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Possibly moving to Charlotte - Some questions and observations


elrodvt

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Radcliffe Condos in uptown offers unparalleled condos. Right in the thick of it, near the park, baseball, football, restaurants, bars, museums, light rail. Also If you wait a few years there will be a whole foods a couple blocks away.

http://centercityliving.com/mid-rises/ratcliffe-condos/

Same goes for 230 South Tryon. 

http://www.230stryon.com

http://www.trulia.com/property/3004948436-230-S-Tryon-St-311-Charlotte-NC-28202#photo-5

http://www.trulia.com/property/3148821521-230-S-Tryon-St-1107-Charlotte-NC-28202#photo-4

Iveys has some very cool, very big lofts, that are priced pretty well. What you lose in modern amenities you gain in the wiggle room to add whatever you want. Short walk from Harris Teeter, tons of bars and restaurants, and hopefully will be home to Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie soon.

http://centercityliving.com/mid-rises/iveys-townhomes/

Specially this one...

http://www.trulia.com/property/3154668833-127-N-Tryon-St-606-Charlotte-NC-28202#photo-11

Theres also the Avenue & Trademark

229 N. Church

 

And as ATLRVR said 400 N. Church is great.

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Fantastic info guys. Ricky-davis, that's a great list and pretty much what I keep coming back to.

The ivey especially has caught my eye for precisely the reasons you list.

Does anyone have feedback from someone who's lived in the Ivey? The hoa is really high considering no amenities but maybe it includes hvac or something.

Now to go look up who Ricky Davis is. ;-)

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Fantastic info guys. Ricky-davis, that's a great list and pretty much what I keep coming back to.

The ivey especially has caught my eye for precisely the reasons you list.

Does anyone have feedback from someone who's lived in the Ivey? The hoa is really high considering no amenities but maybe it includes hvac or something.

Now to go look up who Ricky Davis is. ;-)

Haha, he was a basketball player for the Hornets practically 20 years ago. Its a nostalgia thing i guess. 

I will see if I can find an answer for you about the Ivey. I live in Brooklyn, but I still have oodles of contacts in CLT.

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Regarding the Metropolitan we're not really looking to live in a big box store mall. There are some units with fantastic views of best buy. Or do I have it wrong? 

No, you have it right.

 

The units with the views of Uptown are nice and the balconies are HUGE, but if you're on the other side, you're going to be looking at a parking garage wrapped by small retail shops, and a Best Buy/Marshalls/Staples.

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I think 400 N Church st condos would suit your needs perfectly.  The lower floors are "townhome style", but the top 5 or 6 floors are all single unit flats.  Mostly all 2 and 3 bedroom units.  2 block walk to the Harris Teeter grocery at 6th and Pine.  Plus, it seems like development momentum might finally be reshifting to the north side of Uptown.  The building is very desirable (in my opinion) and not a lot of units sold cheaply during the downturn.  The building is very well built from a construction quality perspective, though it was one of the first new construction buildings in Uptown, and therefore the finishes of the yet-renovated units are a bit pedestrian (white laminate counter tops/ceramic tile showers, etc)  though a lot of units have been upgraded over time. 

 

If I was childless and married in Charlotte, this would be my pick.

 

Metrolopitan suggestion above is great in that everything from a basic necessity is right there withi 1 block and the unit quality is very high end, but you do need a car to engage in "cultural" activities if that makes sense.

My dad just died leaving us with one of the units you describe....lower floor with door and steps. There is a silver lining to the second floor: includes a nice balcony. His faces inward toward the courtyard and is pretty quiet. It'll probably come on the market soon enough. Sad for us (kids) because we really enjoy it. We're in the process of getting appraisals for it, but I guess an offer would ;-) would help in that process.

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My dad just died leaving us with one of the units you describe....lower floor with door and steps. There is a silver lining to the second floor: includes a nice balcony. His faces inward toward the courtyard and is pretty quiet. It'll probably come on the market soon enough. Sad for us (kids) because we really enjoy it. We're in the process of getting appraisals for it, but I guess an offer would ;-) would help in that process.

 

Sorry about your Dad. That's sad.

 

Do you mean steps are required to get in? If so, that's out.

