Crescent Stonewall Station

[tozmervo]

I only eat Dole bananas now.

[HopHead]

The first of 3 tower cranes at this site is going up now..

[CarolinaCrown]

[Deleted.]

Crescent Stonewall has a great website for the project with a good video about Crescent:

http://www.crescentstonewallstation.com

 

Edited April 15, 2016 by Piedmont767

[KulBC]

Crane is up! From this morning: 

[alb1no panther]

6 hours ago, KulBC said:

Crane is up! From this morning: 

Dueling cranes!

Rock'em Sock'em Cranes!

It's about damn time.

[15895]

The cranes alone make that stretch feel more urban. Really exciting to see Stonewall transform into a College street instead of an waiste land like 3rd ward used to be

[grodney]

Overview from Stonewall Station this morning:

[grodney]

Nothing here Ely can't do better from his vantage, but here it is anyway:

[Guest]

The Home2Suites at Stonewall Station is only going to be 160 rooms. :-/. 160 rooms on half an acre. Basically amounts to a 5-6 floor hotel. Well thats disappointing. If it has its own parking deck, maybe 8-10 floors. 

Edited May 25, 2016 by Guest

[15895]

i just hope it looks nice.

Anyone know how they're doing with leasing the other retail locations?

[HopHead]

19 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

The Home2Suites at Stonewall Station is only going to be 160 rooms. :-/. 160 rooms on half an acre. Basically amounts to a 5-6 floor hotel. Well thats disappointing. If it has its own parking deck, maybe 8-10 floors. 

Why can't anyone deliver anything beyond these small hotels? All we see are 150 - 250 rooms. I was never anticipating a mega hotel here based on prior conversations, but this is even more disappointing given the need.

[Guest]

I take this back btw, the hotel will be 10-12 floors, just got confirmation. But still. Wish it were 320 rooms and 20-24 floors. 

Just now, HopHead said:

Why can't anyone deliver anything beyond these small hotels? All we see are 150 - 250 rooms. I was never anticipating a mega hotel here based on prior conversations, but this is even more disappointing given the need.

Its particularly disappointing since we consistently are ranking among the top 3 places to build a hotel in the USA.

[deleted]

Similarly, I ran by the under-construction Embassy Suites by the convention center this morning...what a missed opportunity.  I can live with the bland architecture but can't understand the economics that would support this small hotel on (what would appear to be) a fairly prime parcel.  Seems like it would fit well in Ballantyne but here it feels like the site is very underutilized.        

[Stitch Jones]

Uptown desperately needs one more large, upscale hotel. (Loews, JW Marriott, Park Hyatt).  Don't understand why we haven't been able to get one yet.

[CLTProductions]

2 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

i just hope it looks nice.

Anyone know how they're doing with leasing the other retail locations?

There isn't any other retail. It's all whole foods and whole body

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

There isn't any other retail. It's all whole foods and whole body

There will be restaurant/coffee shop/bar/cafe associated with the hotels. Other than that, yes, you are correct.

 

[alb1no panther]

13 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

There will be restaurant/coffee shop/bar/cafe associated with the hotels. Other than that, yes, you are correct.

 

I hope they work the setup to where it's actually appealing to non-hotel guests.  Kinda how they're billing Epicentre and Kimpton Uptown.

[CLT2014]

1 hour ago, Stitch Jones said:

Uptown desperately needs one more large, upscale hotel. (Loews, JW Marriott, Park Hyatt).  Don't understand why we haven't been able to get one yet.

I wonder if Uptown being dominated by a few major employers factors into it?

BAC's first preference for employees is the Ritz, contract rate of $145 per night. Omni is second at $148 per night contract. Wells is aligned to Westin and Hilton, Duke to Westin and Residence Inn.

They have contracts with other hotels too, but they direct employees to those hotels first. Do we have a big enough luxury demand? Charlotte area average room rate is $99 vs. $120 nationwide. Also, consumer preferences for leisure travel seem to be shifting towards hotels where breakfast is provided, wifi included, etc... (like a Hilton Garden Inn) many luxury hotels nickle and dime you which is tough on leisure travelers that aren't expensing.

