Belk Place: Carolina Theater and Hotel Intercontinental

[gman430]

29 minutes ago, go_vertical said:

Oh yeah, 2043 is gonna be exciting. 

 

[go_vertical]

Now THAT'S a funny post. 

[DMann]

My contact says it will start soon!

[midtownclt]

I am very excited about this hotel for uptown and for the N. Tryon area.

I really hope to see the start of construction soon.

[dylansukkert]

11 hours ago, DMann said:

My contact says it will start soon!

K

[JRCLT]

If I don’t see a crane I don’t believe it. Have to wait and see. Also if that library isn’t torn down soon, I’ll do it myself! Rent a bulldozer and wrecking ball…maybe some dynamite since it’s built like a bunker.

[QCxpat]

Today 10:40 a.m.

Edited March 28, 2023 by QCxpat

[QCxpat]

Today 10:15 a.m.

Edited April 13, 2023 by QCxpat

[KJHburg]

some news on this today from the Biz Journal.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/04/20/foundation-for-the-carolinas.html

""Plans for a hotel that would rise above the remade Carolina Theatre on North Tryon Street gained momentum this week.

Representatives from the development group planning the 257-room InterContinental Hotel atop the restored theatre complex visited the site today with executives from Foundation For The Carolinas, the nonprofit that is behind the renovation.  

The site visit marks an important shift for restarting the hotel portion of the project after the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic and economic shutdown devastated the hospitality sector in 2020 and 2021. In November 2020, Valor Hospitality Group and Salter Brothers, the hotel development team, put their plans on hold.

When planning for the InterContinental was paused, Nathan Kivi, U.S. chief investment officer at Salter Brothers, told CBJ, “Covid has seen traditional hotel construction debt evaporate.” Representatives from the development group could not be reached this week for comment. Last year, local hotel demand surpassed pre-Covid figures for the first time.

Laura Smith, the foundation’s interim president and CEO, who has spearheaded the theater project throughout her 12-year tenure with the nonprofit, shared an update with CBJ this week that included news of the site visit as well as an overall cost increase for the theater to $78 million from $63 million. 

Increases in material costs, labor shortages, and overall inflation led to the revised construction budget, Smith said. “I’m in the process now of figuring out how we’re going to fill that bucket,” she said, adding that the likely course is to go back to previous and prospective donors.   

She is optimistic about a target opening date in the spring of 2024. Then again, the foundation has been forced to scuttle anticipated finishing dates several times in recent years, including then-CEO Michael Marsicano’s statement in 2021 that the theater “will be completed in the summer of 2022, I guarantee it.”

Smith is convinced the headaches and hurdles are, at last, out of the way.

“The hotel partner is starting to gear back up,” she said. “They’ve re-engaged architects, re-done their permitting. They are beginning in earnest to think about moving forward.” 

When construction on the hotel will begin has yet to be decided. The private developers are responsible for all hotel construction costs, previously estimated at $100 million. As with the rest of the project, that tab has, no doubt, increased, but no updated figures have been disclosed.

Smith noted that the structural support needed to build a hotel above the theater has already been included as part of the new lobby that will be part of the refurbished theater. Bedrock foundation pilings and support beams were part of the new construction to allow for the planned 32-story hotel tower.""

""The 950-seat theater and performance hall will re-open as a home for community meetings, lectures, movies, performances, and other cultural events. It’s been billed by the foundation as “Movie Palace to Modern Civic Hub.”

Despite numerous hiccups and unexpected cost increases throughout, Smith believes that the theater’s restoration will, ultimately, be worth the wait.

“It’s a really important piece for Charlotte,” she said. “We have torn down so much of our history, and the fact that the city had the foresight to save it and we now have the privilege of trying to put this together for the community, it is the right thing to do.”""

>>>>  I do think this theater restoration is going to be great for the city and community as a whole.  I hope the visit by the Aussies this week means they are working hard on getting the financing for this hotel.  This will go down as one of the most complicated projects ever attempted in Charlotte.  

 

 

[RANYC]

Please abandon plans for the intercontinental to sit atop this theater.  Instead, just use some other surface lot in first ward and fill things in further.

[Take2]

1 hour ago, RANYC said:

Please abandon plans for the intercontinental to sit atop this theater.  Instead, just use some other surface lot in first ward and fill things in further.

Yeeeaahhh.. no. It's likely that empty lots nearby will fill up quickly once construction begins on the library, High rise residential, and the IC hotel. Better to make things as dense as possible  giving way to more foot traffic. It will be nice for guests staying at the hotel to be able to take an elevator from their floor to the Theater... it will be a super neat experience. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Take2

[JRCLT]

Please abandon plans for the intercontinental to sit atop this theater.  Instead, just use some other surface lot in first ward and fill things in further.

The issue with this idea is land is held by other owners and that leaves it at the discretion of those land owners to sell and develop. I get your frustrations with the surface lots tho. There’s too many in uptown! They should all be filled up with homes and businesses.

[QCxpat]

Today 9:00 a.m.

Edited May 14, 2023 by QCxpat

[DMann]

looks like interior scaffolding is being removed today. (except for the new lobby)

[QCxpat]

Today 11:20 a.m.

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by QCxpat

[carolinaboy]

32 minutes ago, QCxpat said:

Today 11:20 a.m.

