Misc. Uptown Projects/News

[RANYC]

Work appears to be underway in earnest on the ground-floor makeover of the parking garage at the northeast corner of Church and 3rd.  The chain link fencing sat there for years, but now the space is all dug out and lots of activity there this morning.  Has anyone seen renderings?

Edited August 31, 2022 by RANYC

[RANYC]

this project was last reported on in early 2020.

at one point, Barings was to rename the space 100 W Third, even though it's commonly known as the 230 Parking Deck.

The first rendering is from the bizjournals article on the project, pre-covid.

the last 2 are from the Legacy Real Estate Advisors marketing brochure.

Legacy appears to be marketing the space as 230 South Church Street.

[CLTNative]

The plans available in Accela show the former.

Edit: The plans are from 2020. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by CLTNative

[tozmervo]

13 hours ago, RANYC said:

I think someone thinks this looks great. 

[DonkeyKong]

Anything is an improvement from what exists today.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

I don’t typically advocate for sport bars but I think uptown needs a new one especially after wild wings and black Finn (epicentre) and Carolina ale house on college closed. This location is in a busy area close to the stadiums and it would see a lot of foot traffic as well.  Semi late hours would be key for this area too being next to ink n ivy and Kimpton hotel (merchant and trade) late hour clientele.  It’s not a fancy restaurant type place being that it’s an old parking deck but I think a nice sports bar/restaurant would do well. Would also provide another nice family sit down restaurant other than mellowmushroom since that American burger place closed next to it too. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[QCxpat]

Today 11:15 a.m.  -  One Wells Fargo Center plaza renovation

Edited September 1, 2022 by QCxpat

[KJHburg]

So it is a big tree going in where the clock tower was?  that is what that rendering on the fence looks like. 

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

So it is a big tree going in where the clock tower was?  that is what that rendering on the fence looks like. 

Yes, a big tree, and I'm thrilled.  i just love how much our urban canopy in Uptown classes up our look.  

[RANYC]

Had brunch today with a friend who came to town with his family in order to run in "Around the Crown."  He and the fam are based in Tampa, and started their long weekend in Raleigh for a couple days before arriving in Uptown.  His comments seemed to suggest that Raleigh's downtown was far quirkier, more eclectic, and livelier than Charlotte's very buttoned-up, and super corporate-feeling CBD.  He specifically cited Fayetteville Street.  He wasn't expressly negative on Uptown, just seemed to rave about Raleigh.  I don't know Raleigh well at all, but can anyone corroborate these sentiments? 

[KJHburg]

3 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Had brunch today with a friend who came to town with his family in order to run in "Around the Crown."  He and the fam are based in Tampa, and started their long weekend in Raleigh for a couple days before arriving in Uptown.  His comments seemed to suggest that Raleigh's downtown was far quirkier, more eclectic, and livelier than Charlotte's very buttoned-up, and super corporate-feeling CBD.  He specifically cited Fayetteville Street.  He wasn't expressly negative on Uptown, just seemed to rave about Raleigh.  I don't know Raleigh well at all, but can anyone corroborate these sentiments? 

downtown Raleigh has a lot more smaller older scale buildings which means lower rents and they have a lot more locally owned restaurants downtown.    Charlotte's retail rents are very high thus mainly chains unfortunately.  Downtown Raleigh has 2 food halls as well.  Just a whole different scale.  

[nicholas]

36 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Had brunch today with a friend who came to town with his family in order to run in "Around the Crown."  He and the fam are based in Tampa, and started their long weekend in Raleigh for a couple days before arriving in Uptown.  His comments seemed to suggest that Raleigh's downtown was far quirkier, more eclectic, and livelier than Charlotte's very buttoned-up, and super corporate-feeling CBD.  He specifically cited Fayetteville Street.  He wasn't expressly negative on Uptown, just seemed to rave about Raleigh.  I don't know Raleigh well at all, but can anyone corroborate these sentiments? 

