615 South College (Portman Office Tower near Westin)

[ah59396]

I like it.  Especially if they use similar glass color to the Westin.  Big win over the last render.

[AuLukey]

^^agreed.  and you know that, being connected to the Westin, the materials will be nice quality.  I'm glad this looks the way it does.  It maximizes the footprint of the foundation and brings a new up-front scale to drivers along 277.  It's a little cookie cutter to the Westin and DEC, but it'll do.  I'm sure they'll get the necessary tenants to add the extra floors. The spot is just too perfect.  Plenty of walkable residential areas in Southend for employees, transit, adjacent convention center and upscale hotel, and plenty of demand for spec office space.  Really, what's not to like?  I wonder if the Embassy Suites construction around the corner had anything to do with this announcement...

[Guest]

Damn it... I just saw a rendering of One Charlotte and I'm depressed. I know had it been built I would have been the biggest bust ever but... I would take it over portman plaza anyday.

[15895]

At least we have crescent to make up for the One Charlotte visual impact.

I would love for this to be 19 floors!!! That'd be just as tall if not taller thand Childress Klein/South Mint or Carillon Tower (if I'm not mistaken) that'd be a dramatic impact at that height. The southern portion of uptown will be getting really dense.

[cltbwimob]

Damn it... I just saw a rendering of One Charlotte and I'm depressed. I know had it been built I would have been the biggest bust ever but... I would take it over portman plaza anyday.

I am not too thrilled with the building either because I know what could have been. Seeing a 40 story signature glass tower replaced with a 15 story Rubics Cube sort of sucks. Oh well....

[Guest]

At least we have crescent to make up for the One Charlotte visual impact.

I would love for this to be 19 floors!!! That'd be just as tall if not taller thand Childress Klein/South Mint or Carillon Tower (if I'm not mistaken) that'd be a dramatic impact at that height. The southern portion of uptown will be getting really dense.

No way Jose. It'll be the height of NASCAR, Independence Center, Charlotte Plaza and The Westin each 290-300 feet respectively, the Carillon is a whopping 394 feet.

[atlrvr]

17-21 stories.....15-19 of office above the parking deck, each floor 23k sq ft.

 

At 21 stories, I'd expect about 315'.

 

I like it, a much better spot for an office building than luxury condos in my opinion.  I agree that the adjacency to South End young professional haven, easy access to interstate, adjacent LRT station and connected to a high-end hotel, and prominent signage visibility, this is a home run location.  I would suspect that E&Y might be interested, or a financial services corp share services relocation (Nomura or Barclays would be my best guesses), or AIG is rumored to be looking to moved some jobs south.

[Urbanity]

I'm ok with the tower design and agree with ideas that it pales in comparison to One Charlotte (how could it not) and is significantly better than the previous box design. I'm also cautiously optimistic that they can find enough demand to make it the 19 floors.

 

All that said, what really excites me is the street level component if they really go that far.  See the below of the proposed vs. the now on College Street.  Not incredible, but if they do build what looks like a nice glass canopy entrance there we'll have at least one less completely dead street front.

 

Now:

 

Proposed:

[krazeeboi]

It's a decent design that will add some density to the skyline.

[atlrvr]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/10/lpl-financial-considering-expansion.html?page=all

 

LPL is looking to expand into 400,000 sq ft of space.  While the article doesn't explicitly state that LPL is looking at Portman tower, it mentions Portman plus a site near their current location (old Coliseum/airport area) as the two sites that could accomodate it.  Ballantyne is also able to do a 15 story tower of above 400k sf as well I believe.

 

It would make sense that Portman is allowing for a larger project, probably with LPL in mind.  They would be a great addition to Uptown.

[HopHead]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/10/lpl-financial-considering-expansion.html?page=all

 

LPL is looking to expand into 400,000 sq ft of space.  While the article doesn't explicitly state that LPL is looking at Portman tower, it mentions Portman plus a site near their current location (old Coliseum/airport area) as the two sites that could accomodate it.  Ballantyne is also able to do a 15 story tower of above 400k sf as well I believe.

 

It would make sense that Portman is allowing for a larger project, probably with LPL in mind.  They would be a great addition to Uptown.

 

Sounds like the ideal tenant for the Portman project. For the love of god, just don't go to Ballantyne... 

[cltbwimob]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/10/lpl-financial-considering-expansion.html?page=all

 

LPL is looking to expand into 400,000 sq ft of space.  While the article doesn't explicitly state that LPL is looking at Portman tower, it mentions Portman plus a site near their current location (old Coliseum/airport area) as the two sites that could accomodate it.  Ballantyne is also able to do a 15 story tower of above 400k sf as well I believe.

 

It would make sense that Portman is allowing for a larger project, probably with LPL in mind.  They would be a great addition to Uptown.

If LPL moved their HQ to Charlotte, and chose the Portman tower, I would be much less saddened by the fact it replaced what would have undoubtedly been one of the most elegant pieces of the skyline.

[Guest]

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/10/lpl-financial-considering-expansion.html?page=all

 

LPL is looking to expand into 400,000 sq ft of space.  While the article doesn't explicitly state that LPL is looking at Portman tower, it mentions Portman plus a site near their current location (old Coliseum/airport area) as the two sites that could accomodate it.  Ballantyne is also able to do a 15 story tower of above 400k sf as well I believe.

