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  • 2 weeks later...

In Miami for a few days a few things Charlotte can learn from here and a few things Miami can learn from Charlotte.

Miami architecture is great and because most of the high rise residential towers are condos that need to be sold they design them to stand out in a crowded market.  Art work and murals everywhere in this area.  Miami has the 3rd most high rises of any US city only NY and Chicago have more. 

New Brickell City Center is a huge mixed use project with 2 office towers (relatively small by Charlotte standards) 2 high rise condo towers (46 and 44 stories tall) and a 3 level open air mall with an Apple store, Saks high end retail.  (sometime like this would be great at Legacy esp. the retail part)  Fantastic project by Swire Properties of Hong Kong and Simon was the retail partner. 

What Miami can learn from us:  Brickell is  huge area of high rises just south of downtown Miami separated by the Miami River.  However despite lots of pedestrian traffic and some very wide streets pedestrian signal lights were missing on a lot of intersections.  You had to look up at the light to make sure it was red before walking across.  Their M Trail underneath their Metrorail elevated trains was not as good as our Rail Trail and wasn't unified in markings or directional signs.  

Loved their urban Publix on the ground floor of an high rise condo tower.  Publix had a walk up window for chicken and sandwiches which would be nice at  their Charlotte store  too when they build it.  

Heres the webpage for Brickell City Centre $1 Billion project overview http://brickellcitycentre.com/about-us/overview

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Edited by KJHburg
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Does the Brickell Center get much foot traffic with all those high end retailers? Most of the reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Reviews, etc... comment on how beautiful the architecture is but they can't afford the stores. The pictures I've seen seem to show the amount of people you see at SouthPark at 10:30AM on a Wednesday. The pics above go along with other photos I've seen of Brickell Center. 

Edited by CLT2014
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Trust me, there are plenty of people in Miami that can afford whatever those stores are offering. I was strolling Lincoln Road about ten or so years ago around the time the button down gas attendant "uniform" shirts with the random name patch was sorta the thing. One store had a few for, and I'm not exaggerating, $450. The girl working there said they sold two the day before.

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1 hour ago, go_vertical said:

Trust me, there are plenty of people in Miami that can afford whatever those stores are offering. I was strolling Lincoln Road about ten or so years ago around the time the button down gas attendant "uniform" shirts with the random name patch was sorta the thing. One store had a few for, and I'm not exaggerating, $450. The girl working there said they sold two the day before.

Yeah I figured Miami would have people that could afford those stores + all the international tourism. Just been surprised every picture I've seen of Brickell Center shows it pretty empty (including KHJBurg's above). Like on Yelp, the reviews show it as a ghost town.  https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/brickell-city-centre-miami

Seen the same thing on Google Reviews, etc... Haven't gotten to see it in person so I was wondering if reality was more bustling than the photos. 

Edited by CLT2014
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It can also depend on when those photos were taken. Despite having wonderful weather year round the winter months can be rather sleepy in regards to retail. I worked for Quiksilver on South Beach for a few years in my mid 20's and it can get quite slow this time of year. Many locals consider late March as the unofficial start to the tourist season since that is when the Winter Music Conference brings in hundreds of thousands of people to the city for a full week.

Also, a disappointingly high percentage of the condos downtown sit empty until the spring rolls around. A TON of the residential has been purchased by wealthy foreigners.

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^^^ My photos of Brickell City Centre were taken around 4.30 on Sunday afternoon.  All the stores are high end but the Apple store was packed at that time. It is surrounded by 1000s upon 1000s of condos and apartments.  Evidently this was a very warm weekend and today too so maybe people were out and about more aka winter beach or boating day.  Simon and Whitman (owner of the super successful Bal Harbor Shops) are the retail partners.  Also my photos were taken on the 3rd floor not the busier 1st and 2nd floors.  

Anyway I would love a smaller version of this at Legacy for those Apple stores really draw people in.   And yes many of the condos are bought as 2nd/3rd homes and remain vacant most of the year but they keep selling and building them. 

Edited by KJHburg
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Here are some photos of Brickel City Centre from afar it consists of 5 towers: 2 condo towers, 2 office towers mid rises and 1 hotel tower the East to the left. BCC starts on the left of the photo.   The very tall tower to the right is not apart of BCC.  It spans over 3 blocks and remember Legacy is 2 full blocks. 