If not, shoot me the info please, pics would be needed. emillhamATgmail.com. I'll be there next week. Always nice to split 6% savings right? Or does this forum get the commission? ;-0

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Thanks, re my dad. He was a true Charlotte native...88 years. I have video of his mom describing her ride to town in a horse and buggy around 1912. He remembered some of Charlotte's deepest secrets...the building of ill-repute that's located across the street from the transit mall and coliseum on East Trade Street.(still there) He remembered some speak-easys from the 30's that his dad visited, including a bowling alley long-gone on South Tryon near where Crescent is planing. Having lunch with him every week gave me a lot of insight. When we walked "downtown" from South Park, while I was a kid, we came upon the old NAVY shipyard being dug up where the Merchandise Mart is now on South College. Anybody remember Kofina's bar on West Trade?  I guess this is the wrong thread for memory lane, but Wednesdays were our lunch dates....

 

He was one of the pesky boys who used to pull down the electrical pole connectors for the trollies back in the 30's.  Anyway, thanks for the kind words. If anybody wants to know what the actual colors were on the trollies , or where they used to play poker in what is now The South End where Tryon splits, drop me an email.

 

Thanks again, and sorry again....

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Whistle-Stop, is this the one you're selling? I see it just hit the market: 400 N Church Street Unit#210 

I don't think that'll work for us, has stairs. Otherwise, very nice.

 

Edit: I'm guessing not now that I see the man cave multi-media room. Doubt your Dad had that setup at age 88!

 

 

BTW, I am also moving my Mother here from Denver. She's looking for a 1 bedroom and so far likes 5'th and Poplar because of the courtyard and nearby grocery. Nothing wrong with that building is there?

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Whistle-Stop, is this the one you're selling? I see it just hit the market: 400 N Church Street Unit#210 

I don't think that'll work for us, has stairs. Otherwise, very nice.

 

Edit: I'm guessing not now that I see the man cave multi-media room. Doubt your Dad had that setup at age 88!

 

 

BTW, I am also moving my Mother here from Denver. She's looking for a 1 bedroom and so far likes 5'th and Poplar because of the courtyard and nearby grocery. Nothing wrong with that building is there?

Fifth and poplar is nice, certainly appropriate for moms. It's units tend to be dated... And it was not something I myself would ever pick... So I didn't want to suggest it.

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I have a unit (currently renting it out month to month) at Fifth and Poplar that is street level, no stairs/elevator, and is 20 feet from a covered parking garage space. One bedroom, 781 sq ft, 13' ceilings, very up-to date. A grocery store is on the same building (you don't even need to go outside) and so is a dry cleaner. Tons of restaurants and bars within a short 1 or 2 block walk. Not currently officially for sale, but I am thinking about putting it on the market. I don't mean to advertise my condo on this site, but if you are interested, PM me.

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Noticed you might have kid(s) (from your avatar)....if so, you might want to look into the schools you'd be zoned for. Parts of Uptown are in different zones and different from SouthEnd / Dilworth too.

But, CMS also has a soild magnet program should you want to live Uptown and sent the kid( s) elsewhere...but not a guarantee they'd go to the school of your first (or second) choice.

If you are looking for a house, Wesley Heights offers the convenience of Uptown, but with a more 'neighborhood' feel. Then again, then school zone is a problem (same zone as much of Uptown)...

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Noticed you might have kid(s) (from your avatar)....if so, you might want to look into the schools you'd be zoned for. Parts of Uptown are in different zones and different from SouthEnd / Dilworth too.

But, CMS also has a soild magnet program should you want to live Uptown and sent the kid( s) elsewhere...but not a guarantee they'd go to the school of your first (or second) choice.

If you are looking for a house, Wesley Heights offers the convenience of Uptown, but with a more 'neighborhood' feel. Then again, then school zone is a problem (same zone as much of Uptown)...

He said earlier he was kidless.

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Update guys:

 

Thanks to all your help, and a great Realtor, I was able to find 2 places I like:

 

for us, we put an offer in on a place at 230 S Tryon. Very cool building.

 

for my Mom, put an offer in on a place at 5th and Poplar. It's bit loud in there but she can just turn down her hearing aid! ;-)

 

I'll be back if they don't work out.

 

I decided that no way would I live in any of the options over by Caldwell (Madison, Skye, Courtside). That location is just too crappy for me. Maybe one day it'll be nice but I'm not into speculation.