Fayetteville St is an odd street to rave about imo.  There are stretches of well-preserved classic storefronts, some restaurants, and other businesses along there, but I've never thought of it as unusually vibrant, whether during 9-5 or Friday/Saturday nights.  I think mostly because Fayetteville St is not a through road like Tryon St (it starts at the Capitol Building and ends at the Duke Energy Performing Arts Center).  Glenwood Ave through Glenwood South is much much livelier than Fayetteville St or Tryon St, at least at night.

[RANYC]

11 hours ago, KJHburg said:

downtown Raleigh has a lot more smaller older scale buildings which means lower rents and they have a lot more locally owned restaurants downtown.    Charlotte's retail rents are very high thus mainly chains unfortunately.  Downtown Raleigh has 2 food halls as well.  Just a whole different scale.  

The city experimented with shutting down Tryon along a stretch of Uptown and making it a pedestrian mall during COVID.  What was the experiment's result in the minds of planners and city officials?  Failure?  Success?  Indeterminate?

Following brunch yesterday, we did make our way to a very crowded rail trail adjacent to Atherton Mill for Front Porch Sundays (1st Sunday of each month).  While walking the stretch of vendors, I couldn't help but imagine the line-up of merchants/artisans/peddlers along a fully pedestrianized "Tryon Plaza" in Uptown.

We walked the length of Front Porch Sundays and then left.  In Uptown, I could have seen us jumping into a museum or heading to a park or plaza.

[CLT2014]

Atherton Mill is in the heart of a very active residential neighborhood. There are more reasonably priced spots for brunch / coffee that feel approachable / relaxing in the morning plus soft goods retail from Anthropologie, West Elm, Bonobos, Free People, Lululemon, Madwell, Sephora, et.... so if you are in a shopping mood (which could be your mood if you came to a shopping market), it is a good spot to go.

Meanwhile walking along Tryon in Uptown..... there are a lot of grand lobbies, steakhouses, and fast casual spots, but if you are in a shopping mood..... where would you go? The Mint Museum Gift Shop? Merchant plazas tend to do best when there is anchor permanent retail as well lining the sidewalks. 

When you look at the non-food retail spots facing Tryon..... 
- Mint Museum Gift Shop
- Betchler Museum Store
- Bank of America branch
- Welcome CLT Gift Shop (little booth at Wells Fargo Plaza)
- Wells Fargo branch
- FedEx Store
- Emerson Joseph Grooming Lounge
- Planet Fitness
- US Bank branch
- My Eye Dr.
- Lash Boutique
- First Citizens Bank branch
- Fifth Third Bank branch
- Allen Tate Realtors
- Discovery Place Gift Shop
- Woodie's Tires

So yeah..... outside of special events and eating, Tryon in Uptown isn't a very interesting street for visitors or locals looking to shop / stroll. Hence people love places like Charleston, Asheville, Savannah, Wilmington, et.. cause you can walk around and explore little shops, art galleries, et... Here in Charlotte, there's more retail in Park Road Shopping Center alone.... I've had more fun strolling in the little towns around Charlotte from Waxhaw, to Belmont, to Matthews, et... simply because they have more stores in their little town than a multi-block stretch of Uptown.

Thus Uptown is VERY event dependent to keep people interested / coming back because as a local you certainly don't head Uptown to shop. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by CLT2014

[kermit]

Remember when we were talking about Legacy Union planning to have nearly South Park amounts of retail? (Plus an Apple Store across the street at Ally)

What a disappointment. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by kermit

[CLT2014]

1 minute ago, kermit said:

Remember when we were talking about Legacy Union having nearly South Park amounts of retail? What a disappointment. 

You can sit in the plaza and talk to the 15 security guards from Bank of America to break the awkwardness while they stand around and stare at you thinking "oh wow, the first person I've seen all day." They will greatly appreciate something else to do besides stare at an empty piece of grass.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

Tryon in Uptown should be our signature retail strolling district for shopping hands down.  The fact that it is not and mainly or at least used to be just large bank lobbies/branches is depressing. I know rent is higher and logistics this and that but rent is high in a lot of other cities as well with a lot more retail. Uptown needs to figure a way to attract people into the city esp as WFH hybrids have evolved. Take a page from south end and build or integrate some micro retail spots within a parking deck or the epicentre and charge less rent. I know south end has the retail momentum but uptown needs a healthy balance of both and right now it’s very food & beverage heavy. Need more residential towers built uptown to help support the desired retail as well. Would love a store like the beehive gifts in over street to be on Tryon with longer hours. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

Atherton Mill is in the heart of a very active residential neighborhood. There are more reasonably priced spots for brunch / coffee that feel approachable / relaxing in the morning plus soft goods retail from Anthropologie, West Elm, Bonobos, Free People, Lululemon, Madwell, Sephora, et.... so if you are in a shopping mood (which could be your mood if you came to a shopping market), it is a good spot to go.