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I like the design of this building the Brickell Arch in Miami designed by Kohn Pederson Fox by no means the tallest at 36 stories and 505 feet tall but it is the design that is eye catching.  It has a concave imprint that mimics an arch.    Kohn Pederson designed the 121 West Trade in Charlotte the one with the City Club on top.   

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Edited by KJHburg
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8 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I like the design of this building the Brickell Arch in Miami designed by Kohn Pederson Fox by no means the tallest at 36 stories and 505 feet tall but it is the design that is eye catching.  It has a concave imprint that mimics an arch.    Kohn Pederson designed the 121 West Trade in Charlotte the one with the City Club on top.   

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It's a  really beautiful building and reminds me of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (elegant and iconic).  Would love for Charlotte to have such an exquisite and memorable building.

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Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Arch

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) monument in St. Louis in the U.S. state of Missouri. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri's tallest accessible building.

Edited by QCxpat
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2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Another great article on what we can learn from other cities from an UPer check it out https://www.charlottefive.com/what-charlotte-can-learn-culture/

I'm not sure why we need to improve. We have overstreet mall which all my friends from out of town just love. Plus the streets are really clean. Well at least Tryon is. 

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6 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

We have overstreet mall which all my friends from out of town just love.

I know you are joking and don't disagree with your assessment of Overstreet overall.  However, I'm glad that we have it and hope it's expanded and improved.  I took my wife and two kids through the whole thing Saturday and they thought it was cool (mostly because they didn't know it existed).  

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2 hours ago, elrodvt said:

I'm not sure why we need to improve. We have overstreet mall which all my friends from out of town just love. Plus the streets are really clean. Well at least Tryon is. 

“But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes, instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun.” 
― 
Sinclair LewisBabbitt

Charlotte has long mistaken her population ranking (currently 17th largest in the USA) for a city's cultural ranking.  There's no question but that Charlotte's an enviable commercial success story, and yet she comes across to  many visitors as bland, boring and "vanilla."  @ricky_davis_fan_21  brilliant two-part series in Charlotte Five  (above) is a great place for Charlotte to begin turning this image around.  And, it would help if every now-and-then, Charlotte were to let go of her staid Presbyterian roots for a little while and, as Sinclair Lewis recommends, just have a little fun.

          

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Since Uptown is without a McDonalds now maybe we can take a clue from Chicago and I would take one like this half the size (the new Chicago one is 19,000 sq ft )     We need a McDonalds uptown every great worldwide city has an urban McDonalds London, Hong Kong, Vienna,  NYC etc. 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-rock-n-roll-mcdonalds-remodel-20180129-story.html

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3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Since Uptown is without a McDonalds now maybe we can take a clue from Chicago and I would take one like this half the size (the new Chicago one is 19,000 sq ft )     We need a McDonalds uptown every great worldwide city has an urban McDonalds London, Hong Kong, Vienna,  NYC etc. 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-rock-n-roll-mcdonalds-remodel-20180129-story.html

hahaha I honestly cannot tell at this point if you are joking or just really love McDonalds. 

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^^^ Not joking and remember not everyone uptown is making $100k and can afford to have a $10-15 lunch everyday.  I am just saying a McDonalds is a very democratic place where people of all incomes levels can get a quick affordable meal and every big huge city globally has one.  I am not talking about one with drive thru but an urban style location.    Savannah's for example has a walk up window.  Had breakfast in one in Hong Kong with lots of students, people in suits etc.   (and their coffee domestically in the USA all comes from S&D in Concord. 

Edited by KJHburg
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37 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

^^^ Not joking and remember not everyone uptown is making $100k and can afford to have a $10-15 lunch everyday.  I am just saying a McDonalds is a very democratic place where people of all incomes levels can get a quick affordable meal and every big huge city globally has one.  I am not talking about one with drive thru but an urban style location.    Savannah's for example has a walk up window.  Had breakfast in one in Hong Kong with lots of students, people in suits etc.   (and their coffee domestically in the USA all comes from S&D in Concord. 

I understand trust me I am not an elitist by any means, I just do not personally like McDonald's but to each his own! I hope you get your McDonald's back in uptown! 

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