nashville (1) Cranes down: Amazon Two (1); Gibson Residences (1 of 2) Total cranes currently up in Davidson County: 45; total for 2022: 81 (new record, previous high of 62) Topped out: Nashville Warehouse Residential (10); 2106 24th Ave. North (3); Hyatt place Green Hills (3); Crossroads Campus. AGENDA: The 10.5 acre Belle Meade Plaza Shopping Center at 4500 Harding Pike is going to be razed to make way for a massive new mixed-use project by AJ Capital. It will feature residential towers of 15, 14, 12, and 11 stories that will have around 500 luxury residential units and a 120 room hotel. There will be 5 structures of 1 & 2 stories that will feature 75,000 sq. ft. of high-end retail. There will be substantial underground parking. It appears that most of the structures will be brick. A complete reworking of the currently-ignored Richland Creek and Sugar Tree Creek will run along the northern and western sides of the site with walkways, and a platform park. About 50% of the site will be devoted to green space. Renderings available. Metro Council has given initial approval of the Titans’ new $2.1 billion stadium non-binding terms sheet. Mayor John Cooper and his office have backed the proposal and served as an intermediary between the Metro Council and the NFL organization. The council also approved 1% increase in thecdty’s hotel tax, revenue from which will go to pay for the stadium’s construction. NFL owners approved a combination of loans and grants valued at $200 million for the proposed new Titans stadium project. The funds were approved as part of the league’s G4 Stadium Program. VeLa Pietown has some more specs: Will be 32 stories, 360’; 411 apartment units; 5,715 sq. ft. of ground level retail; 373 capacity garage 4 levels below grade; Johnston Marklee and Lamar Johnson Collaborative will partner on the architectural design; Kimley Horn will handle land planning and engineering. The property is zoned to accommodate a building of up to 16 floors with basic bonus height. VeLa will seek additional height from the Metro Planning Department Downtown Code Design Review Committee. Bonus height can be granted for projects that incorporate exceptional design, LEED certification and more parking than required. The Michael Anthony Group’s proposal for a massive project at 1st & Demonbreun, which has now become the Tishman Speyer site, was someone’s dream...and that dream is dead. But was intriguing with 55 story/756’ & 45 story/634’ towers connected with sky bridge, 455 hotel rooms, 508 condos, 2,500 seat venue, convention/ballroom space, spa, 6 level underground garage. Renderings and diagrams available. 531 Lafayette will be 15 stories tall and feature 388 residential units and an internal garage on Hermitage Lighting site. EQT Exeter paid the latter $22.75 million for the land in October. No word yet on the architect, engineer, and the rest of the team, nor when they plan to get underway. A rough rendering available. The sale of Arnold’s Country Kitchen and the adjoining surface lot at 605 8th Ave. South in The Gulch is happening this week. More details to come. 611 Cowan St. will be the address of a 17 story, 204 unit dual brand hotel (unknown names) that will feature a 1,300 sq. ft. restaurant, 1,300 sq. ft. of retail, a rooftop bar, and a 42 capacity internal garage. A partnership of RevPAR Development and Emerge Hospitality Group will be the developers. This site will be directly east from the Oracle campus, as well as at the terminus for the Grace Street Pedestrian Tunnel which will connect to the Cleveland Park area underneath I-24 inner belt. The same development team is also planning an 11 story Residence Inn about 2/3 of a mile to the south at 206 North 1st St. Avalon Midtown will now be rebranded as Voce Hotel and Residences. It will still be 25 stories, and will offer 120 luxury hotel suites, 190 for sale residences, 60,000 sq. ft. of office space, 11,000 sq. ft. ground level retail, a 4,000 sq. ft. rooftop deck restaurant/bar next to a pool, and an 700 capacity internal garage. A fall 2023 groundbreaking is planned. 1601 Broadway seems to be stirring after a couple years of hibernation. New designs are out showing it to be 1 story taller at 28/316’. American Campus Communities (ACC) is now in charge of the development, with Scenic Investments in a much-reduced role. STG has replaced Smith Gee as the architect. Appears to be 353 residential units compared to 440 previously. Looks to be about 6,000 sq. ft. of ground level retail/restaurant space, compared to 5,000 before. There are 428 parking space, mostly on 6 levels of internal garage. The development team will request from the Metro Planning Commission a final site plan approval (related to the site's urban design overlay) for the property on Feb. 9th. AEG's 88,000 sq. ft., 4,500 capacity entertainment venue in Nashville Yards will have a standing room main floor design that will have a sloped floor so people in the back can