3rd Ward Midrise Projects

[JonesQC]

Great picture, River. I am new to this board, but not to this thread. I have been eyeballing this project for a year and drove by again today and they were still working as of 6:45PM. Thanks to everyone for keeping the pictures and comments coming.

As my interest has precipitated into wanting a place to stay, I have spoke with several Uptown/Center City real estate brokers. The common denominator is that the sales office is supposed to open "soon", and that they will begin presales "soon." My question is, for those who are interested in getting into The Catalyst, what steps are you taking to make sure we get in early? I understand that the units will not begin to sell until Avenue sells x amount of units, but is the leasing office going to release a majority of these to brokers or are they going to allow individuals to bring their own broker in?

[mjfhokie]

This is a somewhat naive question and may not be the place, so I apologize if it's not. I was wondering if someone could provide with some information how exactly presales work, ie what was done for Trademark and/or Avenue. I'm very interested in this place and trying to determine if its the best thing to do (ie get in during presales). If this isn't the place for this discussion but someone could point in to a place with this info or could PM me, that would be greatly appreciated.

[dubone]

That type of questions should be directed to a realtor familiar with uptown condo sales.

This not the place for those types of discussions.

In general, though, I'm not so sure the sales process is known yet for Catalyst.

[Charlotte_native]

^Catalyst agents say they will open the office 'soon' to everyone -- they really aren't sure of a date. It does depend on them getting a couple more units they hold at Avenue sold, but they have few so I've been told possibly May, if not soon thereafter.

If you are interested you can register on their website and get 'in line' with those that have also signed up. If they do it like they did Avenue, you can have an agent or not have an agent, they didn't discriminate in terms of getting people signed up. They also don't lower your price if you don't have an agent, so you might as well have someone work for you on the deal, you'll pay for it either way!

At Avenue they set up times and appointments from the waiting list and over the period of about a week got everyone in, through, and signed up when the finally opened up sales.

[JonesQC]

^Catalyst agents say they will open the office 'soon' to everyone -- they really aren't sure of a date. It does depend on them getting a couple more units they hold at Avenue sold, but they have few so I've been told possibly May, if not soon thereafter.

If you are interested you can register on their website and get 'in line' with those that have also signed up. If they do it like they did Avenue, you can have an agent or not have an agent, they didn't discriminate in terms of getting people signed up. They also don't lower your price if you don't have an agent, so you might as well have someone work for you on the deal, you'll pay for it either way!

At Avenue they set up times and appointments from the waiting list and over the period of about a week got everyone in, through, and signed up when the finally opened up sales.

Great info on how Avenue put folks in line from the website. I signed up back in November and wonder when the website was first put up.

[tozmervo]

So long Trademark and Carillon. Helloooo Catalyst.

[mjfhokie]

Sorry about asking the question, I guess I do need to speak to an agent. My apologizes.

BTW, can't wait for this thing to finish up!

[Charlotte_native]

I was driving home last night on Mint Street through Wilmore...you can now see Catalyst over the Duke Buildings and it is only at 20 stories!

[Andyc545]

Of course my camera is broken else I would have taken pictures- but the prefab parking deck is flying. They are already up several stories on it.

[Southernyank]

Here are some pictures I took earlier of Catalysts. Nevermind the date.

Edited April 13, 2008 by southernyank

[RiverwoodCLT]

04/15/08

Edited April 15, 2008 by RiverwoodCLT

[grodney]

Pictures from today.

The site:

The top of Catalyst:

The hole behind Catalyst. The Security guy at the gate tells me there's lots of wiring/conduit/etc in there.

[Andyc545]

It looks like that hole is right between the office tower and Catalyst, under the little road that will go between? Anyone have any idea what that is, maybe power center?

[AuLukey]

It looks like that hole is right between the office tower and Catalyst, under the little road that will go between? Anyone have any idea what that is, maybe power center?

That would be my guess, some type of utilities hub

[AuLukey]

4-23

Crane City:

[Andyc545]

Nice picture!

They are flying on all aspects of this project. Noticed how far along they are already installing the glass.

[dubone]

At the floor-per-week pace they've been going, it looks like it will be topped out in late May.

It is pretty amazing how many floors they've sealed with glass already, too. They might end up having only a few month wait for the buyers if they keep waiting to open the sales center.

[AuLukey]

This is the same method they used for Avenue. I'm surprised it's not commonplace for all towers (ie the Park.) Seems like it would be more cost effective to save time.

It makes me even more excited for the office tower, Twelve, and the other property across from the future park.

Edited April 23, 2008 by aussie luke

[cha]

i'm kinda hoping they don't leave the exterior just concrete.. it might look too much like avenue... which don't get me wrong looks good.. but what happened to the days of granite exteriors? seems its just EIFS and concrete now-a-days.

[Andyc545]

i'm kinda hoping they don't leave the exterior just concrete.. it might look too much like avenue... which don't get me wrong looks good.. but what happened to the days of granite exteriors? seems its just EIFS and concrete now-a-days.

I wouldn't expect granite, unfortunatly. From the drawings it looked to be, I cringe saying this, EIFS, but it could always just be painted/stained concrete too... It wouldn't hurt for them to put some nice granite down at street level, but unfortunatly an affordable condo complex such as this by Novare would likely not.

[dubone]

Andy, what do you think those yellow strips are? This is absolutely EIFS. The only things redeeming are that they appear to be putting a strip of block or something on top of that to give it a better appearance and that it is a very small minority of the facade with all the glass.

[uptownliving]

At the base of the building they have installed some type of stone (or maybe its concrete made to look like stone) that goes up the first couple of floors. The EIFS doesn't start till at least floor 3 or 4. I am fine with the planned EIFS on this building since there will be a lot of glass to balance it out and that the EIFS is not being used at a pedestrian level.

[dubone]

I agree with you, if EIFS is to be used, this is as sparingly as it can be. I am not quite clear, though, with such a tiny strip, why they can't just pop up some cinder blocks and pop on some actual stucco, or better yet, one of those metalic panels Conformity is using on his project. EIFS does have the benefit of being better insulating than the other, but it seems that plastic building materials should be avoided for projects that need to last for a long time like highrises.

[origin.clt]

The base uses what appears to be lightweight precast panels. Above that looks to be hard-coat stucco product, not eifs (at least not the same cheap variety that is being used on the epicenter).

The times that I have been down there, I have seen the yellow dens glas sheathing, then a vapor or wind barrier, metal lath, then a pretty thick base layer of a cementitious stucco material. I assume the final coat will go on when all of the base coat has been finished to the top of the structure.

This is in stark contrast to the epicenter which uses a sto eifs. It consists of the same dens glas sheathing, a 2-3 inch layer of styrofoam glued to the sheathing, and the thin layers of exterior coating.

[atlrvr]

I'm a bit let down (but not surprised) that the parking deck is pre-cast...I guess this precludes the chance of there ever being a 4th tower on the block.