 

[KJHburg]

^ same on outside looking better and better on the inside this is the longest renovation in Charlotte history I do believe but I believe it will be worth it in the end for sure.  

[KJHburg]

I know they are many many nay-sayers about this but the Biz Journal is reporting this hotel is about to restart and I know that will upset some of you.  (always lots of naysayers in the development world.... that will never work, that tenant will never go into that building,  that city will never get an NFL team  etc. )

""The developer of a planned InterContinental Hotel atop the restored Carolina Theatre told CBJ the project is moving ahead after a lengthy pause during the Covid-19 pandemic, with new renderings expected within the next month.

Nathan Kivi, U.S. chief investment officer at Salter Brothers, confirmed during an interview that he joined others involved in the project on a visit to Charlotte in April to look at the site on North Tryon Street — and to restart a project that was put on hold in November 2020.   

“When the debt market and Covid hit — the debt market for hospitality is still almost non-existent — but we’re sure it will be back in the next 12 months,” he said. “So, we’re in that phase now where we’ve ramped back up. We put it on hold for 18 months while we figured out what the rest of the world was doing.”

Salter Brothers is an Australian investment firm whose assets include an extensive portfolio of hotels around the world. 

Kivi said the company hopes to start construction by next summer, and open in mid-2026, assuming a 24-month construction schedule.""

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/06/08/foundation-for-the-carolinas-salter-brothers.html

Probably should include this too:

""Current plans call for a 28-story, 244-room hotel, a slight shift from earlier iterations that called for as many as 270 rooms and 30 floors. The hotel will be built above the 96-year-old theater, which closed in 1978 and was largely left to deteriorate. The foundation bought the theater in 2012 from Charlotte city government and is presiding over its restoration. Renovations and improvements have proven difficult: site preparation and construction have surpassed the five-year mark. Cost overruns have been steep, too: The latest estimated price tag is $78 million, up from $51.5 million in 2017. A decade ago, in the initial stages, the anticipated cost was $25 million.""

[carolinaboy]

21 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I know they are many many nay-sayers about this but the Biz Journal is reporting this hotel is about to restart and I know that will upset some of you.  (always lots of naysayers in the development world.... that will never work, that tenant will never go into that building,  that city will never get an NFL team  etc. )

""The developer of a planned InterContinental Hotel atop the restored Carolina Theatre told CBJ the project is moving ahead after a lengthy pause during the Covid-19 pandemic, with new renderings expected within the next month.

Nathan Kivi, U.S. chief investment officer at Salter Brothers, confirmed during an interview that he joined others involved in the project on a visit to Charlotte in April to look at the site on North Tryon Street — and to restart a project that was put on hold in November 2020.   

“When the debt market and Covid hit — the debt market for hospitality is still almost non-existent — but we’re sure it will be back in the next 12 months,” he said. “So, we’re in that phase now where we’ve ramped back up. We put it on hold for 18 months while we figured out what the rest of the world was doing.”

Salter Brothers is an Australian investment firm whose assets include an extensive portfolio of hotels around the world. 

Kivi said the company hopes to start construction by next summer, and open in mid-2026, assuming a 24-month construction schedule.""

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/06/08/foundation-for-the-carolinas-salter-brothers.html

Probably should include this too:

""Current plans call for a 28-story, 244-room hotel, a slight shift from earlier iterations that called for as many as 270 rooms and 30 floors. The hotel will be built above the 96-year-old theater, which closed in 1978 and was largely left to deteriorate. The foundation bought the theater in 2012 from Charlotte city government and is presiding over its restoration. Renovations and improvements have proven difficult: site preparation and construction have surpassed the five-year mark. Cost overruns have been steep, too: The latest estimated price tag is $78 million, up from $51.5 million in 2017. A decade ago, in the initial stages, the anticipated cost was $25 million.""

Honestly excited about this one. Hope the previous aesthetics remain.

[go_vertical]

The comment about new renderings coming soon give me the uneasy feeling that we will be getting a much more value engineered project.  I really hope I'm wrong because I thought it looked pretty good.

[RANYC]

The article also mentioned that the Carolina theater restoration is in year 5, and is now scheduled to open in mid-2024.  The developers are currently planning how to build the hotel while keeping the theater accessible.  I'm so fatigued and weary of construction at this corner that I'd most certainly be open to letting the theater just remain a low-rise "legacy" restoration, and putting a 25+ story Intercontinental on some other adjacent and under-utilized block in the 7th and Tryon vicinity.

[KJHburg]

Today.  

 

[Hushpuppy321]

Does anyone know any information about the Operation of this Theater when it opens next Summer?  Will it be part of the Blumenthal Performing Arts consortium, what about seating capacity here and how it compares to the other local venues?  Maybe this is the wrong place to ask…

[CLT Development]

10 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Does anyone know any information about the Operation of this Theater when it opens next Summer?  Will it be part of the Blumenthal Performing Arts consortium, what about seating capacity here and how it compares to the other local venues?  Maybe this is the wrong place to ask…

It will be programmed by Foundation for the Carolinas and it'll be 950 seats. It won't be showing the usual Blumenthal type stuff, but instead lectures, comedy acts, smaller music acts, movies. Its looking really wonderful as of a few weeks ago.

Edited July 12, 2023 by CLT Development

[KJHburg]

I still think this newly renovated theater should host a Presidential debate.