see; a horse shoe balcony with bleachers; VIP seating in the balcony, expanded bathrooms so there won't be much waiting; an out of sight bar area; and production capacity for live-streaming and televised events. HOK will be the architect. Similar rooms operated by AEG include Roadrunner in Boston and the Mission Ballroom in Denver. AEG envisions a venue that can host buzzed-about tours in dance, pop, and hip-hop that might not fit in seated halls like the 2,362-capacity Ryman or 4,000-person Grand Ole Opry House. Oracle has paid $23 million for 1.6 acres along the Cumberland that had been sandwiched between two of their parcels and was originally scheduled to have an 8-10 story office building by Creek Lane Capital (the seller) as part of River North Landings. This may allow more space for improved entrance/egress on the pedestrian bridge connecting Germantown. The Shelby Woods project being planned for 9.64 acres at 1409 Davidson has a bit more definition. It would feature an 8 story/298 unit structure on the southern portion that is in the flood plain. On the northern segment--which has a bit higher elevation-- there would be 39 single family homes. And there would be a an approximate 3 acre green space buffer zone in between the two zones. The team will go before Metro Planning Commission on Jan. 12, 2023 to request the specific plan zoning to be amended to more effectively accommodate the proposal. Forestone Capital has finished buying the final plot of their planned 7.4 acre project that will eventually have four 6 to 12 story structures, primarily residential. They just bought 4.14 acres at 1055 White Creek Pike (which includes a 2 story, non-historic Crescent Electrical Supply warehouse) for $9 million a few months ago. No word on when formal plans and rendering swill be released. Fisk University, which has seen its enrollment balloon from 630 to 1,050 students in t he last 5 years, plans to construct a temporary, $4 million, 2 story dorm area made from 24 shipping containers that will house 98 students starting in the fall of 2023. A permanent, $20 million brick dormitory that will house 300 students has just gotten underway on campus, but won't be ready for a couple years. Renderings available. Riverside at MetroCenter will be four structures of 4 & 5 stories with 590 units on 14.25 acres next to Ted Rhodes Golf Course at 2833 Clarksville Pike. Developer Front Street Partners has a contract on the vacant land. Rendering available. After several years of dormancy, the 106 Acklen Park in West End Park seems to be coming around via a rezoning request and new renderings. It will be made two structures (one 7 stories, one 5 stories with and upper level connection between the two) offering a cumulative 116 residential units on .75 acre. Previous iterations had shows 4 & 6 floors. Kroger will be relocating its Belle Meade Plaza store to the former Belle Meade cinema site at 4301 Harding Pike. A Harris Teeter Grocery had been in that building up until last year. MDHA and Elmington Capital Group are partnering on a six building/251 unit residential complex on 23.5 acres at 8121 McCrory Lane. Rutherford County: Murfreesboro will see Ascension Saint Thomas build a multi-story, 102,000 sq. ft., $60 million medical office building to house a cancer center with groundbreaking in 2023. It will include a 5 story garage that will be shared with the main hospital campus that should be open by 2024. A proposed Music City Children's Museum (80,000 sq. ft.) is looking at the East Bank. NASHVILLE REMAINS HOT: The Nashville Metro region saw a 5.9-percent increase in non-farm payroll employment from October 2021 to October 2022, the fifth largest jump among nearly 300 regions around the country, according to a new report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The increase represents nearly 64,000 added jobs. Nashville’s leisure and hospitality industry saw the biggest gains, at 15.3 percent, while the “information” sector (including tech) saw a 1.1-percent decrease year-over-year as job growth in that industry reversed after registering double-digit gains earlier in 2022. The Nashville region's economy expanded at more than double the national rate in 2021, according to newly released government data. The gross domestic product figures — the value of all goods and services produced — are the latest gauge of the region's snapback from the recession induced by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. All 13 counties in the metro area posted GDP growth in 2021, led by Davidson County's 13.8% increase. Four other counties posted double-digit percent growth. he region's GDP totaled more than $136.25 billion in 2021, recovering what was lost during the earlier part of the pandemic and adding $11.5 billion onto that, for growth of 12%. That rate is more than double the 5.7% growth in the nation's real GDP (adjusted for inflation). In the last 10 years Nashville's GDP has surpassed