 

It would make sense that Portman is allowing for a larger project, probably with LPL in mind.  They would be a great addition to Uptown.

Honestly with LPL looking for 400,000 sq feet of space, I think its a no brainer for Portman to up their building to 35 floors with 625,000 sq. feet of space. Bringing online the largest chunk of contiguous space in Uptown would be huge. They'd have 2/3 of the building preleased and another 200,000 to lease out. 

[HopHead]

Honestly with LPL looking for 400,000 sq feet of space, I think its a no brainer for Portman to up their building to 35 floors with 625,000 sq. feet of space. Bringing online the largest chunk of contiguous space in Uptown would be huge. They'd have 2/3 of the building preleased and another 200,000 to lease out. 

 

Yea, but didn't Portman say that they could only go to ~435k sqft of space, which is 19-20 floors? Perhaps because of structural limitations with the site?

[Guest]

Yea, but didn't Portman say that they could only go to ~435k sqft of space, which is 19-20 floors? Perhaps because of structural limitations with the site?

Honestly if it could support One Charlotte's height, 35 floors of office wouldn't be a problem... Structurally at least. I suspect the issue would be with having enough space for the elevators a 35 floor building would need, and having enough parking for everyone. (take the train you lazy bums)

[dcharlotte]

Honestly if it could support One Charlotte's height, 35 floors of office wouldn't be a problem... Structurally at least. I suspect the issue would be with having enough space for the elevators a 35 floor building would need, and having enough parking for everyone. (take the train you lazy bums)

 

Column spacing and loads are very different for office versus residential uses.  If they are having to rely on the columns built into the original parking garage, that would mean they are limited by their ability to support any structure above.

 

If they can get LPL to be an anchor tenant, any developer would want to build the extra floors to provide the newest space on the market, and in a large contiguous space.  Currently, Uptown is really short on large contiguous spaces.  On the flip side, a tenant would much rather have most of the building to themselves and not have to share.  Single vs. multiple tenant is a world of difference when it comes to office use.

 

With how tight contiguous space is in Uptown, I'm surprised we're not seeing some speculative office construction in Midtown, Uptown, or South End on below 200k in one building with medium sized floor plates.

[CltFlyer]

Honestly if it could support One Charlotte's height, 35 floors of office wouldn't be a problem... Structurally at least. I suspect the issue would be with having enough space for the elevators a 35 floor building would need, and having enough parking for everyone. (take the train you lazy bums)

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there still enough space for a one charlotte type apartment building to go up even with the office building, but parking space would be an issue?

[dcharlotte]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there still enough space for a one charlotte type apartment building to go up even with the office building, but parking space would be an issue?

That would be a very crowded site plan.  This is Charlotte, not Manhattan. 

[atlrvr]

There is a website up now for this tower.  Nothing really new, but it does show 1 more rendering from the LRT side.

 

http://615southcollege.com/Leasing/default.aspx

 

I guess the fact that they are seeking LEED Gold is new info, and a good thing.

 

I have high expectation that they can pre-lease this tower, even if its a relocation within Charlotte/Uptown.

[Norm2]

There is a website up now for this tower.  Nothing really new, but it does show 1 more rendering from the LRT side.

 

http://615southcollege.com/Leasing/default.aspx

 

I guess the fact that they are seeking LEED Gold is new info, and a good thing.

 

I have high expectation that they can pre-lease this tower, even if its a relocation within Charlotte/Uptown.

I do find it fascinating that the building seems to take elements for both the Westin and the Duke building. Although form looking ath the rendering of the lobby, I think the lobby is kind of ugly. It just looks like the standard blah lobby every tower has.

[dubone]

I like that they have changed the current roof of the parking deck to a grass/green roof plaza.  That helps reduce the urban heat island effect as well as be some open space.   

 

The building looks great and is a bit reminiscent of the Duke Energy Center.  Hopefully comes through with LDL or something so that uptown can start winning these leases over B-tyne.

[Urbanity]

Don't think it has been mentioned yet, but the slide show of floor plan renderings shows a retail space on ground floor /street access for small coffee shop.  

[Urbanity]

"Other needs include expanding The Westin Charlotte or adding similar-type hotels, of at least 400 rooms, to increase capacity — and quality."  Source: CBJ on State of the City Center Report

 

My obvious question is two-fold:

• Can the Westin building Proper be expanded by adding floors?  
• If nay to the first part, can they not include the expansion into plans for the Portman building on the same parking deck thereby giving the tower to go for build?

[Miesian Corners]

^ I always assumed it would be on land adjacent to the hotel, not on the office tower pad.  On a related note, that little asphalt parking lot between AT&T Plaza and the LRT is supposed to house a second Hilton tower.  

[Guest]

^ I always assumed it would be on land adjacent to the hotel, not on the office tower pad.  On a related note, that little asphalt parking lot between AT&T Plaza and the LRT is supposed to house a second Hilton tower.  

I always thought they could build on the opposite side of the LRT from the Westin and have the typical Charlotte Skybridge. Who really goes to that seedy club anyways?