Ivey's Building Uptown

[dubone]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/13576420.htm

What do you guys think Latorre will do with it now that he owns the first floor retail in the Ivey's building? Do you think he'll open up some entrances on 5th to connect it better to Menage and Latorres across the street?

I think it can only be good. He will probably figure out a way to have it open in off hours, which would be a major improvement over the current setup.

[DigitalSky]

I agree. It's a possibility that he'll open enterances on 5th

[StevenRocks]

Anything to restore vitality at the street level.

[monsoon]

It will be interesting to see how they try to pull that off. The original building had a 2+ story atrium when you walked in the front door and there was a balcony that surrounded the ground floor. A very elaborate art deco elevator set connected it together along with the upper floors of the building. It would be nice if they could bring all that back.

I do know that if I had bought a condo in that place, I would be quite pissed off at the developer knowing there was a disco on the ground floor.

[mallguy]

I saw in the Observer that there are 19,000 square feet on the first floor that Latorre bought. That would mean around 120,000 sf in the whole building- plus maybe a basement? That's pretty small for a downtown department store.

[DigitalSky]

Does it count the section of Ivey's that's turned into apartments? ^

[voyager12]

I am a dogwalker/anything else that does not require a cubicle and walk a dog that lives in an Iveys condo almost everyday. The building has great potential. I am sure the condos are expensive and view is nice but the interior of the building is so sterile with the bland catwalks and lack of illustration on the walls of the condo floors. It feels like a Courtyard Marriott. I really hope they fix up the garage too. Its damn scary and narrow down there and my poor car has come close to taking out a Ferrari that parks there.

[StevenRocks]

I saw in the Observer that there are 19,000 square feet on the first floor that Latorre bought. That would mean around 120,000 sf in the whole building- plus maybe a basement? That's pretty small for a downtown department store.

That was on the large side for an Ivey's, though I think the square footage may be higher than that in that building. Most of their stores were smaller than that. Some of the larger mall stores were in the 140,000 sf range, and Ivey's SouthPark was around 200,000 sf after the '86 expansion.