several larger MSAs including Indianapolis, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Columbus. The fastest-growing GDPs have been the SF Bay area, Austin, Raleigh, Seattle, and Nashville. Music City are grew from $88 billion to $163 billion in that time, an 85.2% leap. Nashville's industrial vacancy rate is the lowest (1.2%) among markets nationwide according to Commercial Edge. Maury County: Mt. Pleasant will see Brazilian Professionals LLC build a new 50,000 sq. ft. U.S. Distribution hub in the Cherry Glen Industrial Park that will employ 110 people. A thorough report from the VisitMusicCity website on the very healthy status of tourism in Nashville: Tourism this year should reach 14.4 million visitors, up 14% from last year, and slightly above from pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 2%; Visitor spending averages $286 per day, and $616 per visitor for total of around $8.87 billion in 2022. Nashville Downtown Central Business District (CBD) has 107 hotels with 19,692 rooms; Nashville Davidson County has 261 hotels with 38,120 rooms; Greater Market/ Nashville MSA has 476 hotels with 56,173 rooms; in Davidson County there are currently 2,645 hotel rooms u.c., 1,620 in final planning, and 2,396 more proposed. That is a total of 6,661 more rooms in the pipeline. Airport had 1,806,913 total passengers in November, up 18.1% over November 2021, which was already up over November 2019. FAA gives clearance for BNA to make pitches for Asian airlines to choose Nashville as a destination. Tennessee boasts more than 200 Japanese-owned companies and is witnessing immense investments from multiple South Korean companies. The airport also enhanced its incentives for airlines this fall, aiming them primarily at drawing "transoceanic" routes. That newly issued go-ahead means the airport can begin an environmental study that's required before the airport extends one runway by 50%, to about 12,000 feet. That added length guarantees that factors such as wind speed or temperature won't cost an airline money by potentially forcing it to bump passengers in order to be able to take off. Airport CEO Doug Kreulen is also feeling optimistic that the six new international gates could get busier just a matter of months after the expansion opens — with the chances rising that a second airline will join British Airways in flying a nonstop European route. Nashville is the best performing Multifamily Market absorption in the U.S. for Q3 of 2022 according to Berkadia Research. Tennessee was #7 in the nation of states that saw most numeric population growth between July of 2021 and June of 2022 at 82,988. The Nashville Sounds claimed the first Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year Award in their 45-year history after a banner year in the Music City. The Sounds led Minor League Baseball in total attendance (555,576) and set a club record for season ticket revenue, topping the previous record by nearly $700,000. The Sounds also saw an increase in Full Season Equivalents by more than 10% from 2021. Sean Brock’s Audrey restaurant was named on of the 15 “Best New U.S. Restaurants of 2022” by Eater Magazine. Hope you can join us for fun, lively, and informative discussion on all the growth in and around Music City this Saturday morning. : )

Loving these fantastic photos! Thanks so much for taking and posting. Yeah - they're getting close to topping out - not much more to go. Love the massing and size of the Parc View. Consider that this is the first high-rise in Monroe Ward since the 1972 (Monroe Park Towers at Belvidere & Franklin). Hard to believe it's been 50 years since the last residential high-rise was built in Monroe Ward, given that the district absolutely lends itself to becoming downtown's premiere high-rise residential district. Juxtaposition of the Parc View right next to the Berkshire really establishes the kind of urban feel that's perfect for Monroe Ward. Looking forward to more high-rise development in creating a legitimate Grace Street corridor in the coming years. I know one of the buildings near the "Y" got scaled back. HOWEVER - recall that Mike's 2022 RBS review a couple of weeks ago made mention of the "mystery" developer who last spring filed paperwork with the city regarding a possible 15-story residential building on the southeast corner of Foushee & E. Grace. There's little question that Monroe Ward has boatloads of potential for this kind of development -- not to mention the Sea of Parking Lots in (particularly) the southern half of the ward. Wow -- I just hope and pray the next handful of years sees quite a few more residential buildings of this size (or larger even!) start popping up in Monroe Ward like mushrooms after a summer thundershower. If it happens, it absolutely will be game-changing for downtown Richmond.

Got a nice walk in between rains today! *Edit: this was taken last night

This area really will be the little city center of SouthEnd!