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Update guys:

 

Thanks to all your help, and a great Realtor, I was able to find 2 places I like:

 

for us, we put an offer in on a place at 230 S Tryon. Very cool building.

 

for my Mom, put an offer in on a place at 5th and Poplar. It's bit loud in there but she can just turn down her hearing aid! ;-)

 

I'll be back if they don't work out.

 

I decided that no way would I live in any of the options over by Caldwell (Madison, Skye, Courtside). That location is just too crappy for me. Maybe one day it'll be nice but I'm not into speculation.

 

Welcome to Charlotte!  Skye and Courtside won't feel so secluded if Levine-land ever get's built.  Since you're interested in urban living and new to the city you'll learn to despise the talk of "First Ward Urban Village" because it's been a tease for the past decade and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.

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Welcome to Charlotte. You chose two fantastic buildings. Too bad you didn't like any of the places by Caldwell. I had dinner at Fahrenheit tonight (atop SKYE) and it was mind-blowing as always. 

 

ETA: I'm a real estate broker who specializes in high-rises, so I'm bound to be a bit biased. ;-)

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  • 1 month later...

We ended up buying 2 places at 230 S Tryon. We really like the building so far and the location is, imho, the best Charlotte has to offer.

I don't mean to insult anyone... But, I'm really disappointed by how dead downtown is once work is out. And weekends are just terrible. It's unbelievable how many places don't even open. Tough to even find a place for breakfest at 8 am on a Saturday and they don't even bother to fill the paper boxes. I've been in cities of under 100K which are much more urban.

Hopefully the two apartment buildings opening by the ballpark will help change that? How can we convince businesses to support downtown residents?

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We ended up buying 2 places at 230 S Tryon. We really like the building so far and the location is, imho, the best Charlotte has to offer.

I don't mean to insult anyone... But, I'm really disappointed by how dead downtown is once work is out. And weekends are just terrible. It's unbelievable how many places don't even open. Tough to even find a place for breakfest at 8 am on a Saturday and they don't even bother to fill the paper boxes. I've been in cities of under 100K which are much more urban.

Hopefully the two apartment buildings opening by the ballpark will help change that? How can we convince businesses to support downtown residents?

 

No insult taken, I guess.  But I'm not sure what your point is.  It seems like you did your homework, but I also feel like you're expecting something you're not going to get out of the city.  We are all urban enthusiasts on this website in a city that wasn't even on the map 20 years ago.  Charlotte is growing at a clip and a wonderful place to live, but it has a long way to go and we all acknowledge that.  Our goal here is to discuss what is going well, what can go better and maybe dream a little!  But for you to come on here and drag us through the mud ("weekends are just terrible" "how dead downtown is") won't do you any favors with any of us.

 

In all honestly,  I knew you weren't going to like Charlotte from your first post.  I'm honestly surprised you bought a place.  Sorry you're so disappointed with the place we all call home.

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Hi, my point was to ask how we can get things to change. I see lots of buildings with people living in them. and new one's opening with several more thousand soon to live in downtown. So, why are the businesses so slow to react? Why does a population of this size work to drive a vibrant downtown in other cities but not here? Is there some organization which could help? 

 

I'm not sure how many of you encounter this on a weekend, as many seem to live outside of downtown, so wanted to state my experience. I did prefix it with my desire was not to insult but instead to see how we can improve. Obviously that didn't take. ;-(  This is my city now, not sure why I cannot complain about things I don't like with the desire to improve them. 

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 Tough to even find a place for breakfest at 8 am on a Saturday 

 

Showmars opens at 8am and is STEPS from your front door.  Livermush and grits much?  The gravy biscuit is pretty excellent.

 

Midnight diner is open 24 hours.  It can be fantastic.

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Hi, my point was to ask how we can get things to change. I see lots of buildings with people living in them. and new one's opening with several more thousand soon to live in downtown. So, why are the businesses so slow to react? Why does a population of this size work to drive a vibrant downtown in other cities but not here? Is there some organization which could help? 

 

I'm not sure how many of you encounter this on a weekend, as many seem to live outside of downtown, so wanted to state my experience. I did prefix it with my desire was not to insult but instead to see how we can improve. Obviously that didn't take. ;-(  This is my city now, not sure why I cannot complain about things I don't like with the desire to improve them. 

More than anything it is dollars.

