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Charlotte Knights AAA Ballpark in Third Ward


dubone

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Theres also a homewood suites going up beside the Carillon.

300 S. Tryon might beyond BB&T Stadium's influence but its certainly not out of Tryon St. and Romare Beardens influence. Not to mention its smack dab between the Cultural Campus and the Bofa Campus and will connect the two sides of downtown seamlessly if done right.

True enough, I just tried not to deviate too far off topic.

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True....well I guess I am just impatient and want to see movement now! :yawn:

 

Remind me again, what are the apartments going up by the post office?

 

I would love to see that lot bordered by Mint, 3rd, 4th and Poplar get developed.

 

Also, the apartments on graham are streching from 4th to MLK or just to 3rd?

I think they mean old courthouse not post office.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/06/spectrum-properties-to-build-uptown.html?page=all

The Mint Apts

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As an old timer I recall when the Courthouse was the Post Office. Much of the main floor was PO and the major action was PO action. When the PO was built at McDowell then the courthouse became just court activity and military recruiters and a few other small federal offices. You can see from the delivery and parking areas at the back that trucks were using this location in the original plan.

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Father-in-law and myself were walking past the stadium on the Graham St side this morning.  They had one of the big gates wide open and a worker had just walked out talking on his phone. So we sort of just walked right in...

 

It opened right onto the main concourse, but far enough down the 3rd baseline that you're still outside.  Let me just say that the pictures of the view absolutely do not do it justice.  This ballpark might have one of the best views in all of baseball.

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Looks like they are putting down sod on the area where the skinny building will go beyond left field.  

 

I noticed that too... I'm starting to be of the opinion that we won't see anything built in that area behind left field anytime soon. Which looking at that, it's not a bad thing. Paying $10 for a ticket, drinking a beer and sitting on the grassy hill to watch a ballgame on a summer night isn't a bad thing.

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I noticed that too... I'm starting to be of the opinion that we won't see anything built in that area behind left field anytime soon. Which looking at that, it's not a bad thing. Paying $10 for a ticket, drinking a beer and sitting on the grassy hill to watch a ballgame on a summer night isn't a bad thing.

The Knights have said we wouldn't see a tower there until at least next season. Excavation would begin this offseason or next.

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Not sure that's the best place to see though.  The picnic shelter(?) and the scoreboard block most of the views from the hill in left field.  Left center and center would be okay.  

 

Paying $10 for a ticket, drinking a beer and sitting on the grassy hill to watch a ballgame on a summer night isn't a bad thing.

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Not sure that's the best place to see though.  The picnic shelter(?) and the scoreboard block most of the views from the hill in left field.  Left center and center would be okay.  

 

Most people that are to sit on that hill probably aren't overly interested in watching a game as much as they are letting their kids run around or just socializing with the game as a backdrop. Similar to the to the picnic shelter area, but just a bigger area.  

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^ I fall into the category of I want to watch the game and have something for my kids to do because they aren't always as interested.  The Grasshoppers stadium has a playground area accomplishing that although I have mixed feelings on it, occasionally it is itself a distraction from the game [keeping an eye on other people's kids].

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Has there been official word that the grassy outfield area will be available for seating (i.e. tickets sold for that area)?

Nope, however it does look like they are building the fence around the grassed in area... At least from what I can see from the webcam...

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  • 2 weeks later...

A long time ago, when the Knights were talking about locations for the stadium, I had talked about the Panther's practice field as being a good location, but seemed like they would need to compact the stadium to fit.  As it turns out, now that the stadium is designed and on Google Earth/Maps, it is not frustratingly obvious that it could have fit on the city land of the practice fields all along! 

 

  • It would have removed the practice fields which are far from the highest and best use of urban land.  They could have shifted the practice fields to the Coffee Cup land which was available cheaply at the time from bankrupt Beazer, but not preferred for the actual stadium.
  • It is city land already dedicated to sports, but secretive practice fields are a lesser public use of the land compared to a public stadium.
  • It would have had the same or better skyline view
  • it would only have been a couple more blocks away from the CBD, but would have still benefited from that market as well as all the existing parking facilities for the CBD and BoA Stadium
  • It would not have closed any streets, and would have negotiated for the new MLK extension to Cedar as part of the deal, which would have increased connectivity between the two parts of 3rd Ward.  
  • We could have still had the larger county park without any of the landswap controversy, but even they had always gone with the smaller park location, that would have been a decision not strong armed by the Knights but purely from an urban design and park design perspective
  • It could eventually be expanded for MLB because once you talk about the serious money of doing that, you would simply build the stadium over the railroad corridor and power substation land that could easily be joined with the practice field with wealth that we would have in 2030+ when we could even get the MLB. 
  • It would have kept more developable land on the denser side of 3rd Ward, which would mean much more land developable with high density and higher property tax yield in the end.
I realize this is not consensus, even in hindsight, but after seeing just how easily the stadium could have fit on that city land that is not very usable now, and met all the criteria supporting the county land location, while providing some level of long range expandability, and keeping more high density-zoned land in the hands of developers, it seems to me to have been a much better location.  I even like the Bearden in the new location, but that would have freed up the county land to keep the Virginia Paper building, more of the street grid, and more developable land that would have been very attractive being surrounded by Bearden, Panthers, Knights, and Gateway Station. 
 
 
I was going to show the aerial with the original siteplan of the larger Bearden park, but it has been stricken from the internet. 

post-670-0-30298900-1391552315_thumb.png

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