Legacy Union (former Charlotte Observer redevelopment)

[KJHburg]

11 minutes ago, jjwilli said:

Is that additional parking?? Or just what’s in that massive garage?

that would be parking somehow connected to this building would be my thinking either to the side or integrated into the building like Honeywell don't know at this point. 

[deleted account]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

This project is turning into Charlotte’s version of the Hudson Yards.

Somehow this comment is insulting to both Hudson Yards and Charlotte...but I suppose LH is to Hudson Yards what the Firebird sculpture is to the Statue of Liberty. I always appreciate your enthusiasm for Charlotte development. 

[atlrvr]

4 hours ago, KJHburg said:

 

Lincoln Harris Spokesperson:   You will see it when we build it!  

 

Based on a true story...

Scene 1: Tuesday morning at Lincoln Harris HQ:

And Action!

LH Exec #1 - The client we've been talking to loved the last set of renderings and floorplans we showed them.  They're signing a 200k sq ft 15 year lease!

LH Exec #2 - Yeah, glad we were able to meet their parking needs, and they really appreciated the architect tweaking the plans to fit the aesthetic they were going for.

#1 - Yep, nailed it.  Another huge win!

 

Scene 2: Later that same day.

Exec #2 - Hey, the public relations team asking if we should send renderings and a statement out to the Observer and CBJ.  Also, they think maybe we should post them on social media and build a buzz.

Exec #1 - Why?

Exec #2 - I dunno, to build a buzz?

Exec #1 - But we already  have a lead tenant wrapped up, and all the leasing brokers with real prospects have seen it.

Exec #2 - I dunno, for good PR at least?

#1 - So half the people on Facebook and Instagram can complain there's no affordable housing, and the other half will complain we're destroying "their" green space.

#2 - Haha, don't forget about the people who will say their view is being blocked.

#1 - Haha, and destroying the historic character of Uptown.

#2 - Yeah, but you know the nerds on that Urban Planet website will eventually post it regardless, might as well put it out ourselves, right?

#1 - You really care about the people that will complain about the parking, the color of the glass, the fact it only has retail on 3 sides, and then will compare the construction photos to the rendering every day for 2 years accusing us of Value Engineering everything???

#2 - You're right.  What's the point!?

...End scene

 

[KJHburg]

Other cities talk and talk about buildings for years (I wont name those cities but y'all know) we just build and announce the building and release renderings later.  Remember Duke Energy Plaza was released on a Friday afternoon if I remember correctly late in the day.  Construction started soon thereafter.    It wll be a great day to Bank in the US! 

Edited October 22, 2021 by KJHburg

[turbocraig]

37 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

Based on a true story...

Scene 1: Tuesday morning at Lincoln Harris HQ:

And Action!

LH Exec #1 - The client we've been talking to loved the last set of renderings and floorplans we showed them.  They're signing a 200k sq ft 15 year lease!

LH Exec #2 - Yeah, glad we were able to meet their parking needs, and they really appreciated the architect tweaking the plans to fit the aesthetic they were going for.

#1 - Yep, nailed it.  Another huge win!

 

Scene 2: Later that same day.

Exec #2 - Hey, the public relations team asking if we should send renderings and a statement out to the Observer and CBJ.  Also, they think maybe we should post them on social media and build a buzz.

Exec #1 - Why?

Exec #2 - I dunno, to build a buzz?

Exec #1 - But we already  have a lead tenant wrapped up, and all the leasing brokers with real prospects have seen it.

Exec #2 - I dunno, for good PR at least?

#1 - So half the people on Facebook and Instagram can complain there's no affordable housing, and the other half will complain we're destroying "their" green space.

#2 - Haha, don't forget about the people who will say their view is being blocked.

#1 - Haha, and destroying the historic character of Uptown.

#2 - Yeah, but you know the nerds on that Urban Planet website will eventually post it regardless, might as well put it out ourselves, right?

#1 - You really care about the people that will complain about the parking, the color of the glass, the fact it only has retail on 3 sides, and then will compare the construction photos to the rendering every day for 2 years accusing us of Value Engineering everything???

#2 - You're right.  What's the point!?

...End scene

 

I can’t wait for Episode 2…

[KJHburg]

everyone going by this site at Stonewall and S Tryon note if anything is going on and I would like a report of any signs of construction.  If a kid is playing with Tonka truck with a play backhoe on that corner let me know.    This tower could literally start anyday and the first one with a photo of a construction will a get a 3 pack of tasty now Charlotte based sweet Krispy Kreme doughnuts. 

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, atlrvr said:

Based on a true story...

Scene 1: Tuesday morning at Lincoln Harris HQ:

And Action!

LH Exec #1 - The client we've been talking to loved the last set of renderings and floorplans we showed them.  They're signing a 200k sq ft 15 year lease!