 

Charlotte's urban fabric was destroyed in the 60's and 70's. Almost all of the streetfront buildings were destroyed. A few wealthy individuals in the city, most notably Hugh McColl (the founder of Nations Bank, which would later become BoA) wanted to rebuild Uptown Charlotte. The problem though is that their vision was tall skyscrapers and arts and cultural amenities. Their focus wasn't on providing retail or anything of that nature because nobody lived in downtown. I think more than anything, they just wanted to make Uptown a place that was visually (if not functionally) impressive to business associates that they'd bring to the city.

 

Today, there is a little more focus on putting retail in new buildings, but usually only minimal effort is given. Financing is difficult for retail and rent prices have to be very high for it to make financial sense. Small businesses can't afford it and most major retailers have a presence at South Park (6 miles away) and Northlake Mall (9 miles away). Both are an easy drive and Uptown itself still has less than 20,000 residents. If you drew a three mile radius around Uptown, you probably have 150,000 people, but virtually all of them have cars and can drive to South Park or Northlake Mall in 10-15 minutes.

 

It has been exciting to see Charlotte grow and we are all glad to see an increasing focus on urban infill, but the reality is that Charlotte is still a really horrible place to live for someone that wants a truly urban lifestyle.

 

Some of the new Uptown projects, like the Crescent project proposed for S. Tryon Street should help with retail a bit, but I honestly wouldn't expect to see much in the way of retail in Uptown for decades.

 

As the population in Uptown increases, we'll see more restaurants that currently only open M-F during lunch be open all day, but right now it isn't really justified. We're already seeing an improvement in this area on S. Tryon. North Tryon is more corporate with less going on in the evenings, largely because of the large empty tracts of land on the east side of N. Tryon Street. Having the homeless shelter on N. Tryon I feel has also held this area back some. I see far more homeless people wandering around and begging on N. Tryon than I do in other areas of Uptown. I'm hopeful that the two Skyhouse buildings being constructed there will start a renaissance in that part of Uptown. It'll bring probably 1,000- 1,200 or so new residents in a single block. That's a pretty big change.

 

To put into perspective what happened to Charlotte (and a big part of the reason why retail does not exist today), here is Uptown in 1966:

 

sky1.jpg

 

The skyline isn't impressive at all, but notice all the streetfront buildings. Virtually no parking lots in the picture.

 

Here is Uptown in 1975:

 

sky2.jpg

 

You could successfully graze cattle in this setting if you wanted to.

 

The 9 years that separated 1966  from 1975 destroyed much of Charlotte's physical history.

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I think Elrodvt makes some fair points whether we like them or not.  Inside the 277 is NOT yet very urban outside of work crowd and nightlife.  Being form a large city myself there is a sense of wanting to just have a short walk to a clothing store, or a breakfast place (and more than 1 or 2) or to be surrounded by people window shopping and such.

 

This is not a knock on the QC but an honest statement that we don't have that yet.

 

What we do have is momentum.

 

In the less than ten years since I arrived Downtown (and yes - I still call it that as well) has changed dramatically from having almost no one after 5 to feeling like it was becoming more and more a 24-hour city in the core.   From the ball park, museums, epicenter and all the new restaurants - you just have a vibe of life in the city that didn't exist to this degree even five years ago.  

 

I suppose some of us take umbrage at that dramatic (and it has been dramatic ) change not being noticed or appreciated, but can you exactly blame someone who arrives without context and is just supposed to get it without question?

 

All I can say is that the city inner core has leaped from office park to actual city feel in less than ten years and I think within the next five is going to sort of "double down" on that momentum so to speak.  It's growing in more ways than buildings.  It's becoming alive - within a decade such conversations will be moot. 

 

EDIT:  Elrodvt - Urban Planet isn't like citydata forums or other websites.  Most of s here are in love with our city and spend a lot of time researching issues and debating them in different threads. My suggestion is that if you really want this board's interaction about ways to make a change in your new home - spend some time reading some of the posts in other threads (not just yours) and find out the information about the city and all of us.

 

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You're much more eloquent than I am Urbanity, ha ha.  But you and niner national both hit it on the head.  We are what we are.

 

Also, how ironic, that the two mayors during the 9 year span noted above, Brookshire and Belk, are also the ones that the sections of 277 are named after!   :whistling:

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