Meanwhile walking along Tryon in Uptown..... there are a lot of grand lobbies, steakhouses, and fast casual spots, but if you are in a shopping mood..... where would you go? The Mint Museum Gift Shop? Merchant plazas tend to do best when there is anchor permanent retail as well lining the sidewalks. 

When you look at the non-food retail spots facing Tryon..... 
- Mint Museum Gift Shop
- Betchler Museum Store
- Bank of America branch
- Welcome CLT Gift Shop (little booth at Wells Fargo Plaza)
- Wells Fargo branch
- FedEx Store
- Emerson Joseph Grooming Lounge
- Planet Fitness
- US Bank branch
- My Eye Dr.
- Lash Boutique
- First Citizens Bank branch
- Fifth Third Bank branch
- Allen Tate Realtors
- Discovery Place Gift Shop
- Woodie's Tires

So yeah..... outside of special events and eating, Tryon in Uptown isn't a very interesting street for visitors or locals looking to shop / stroll. Hence people love places like Charleston, Asheville, Savannah, Wilmington, et.. cause you can walk around and explore little shops, art galleries, et... Here in Charlotte, there's more retail in Park Road Shopping Center alone.... I've had more fun strolling in the little towns around Charlotte from Waxhaw, to Belmont, to Matthews, et... simply because they have more stores in their little town than a multi-block stretch of Uptown.

Thus Uptown is VERY event dependent to keep people interested / coming back because as a local you certainly don't head Uptown to shop. 

we  certainly weren't in a "shopping" mood for vendors that my visitors could quite easily have found in tampa, lol.  we went for a post-gastronomic stroll and i was showing off my city in the process, so wanted to take them where there was bustle, where the community was showing off, where we could find the greatest mix of authentic uses in a relatively condensed space, and to somewhere proximal to 300 East while pushing a baby stroller.  a signature park/plaza or any one of the city's museum spaces would have been there as a complement to the stroll, and were likelier to be expressions of the city's originality than lululemon and west elm, lol.  they were definitely more interested in all things local than "shopping," hence our decision to stroll among front porch sundays.

not against front porch sundays at atherton and its chains, but the same celebration of local creativity set amidst uniquely local institutions and signature park spaces in Uptown and livening up Uptown would have been a critical mass and a proverbial icing on the cake for visitors...if I had my druthers.

Edited September 5, 2022 by RANYC

[RANYC]

59 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

You can sit in the plaza and talk to the 15 security guards from Bank of America to break the awkwardness while they stand around and stare at you thinking "oh wow, the first person I've seen all day." They will greatly appreciate something else to do besides stare at an empty piece of grass.

I think pedestrianizing Tryon w/"programming," at least on a rotating weekend basis, could be part of a strategy to make uptown more interesting.  It certainly was a compelling and highly stroll-worthy environment for a different set of visitors during SHOUT, and likewise during Pride, and I suspect Uptown will show off in an extraordinary way during the inaugural international arts festival beginning on September 16th.  All it takes is for there to be street-level intrigue on a reliably consistent basis, and Uptown can be both a beauty, a draw, and full of energy.  of course, one must go into planning and devising such a strategy for uptown with the right attitude of possibility. 

[KJHburg]

was looking up some information on Loopnet and came across some large space vacancies in some of our uptown towers.

And remember when the new Duke Energy Plaza opens 75% or more of 400 South Tryon will be emptied out.

One Wells Fargo 301 South College aka the Jukebox 508,000 sq ft vacant out of 1 M sq ft total so 50% vacant.