[UPNoDa]

5 hours ago, Stitch Jones said:

Uptown desperately needs one more large, upscale hotel. (Loews, JW Marriott, Park Hyatt).  Don't understand why we haven't been able to get one yet.

I agree... if there is a 1,000-room Marriott Marquis under construction in Houston and an 800-room Hyatt is going up in Kansas City, I still don't understand why a city our size couldn't attract one of these brands.

Though to be fair, while the current hotel projects going on in uptown are adding almost 2000 hotel rooms, they are just not under one roof.

 

[Nick2]

Wasn't it hinted at that the Observer site could have a very large hotel on that site?

Charlotte really needs a 1000+ room hotel.

[KJHburg]

The big new 1000 room  Houston Marriott Marquis with its Texas shaped pool is being subsidized by the city of Houston through all kinds of tax abatements and incentives. That is why we don't have a big hotel going up like that in Charlotte and remember the 700 room Westin was subsidized as well. Though our hotel growth is spread out I think it is a good mix the Kimpton, the Springhill Suites, the AC by Marriott/Residence Inn, Embassy Suites, and Home2Suites by Hilton and that is just want is under construction. Add into the mix the Grand Bohemian next to the Carillon building where they have purchased the land and we have  a great additions to the market. Our own hotel group locally does not like the idea of subsidizing a big new competitor and I don't blame them. 

[urbanlover568]

With the Chamber throwing out the "C" word. We should honestly be glad with whatever we get at this point. 

[CLT2014]

14 hours ago, UPNoDa said:

I agree... if there is a 1,000-room Marriott Marquis under construction in Houston and an 800-room Hyatt is going up in Kansas City, I still don't understand why a city our size couldn't attract one of these brands.

Though to be fair, while the current hotel projects going on in uptown are adding almost 2000 hotel rooms, they are just not under one roof.

 

As previously mentioned, both of these hotels are subsidized by local government to bring in convention business. Houston granted $138 million in development incentives to get the Marriott Marquis. Also, they have MUCH larger convention centers. Before we build huge convention center hotels with 1,000+ hotel rooms utilizing subsidies, we need the city to build a venue that can actually hold large conventions to fill those hotels. Our convention center is very small compared to most (and thus most of our conventions get by just fine with the hotels we have Uptown):

Charlotte vs. Peer City Convention Centers
San Diego: 2.6 million square feet
Denver: 2.2 million square feet
Houston: 1.8 million square feet
San Antonio: 1.6 million square feet
Portland: 1 million square feet
Austin: 881,000 square feet
Kansas City: 800,000 square feet
Cincinnati: 750,000 square feet
Tampa: 600,000 square feet
Raleigh: 500,000 square feet
Charlotte: 280,000 square feet
Sacramento: 135,000 square feet

To put things in perspective, San Diego's convention center is so big it would stretch from the Westin at College all the way down to the Sheraton/Le Meridian on McDowell if it was in Charlotte (essentially all of Brooklyn Village would be convention center space). That's the type of convention center that needs a ton of hotels. 

Edited May 26, 2016 by CLT2014

[deleted]

Not to get sidetracked on San Diego but their CC is still too small (it's been expanded previously and they have been fighting about expanding it/building a convadium for the last 10 years, driven largely by ComicCon and a need for a stadium for the Chargers).  As a 20 year resident of SD, I can confidently say that Charlotte will never be the convention draw that SD is for obvious reasons (weather, beaches, natural beauty, etc.).  That said, I've never seen a city do less with more than SD (and conversely, I personally think Charlotte is the antithesis, doing much with comparatively little).  I'd prefer visiting SD but I prefer living in Charlotte...

Steering this back to the topic, even without a massive hotel Crescent Stonewall will be transformative ( enough to avoid condemnation?).