The River District

[TheOneRJ]

42 minutes ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Does anyone think that the River District will be developed like the Golf Links & Waverly Developments in Ballantyne have?

I think the River District would be more comparable to Ballantyne itself rather than the glorified shopping centers in it. On a much smaller scale. 

[KJHburg]

Had to go back 5 pages to find the River District thread.   Here is a story from CBJ today about the update and whether LH is involved or not.  I am thinking office development will be done much later in that spot.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/11/01/crescent-communities-lincoln-harris-enthusiastic.html?iana=hpmvp_clt_news_headline

[kermit]

^ greenfield suburban office is still a tough sell, particularly when cost effective options are being built in Southend and NoDa.

Who’s gonna be thrilled to work out there? 

[CLT2014]

This is just going to end up being cheap suburban housing that will age poorly and strip malls like Berewick when all is said and done. 

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

2 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

This is just going to end up being cheap suburban housing that will age poorly and strip malls like Berewick when all is said and done. 

It depends the level of corporate support. I think if some Fortune 500 relocates from elsewhere (like Honeywell) and dictates quality and land use, it could be more than a throw away. I think it will age better than Berewick. Ballentyne is still very suburban but it wasn't horribly built. This will be better than Ballentyne when its finally built.

[Nick2]

What do y'all think are the chances of the silver (or a some western light rail) line going through the river district or maybe having a spur in the future?

There is so much potential for a fantastic master-planned development here with optimal use of land and public transit. Charlotte could have a truly special place of perfectly mixed single family housing, high density housing, office, hotel, retail, and public services. A guy could dream...

[southslider]

2 minutes ago, Nick2 said:

What do y'all think are the chances of the silver (or a some western light rail) line going through the river district or maybe having a spur in the future?

There is so much potential for a fantastic master-planned development here with optimal use of land and public transit. Charlotte could have a truly special place of perfectly mixed single family housing, high density housing, office, hotel, retail, and public services. A guy could dream...

Zero. Even reaching Belmont has a 50/50 chance at best.

[Nick2]

4 minutes ago, southslider said:

Zero. Even reaching Belmont has a 50/50 chance at best.

Lol I guess that's being realistic. This area will probably develop very similarly to ballantyne. Piecemeal and over decades. Maybe a silver line extension to it with a commuter rail line into Gaston county. Of course this is talking by like 2050 but I'm going to be naively optimistic that something special happens here. 

[Desert Power]

19 hours ago, kermit said:

^ greenfield suburban office is still a tough sell, particularly when cost effective options are being built in Southend and NoDa.

Who’s gonna be thrilled to work out there? 

Yeah, I'm very glad companies are choosing to be closer to town

[QCxpat]

From today's (11/15/19) Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter - "New Steele Creek YMCA Identifies Itself"

'The YMCA of Greater Charlotte on Thursday announced it’s raising money to build a $9M, 14,000 s.f. facility on Highway 160, south of Sledge Road, in the Steele Creek area. It will be called the Gill Family YMCA, named after CPI Security founder Ken Gill and his wife, Malinda. The Y will include “group exercise studio(s), cycling studio, wellness center, Y Kids drop-in childcare facility, family fitness lawn, sports fields, locker rooms, and an outdoor aquatic center, which will feature a lap pool, splash park and wade pool.”

Link:  https://charlotteledger.substack.com/

[Guest]

I've met some folks that tried to fight the river district. I see it as the last few thousand acres of intact forest. Granted it was farmland fifty years ago, but still. It's a forest. It follows the city's logic that all the hinterlands must be developed.

The fight against it I guess was pretty one sided, too much money and interests. They get subsidies thrown at them, the city passing bonds to help bank the project. Infill snubbed at the same time. It represents everything that is wrong with land development to me. The suburban ponzi scheme.

[SgtCampsalot]

3 hours ago, mazman34340 said:

I've met some folks that tried to fight the river district. I see it as the last few thousand acres of intact forest. Granted it was farmland fifty years ago, but still. It's a forest. It follows the city's logic that all the hinterlands must be developed.

The fight against it I guess was pretty one sided, too much money and interests. They get subsidies thrown at them, the city passing bonds to help bank the project. Infill snubbed at the same time. It represents everything that is wrong with land development to me. The suburban ponzi scheme.

Yes, there will always be some excuse to build Greenfield in perpetuity. Then the interested parties PR things so any thoughtful, moderate-minded person is swayed into thinking it is for the best; or, at least, that it is "inevitable." That's for both the citizenry and the elected officials.

Edited November 16, 2019 by SgtCampsalot

[Scribe]

Was reviewing December rezoning applications and ran into this application 2019-173  - 150 acres for light industrial (I-1) zoning.

Does anyone think this application is odd, or is it just to get the site work and road re-alignments??

Site plan can be found here...  http://ww.charmeck.org/Planning/Rezoning/2019/170-185/2019-173 site plan.pdf

Edited January 6, 2020 by Scribe

[CLT2014]

33 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Was reviewing December rezoning applications and ran into this application 2019-173  - 150 acres for light industrial (I-1) zoning.

Does anyone think this application is odd, or is it just to get the site work and road re-alignments??

Site plan can be found here...  http://ww.charmeck.org/Planning/Rezoning/2019/170-185/2019-173 site plan.pdf

McCraney Property Company (the petitioner) is exclusively in the industrial / warehouse development space, so seems like they would intend to build warehouses on the parcels proposed. The site is just 1.5 miles from the NS Intermodal Yard at the airport. 

Edited January 6, 2020 by CLT2014

[newdorplane]

Are there any new developments regarding the River District?