LH Exec #2 - Yeah, glad we were able to meet their parking needs, and they really appreciated the architect tweaking the plans to fit the aesthetic they were going for.

#1 - Yep, nailed it.  Another huge win!

 

Scene 2: Later that same day.

Exec #2 - Hey, the public relations team asking if we should send renderings and a statement out to the Observer and CBJ.  Also, they think maybe we should post them on social media and build a buzz.

Exec #1 - Why?

Exec #2 - I dunno, to build a buzz?

Exec #1 - But we already  have a lead tenant wrapped up, and all the leasing brokers with real prospects have seen it.

Exec #2 - I dunno, for good PR at least?

#1 - So half the people on Facebook and Instagram can complain there's no affordable housing, and the other half will complain we're destroying "their" green space.

#2 - Haha, don't forget about the people who will say their view is being blocked.

#1 - Haha, and destroying the historic character of Uptown.

#2 - Yeah, but you know the nerds on that Urban Planet website will eventually post it regardless, might as well put it out ourselves, right?

#1 - You really care about the people that will complain about the parking, the color of the glass, the fact it only has retail on 3 sides, and then will compare the construction photos to the rendering every day for 2 years accusing us of Value Engineering everything???

#2 - You're right.  What's the point!?

...End scene

 

Oscar-worth writing

 

1 hour ago, atlrvr said:

Based on a true story...

Scene 1: Tuesday morning at Lincoln Harris HQ:

And Action!

LH Exec #1 - The client we've been talking to loved the last set of renderings and floorplans we showed them.  They're signing a 200k sq ft 15 year lease!

LH Exec #2 - Yeah, glad we were able to meet their parking needs, and they really appreciated the architect tweaking the plans to fit the aesthetic they were going for.

#1 - Yep, nailed it.  Another huge win!

 

Scene 2: Later that same day.

Exec #2 - Hey, the public relations team asking if we should send renderings and a statement out to the Observer and CBJ.  Also, they think maybe we should post them on social media and build a buzz.

Exec #1 - Why?

Exec #2 - I dunno, to build a buzz?

Exec #1 - But we already  have a lead tenant wrapped up, and all the leasing brokers with real prospects have seen it.

Exec #2 - I dunno, for good PR at least?

#1 - So half the people on Facebook and Instagram can complain there's no affordable housing, and the other half will complain we're destroying "their" green space.

#2 - Haha, don't forget about the people who will say their view is being blocked.

#1 - Haha, and destroying the historic character of Uptown.

#2 - Yeah, but you know the nerds on that Urban Planet website will eventually post it regardless, might as well put it out ourselves, right?

#1 - You really care about the people that will complain about the parking, the color of the glass, the fact it only has retail on 3 sides, and then will compare the construction photos to the rendering every day for 2 years accusing us of Value Engineering everything???

#2 - You're right.  What's the point!?

...End scene

 

Oscar-worthy writing

[SydneyCarton]

Apart from the tower that’s about to start, how many sites are left on the LU property?

A 900’+ tower with  a very expensive hotel (e.g., Mandarin Oriental, Waldorf, St. Regis, etc.) and condos would be great.  Something like 53 W 53rd St in New York would look amazing.

 

Edited October 23, 2021 by SydneyCarton

[videtur quam contuor]

What is the point of having a small dream?

[SydneyCarton]

1 minute ago, tarhoosier said:

What is the point of having a small dream?

There’s no reason why it should be a dream and not reality.  Charlotte is booming.

Edited October 23, 2021 by SydneyCarton

[KJHburg]

I would take a hotel with some condos on top like the Four Seasons in Nashville.  it is a hotel with some condos mixed in.  

 

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

21 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I would take a hotel with some condos on top like the Four Seasons in Nashville.  it is a hotel with some condos mixed in.  

 

Just looked that up and wow that’s pretty tall/impressive. LU needs a tower like this that would provide 24/7 foot traffic in the area (Once retail starts to fill). If BOA stadium was going to be permanent and not move, I’d say turn the last large plot at LU into like a stadium village with bar and restaurants and other entertainment venues. I envision a smaller and more pedestrian friendly epicentre-esque structure with a few towers built on top. But with the possibility of the dome being built on pipe factory land, might not be a good idea. 

Edited October 24, 2021 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[TheOneRJ]

Charlotte could definitely take some notes from the recent hotel developments in Nashville. They’ve managed to secure a Four Seasons, Conrad, and a W Hotel, all of which are big names in the hospitality industry. Not to mention that the designs for all of those are exceptional and not budget versions of the brand like our new JW Marriott. 

Edited October 24, 2021 by TheOneRJ

[RANYC]

17 minutes ago, TheOneRJ said:

Charlotte could definitely take some notes from the recent hotel developments in Nashville. They’ve managed to secure a Four Seasons, Conrad, and a W Hotel, all of which are big names in the hospitality industry. Not to mention that the designs for all of those are exceptional and not budget versions of the brand like our new JW Marriott. 