Has the project been put on the backburner?

I truly hope that the development will be built around light rail

[kermit]

9 minutes ago, newdorplane said:

Are there any new developments regarding the River District?

Has the project been put on the backburner?

I truly hope that the development will be built around light rail

1) I have heard no news about River District progress

2) CATS has decided on a Wilkinson routing for the Silver Line so LRT to the River District aint gonna happen anytime in the next 15 years, if ever.

[NDL.]

 

Are there any new developments regarding the River District?

Has the project been put on the backburner?

I truly hope that the development will be built around light rail

[KJHburg]

12 minutes ago, NDL. said:

 

Are there any new developments regarding the River District?

Has the project been put on the backburner?

I truly hope that the development will be built around light rail

Not on the back burner just a lot of site work before any vertical development can begin.  Crescent is the lead developer and with all that has happened this year I think this project will be a success: suburban mixed use with walkable town center etc.  

Next time I am over that way I will drive some of the now country roads and look for signs of utility work etc.

https://www.theriverdistrict.com/

[Hushpuppy321]

River District will be nice as there is a lot of Public Infrastructure Investment (Roads & Utilities) and Solid / Reliable Developer but I think the Triple Wallop of LRT not being planned for this area, the Coronavirus/Economic Issues and Ballantyne Reimagined being approved is really going to suck a lot of oxygen away from River District so may not take off as quickly as it would have.

Ballantyne Reimagined (including possible LRT Extension in Phase III) is really going to Keep high growth focused in South Charlotte.  Just look how Waverly & Rea Farms are building out quickly.

[NDL.]

6 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Not on the back burner just a lot of site work before any vertical development can begin.  Crescent is the lead developer and with all that has happened this year I think this project will be a success: suburban mixed use with walkable town center etc.  

Next time I am over that way I will drive some of the now country roads and look for signs of utility work etc.

https://www.theriverdistrict.com/

Thanks for your reply, and for the link.

Do you think it will be planned around light rail?  I have to believe that they will eventually bring it in.

***
Hopefully, if anyone travels in and around that area, they will take some pictures (providing that there's something to see :))

4 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

River District will be nice as there is a lot of Public Infrastructure Investment (Roads & Utilities) and Solid / Reliable Developer but I think the Triple Wallop of LRT not being planned for this area, the Coronavirus/Economic Issues and Ballantyne Reimagined being approved is really going to suck a lot of oxygen away from River District so may not take off as quickly as it would have.

Ballantyne Reimagined (including possible LRT Extension in Phase III) is really going to Keep high growth focused in South Charlotte.  Just look how Waverly & Rea Farms are building out quickly.

Appreciate the reply.  I have to revisit the south Charlotte threads, and the enclosed pictures.

 

[ertley]

The developers and their planners, I would hope, recognize the *future* importance of incorporating space for potential light rail expansion, even if it's decades ahead, and in the intervening years it can just be a greenway through the area; and if light rail never comes to River District, the greenway could one day be further developed. More importantly, I hope they're genuinely collaborating with transit officials to include road-based transit elements like bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes on the major artery in and out of the area.  

[NDL.]

11 hours ago, ertley said:

The developers and their planners, I would hope, recognize the *future* importance of incorporating space for potential light rail expansion, even if it's decades ahead, and in the intervening years it can just be a greenway through the area; and if light rail never comes to River District, the greenway could one day be further developed. More importantly, I hope they're genuinely collaborating with transit officials to include road-based transit elements like bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes on the major artery in and out of the area.  

Great idea, and very much agreed.

[CLT2014]

I remember when Berrewick was planned as a mixed use development with a "walkable town center" with apartments and single family home "villages."

Instead, the actual implementation resulted in suburban sprawl and the neighborhood has an incredible concentration of fast food drive thrus and cheap vinyl housing. The town center became massive parking lots with outparcels.

I fear market forces will have the River District be similar.

Edited June 13, 2020 by CLT2014

[Hushpuppy321]

On 6/12/2020 at 10:45 PM, CLT2014 said:

I remember when Berrewick was planned as a mixed use development with a "walkable town center" with apartments and single family home "villages."

Instead, the actual implementation resulted in suburban sprawl and the neighborhood has an incredible concentration of fast food drive thrus and cheap vinyl housing. The town center became massive parking lots with outparcels.

I fear market forces will have the River District be similar.

I agree with your assessment on Berewick & River District.  I think CATS bet on Ballantyne is only made due to all the existing jobs out in that area currently and what’s planned.  

[KJHburg]

I think these are very different projects Berewick and River District.  Berewick did have a "town center" component with a Harris Teeter anchor shopping center, a hotel and apartment complex and other retail.     The River District from what I see of their plans will be concentrated town center like a Waverly in south Charlotte with lots of residential branching out from there.  Most of this property is watershed so there will be lots of SF homes and townhomes however there is a huge corporate park component of it too unlike Berewick.  

A huge master planned community is better than just individual subdivisions being built not connected or in a willy nilly fashion.  There is a tremendous need for housing in this area and uptown southend housing is NOT affordable to most.   This city is infilling vacant land and lots in the inner city (and also displacing long time residents out of their neighborhoods too)   The density of the River District will be greater than most of the neighborhoods in this city overall I am sure.  I always wonder why people cry housing is too expensive yet decry vinyl siding homes.  There is nothing wrong with a vinyl siding home may not be  your cup of tea but stacked flats 4-5 stories tall is not for most people either.   That is the great thing you can choose your housing based on what you can afford and your location.    The River District will be a success and like I said it better to have one huge master planned community than it is to be developed incrementally.