My assumption would have been that Nashville boasts these prominent hotel properties because it's a far bigger tourist draw than Charlotte, but then I read that the Nashville Convention and Visitors' Bureau counted a record 16.2 million tourists to Nashville in 2019, while the Charlotte region saw 29.6 million visitors in 2019, according to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.  I know one number is a "regional count" whereas the Nashville number appears to just be the city of Nashville, but I must admit that the difference in count between the two figures really shocked me.  I thought for sure Nashville would win out on the visitor count.  Perhaps Charlotte edged out Nashville in 2019 because of business/corporate travel. 

[KJHburg]

Nashville had and probably will again have a vigorous convention business that dwarfs ours.  Believe me I go to Nashville several times a year they have a lot more tourists and conventioners than we do.  They do lack a theme park but they have one of the biggest nightlife scenes in the southeast if not the biggest.  Our travel is mostly business oriented and special events and some tourists for Carowinds, NASCAR etc.  I do know of guy with a bunch of his friends came up to the QC to visit our many breweries.   I do hope we get a hotel at Legacy with condos on top and I think it would work.  

[TheOneRJ]

4 minutes ago, RANYC said:

My assumption would have been that Nashville boasts these prominent hotel properties because it's a far bigger tourist draw than Charlotte, but then I read that the Nashville Convention and Visitors' Bureau counted a record 16.2 million tourists to Nashville in 2019, while the Charlotte region saw 29.6 million visitors in 2019, according to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.  I know one number is a "regional count" whereas the Nashville number appears to just be the city of Nashville, but I must admit that the difference in count between the two figures really shocked me.  I thought for sure Nashville would win out on the visitor count.  Perhaps Charlotte edged out Nashville in 2019 because of business/corporate travel. 

Charlotte has led Nashville in tourism for many years. There isn’t really a reason Charlotte has not been able to land a lot of those flags. 

[DMann]

Probably nothing but I noticed the wooden structure being constructed south west corner of Church in Stonewall. On the south east corner of Stonewall I saw utilities truck parked off the street on the lot. Maybe nothing maybe something!

[RANYC]

On 10/24/2021 at 8:06 PM, TheOneRJ said:

Charlotte has led Nashville in tourism for many years. There isn’t really a reason Charlotte has not been able to land a lot of those flags. 

The idea that Charlotte leads Nashville in tourism sounds phenomenal, but I can't shake a profound sense of skepticism toward such a notion.  Charlotte's edge in this area is definitely not the general perception among any in my circle, and sometimes perception even more than a "count" is what matters.

[CLT2014]

52 minutes ago, RANYC said:

The idea that Charlotte leads Nashville in tourism sounds phenomenal, but I can't shake a profound sense of skepticism toward such a notion.  Charlotte's edge in this area is definitely not the general perception among any in my circle, and sometimes perception even more than a "count" is what matters.

Visitor spending can be measured a lot of different ways, hence the variance between Nashville and Charlotte. There is no official way required to report this. The CRVA is trying to spin a state-wide report based on "tax savings to citizens" to make it like we are more popular to visit as a tourist than reality. If you dig deeper than the "teaser" press release, you see the methodology to calculate visitor spending includes expenditures like "Aviation-related spending for visitors based on airport and passenger data (individual airports)" as a part of tourism spending.....

What is Mecklenburg County's #2 visitor expenditure category.... TRANSPORTATION: 25% of our county's visitor spending is transit, by far the most in North Carolina.... because 100,000 people connect at CLT each day, the airport employs THOUSANDS of people, and it generates A LOT of tax revenue. We get more visitor spending from Transportation than Lodging. Many more people visit the airport and pass through than actual visit our city, but the people connecting count as "visitor" expenditures. This contrasts to the other county's in the state where transportation is less than 10% of visitor spending like Buncombe, Wake, et... because they aren't big connecting airports.

The demand for overnight tourism is definitely bigger in Nashville and reflects in hotel room count:
Davidson County, TN (population 716,000): 45,000
Mecklenburg County, NC (population  1.1 million): 28,000

The hotel industry is just responding to demand. Despite Davidson County, TN being a smaller population center, tourism demand is higher, thus there are 38% more rooms in Nashville's principal county than Charlotte's principal county.

https://partners.visitnc.com/contents/sdownload/72324/file/All-County-Data.pdf
https://partners.visitnc.com/contents/sdownload/72327/file/2020+Regional+Visitor+Spending.pdf
https://partners.visitnc.com/contents/sdownload/72320/file/NC-Economic-Impact-Methods-Tourism-Economics.pdf

Edited October 26, 2021 by CLT2014

[RANYC]

3 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

Visitor spending can be measured a lot of different ways, hence the variance between Nashville and Charlotte. There is no official way required to report this. The CRVA is trying to spin a state-wide report based on "tax savings to citizens" to make it like we are more popular to visit as a tourist than reality. If you dig deeper than the "teaser" press release, you see the methodology to calculate visitor spending includes expenditures like "Aviation-related spending for visitors based on airport and passenger data (individual airports)" as a part of tourism spending.....

What is Mecklenburg County's #1 visitor expenditure category.... TRANSPORTATION: 25% of our county's visitor spending is transit, by far the most in North Carolina.... because 100,000 people connect at CLT each day, the airport employs THOUSANDS of people, and it generates A LOT of tax revenue. Many more people visit the airport and pass through than actual visit our city, but the people connecting count as "visitor" expenditures. This contrasts to the other county's in the state where transportation is less than 10% of visitor spending like Buncombe, Wake, et... because they aren't big connecting airports.

The demand for overnight tourism is definitely bigger in Nashville and reflects in hotel room count:
Davidson County, TN (population 716,000): 45,000
Mecklenburg County, NC (population  1.1 million): 28,000

The hotel industry is just responding to demand. Despite Davidson County, TN being a smaller population center, tourism demand is higher, thus there are 38% more rooms in Nashville's principal county than Charlotte's principal county.

https://partners.visitnc.com/contents/sdownload/72324/file/All-County-Data.pdf
https://partners.visitnc.com/contents/sdownload/72327/file/2020+Regional+Visitor+Spending.pdf
https://partners.visitnc.com/contents/sdownload/72320/file/NC-Economic-Impact-Methods-Tourism-Economics.pdf

OK, that makes sense.  Thank you.  I knew something was questionable with the Charlotte count.  From being on the ground in Nashville, the idea that Charlotte edged out Nashville in tourism made absolutely no sense.  The airport connection factor explains Charlotte's inflated figures quite a bit.
 

Just speaking for myself, but if I had been approached to back a high-end tourist hotel in Charlotte in a nod to Charlotte's prospects as a massive future tourist destination, and I then learned that Charlotte's tourism tag-line was "Charlotte's Got a Lot," I'd fire the staffer who proposed the hotel.

[Blue_Devil]

All I am hearing is we are better than Nashville. 

[KJHburg]

2 hours ago, Blue_Devil said:

All I am hearing is we are better than Nashville. 

we are in airport size, tower height, highways, mass transit,  sidewalks etc.  but they trump us in bars and massive day drinking!

Edited October 26, 2021 by KJHburg

[TGIBridays]

4 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

we are in airport size, tower height, highways, mass transit,  sidewalks etc.  but they trump us in bars and massive day drinking!

Aaaaaand a river going through their CBD.  *cough* *cough* #make277aRiver

[RANYC]

15 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

we are in airport size, tower height, highways, mass transit,  sidewalks etc.  but they trump us in bars and massive day drinking!

Better weather too, believe it or not.  I read that we are spared the same wintertime extremes because of our positioning on the eastern side of the mountains.  Cold, continental air masses spilling down from central Canada get disrupted and stunted a bit trying to cross the mountains to impact Charlotte.  Nashville isn't as shielded.  So there!

15 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

we are in airport size, tower height, highways, mass transit,  sidewalks etc.  but they trump us in bars and massive day drinking!

well, I enjoy Charlotte and didn't factor its variances with Nashville into my decision to be here, but as far as tourism assets go, music and culture are major Nashville exports to the rest of the country and world.  having the music industry and associated "cultural infrastructure" in Nashville is huge from a global branding perspective and likely a major tourism draw as well, notwithstanding our claim to DaBaby.

Edited October 26, 2021 by RANYC

[KJHburg]

5 hours ago, RANYC said:

Better weather too, believe it or not.  I read that we are spared the same wintertime extremes because of our positioning on the eastern side of the mountains.  Cold, continental air masses spilling down from central Canada get disrupted and stunted a bit trying to cross the mountains to impact Charlotte.  Nashville isn't as shielded.  So there!

well, I enjoy Charlotte and didn't factor its variances with Nashville into my decision to be here, but as far as tourism assets go, music and culture are major Nashville exports to the rest of the country and world.  having the music industry and associated "cultural infrastructure" in Nashville is huge from a global branding perspective and likely a major tourism draw as well, notwithstanding our claim to DaBaby.

Off topic but Charlotte was once the country music capital but when WSM Radio in Nashville came in existence and had more air coverage at night over the eastern half of US we lost our dominance.     I love to visit Nashville but not sure I would live there (way too far from the ocean for me)  but love me some Franklin and Wiiliamson County to the south. 

 

Keep the eyes on the Legacy lot and I believe when we chain link fencing go up around the vacant lot at Tryon corner opposite the Ally Live Oak we will have a groundbreaking.  Anyone seen this 23 story 500K plus office tower rendering yet?