One South (old Bank of Plaza) 101 S Tryon 455,000 sq ft vacant out of 891,000 sq ft.  51% vacant   

200 North College Wake Forest Center 419,000 sq ft will be vacant March 2023 out of 458.000 making that building 91% vacant come March.   That sounds like BofA moving out anyone know for sure as they are the lead tenant in that building.  

3 floors at Barings 300 South Tryon which is 79,000 sq ft vacant.

I would not look at anymore new office towers anytime soon after Legacy 4 completes unless there is a major movement among a tenant.

Now some buildings like Truist Tower and BofA Corporate Center are 100% full.    550 South Tryon aka DEC is 100% occupied and will be backfilled by Wells,  

Is Bank of America moving these people at 200 North College elsewhere does anyone know?  I can't believe they would vacate that much space without moving some of these people elsewhere and I know they are not a big work from home employer.  

And again we need to be looking at converting some older office towers to other uses.  

 

 

[RANYC]

35 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

was looking up some information on Loopnet and came across some large space vacancies in some of our uptown towers.

And remember when the new Duke Energy Plaza opens 75% or more of 400 South Tryon will be emptied out.

One Wells Fargo 301 South College aka the Jukebox 508,000 sq ft vacant out of 1 M sq ft total so 50% vacant.

One South (old Bank of Plaza) 101 S Tryon 455,000 sq ft vacant out of 891,000 sq ft.  51% vacant   

200 North College Wake Forest Center 419,000 sq ft will be vacant March 2023 out of 458.000 making that building 91% vacant come March.   That sounds like BofA moving out anyone know for sure as they are the lead tenant in that building.  

3 floors at Barings 300 South Tryon which is 79,000 sq ft vacant.

I would not look at anymore new office towers anytime soon after Legacy 4 completes unless there is a major movement among a tenant.

Now some buildings like Truist Tower and BofA Corporate Center are 100% full.    550 South Tryon aka DEC is 100% occupied and will be backfilled by Wells,  

Is Bank of America moving these people at 200 North College elsewhere does anyone know?  I can't believe they would vacate that much space without moving some of these people elsewhere and I know they are not a big work from home employer.  

And again we need to be looking at converting some older office towers to other uses.  

 

 

I mean, won't we get a new office tower as part of the 7th and Tryon development?

I remember in one of these threads early in COVID that several of us were adamant that there would be no new tower construction for years given the fallout from the pandemic, and next thing you know, Lincoln Harris is breaking ground on Legacy 4.  I guess we'll have to see.  Would be great to see tower conversions - I wonder which towers have been assessed and deemed to be best fits for conversion.

Edited September 6, 2022 by RANYC

[KJHburg]

26 minutes ago, RANYC said:

I mean, won't we get a new office tower as part of the 7th and Tryon development?

I remember in one of these threads early in COVID that several of us were adamant that there would be no new tower construction for years given the fallout from the pandemic, and next thing you know, Lincoln Harris is breaking ground on Legacy 4.  I guess we'll have to see.  Would be great to see tower conversions - I wonder which towers have been assessed and deemed to be best fits for conversion.

Yes we will that is for Truist but what I am saying unless heavily preleased it will slow down a bit.  Office leasing nationwide has slowed down considerably.   and Legacy 4 tower is about 25% preleased to Robinson Bradshaw.  

well this is good a new high end steak house coming to Charlotte Plaza on S College in the old Carolina Ale House space.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/09/06/stk-steakhouse-charlotte-plaza.html

""STK Steakhouse is bringing its high-energy, upscale vibes to Charlotte Plaza. The fine-dining venture has signed a lease for a 7,000-square-foot restaurant at 201 S. College St. — formerly home to Carolina Ale House.  The ONE Group Hospitality Inc. (NASDAQ:STKS) is behind that steakhouse concept, which has 22 locations in major metropolitan cities in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.   We’re thrilled that STK has selected Charlotte Plaza to launch their entry into this market, capitalizing on an opportunity that positions the brand on one of uptown’s most prominent corners,” says Lynne Lawrence, executive vice president, asset management for Rabina.  The New York real estate investment and development firm owns that 27-story, 650,000-square-foot Class-A office tower. It is managed by Foundry Commercial.""

[RANYC]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Yes we will that is for Truist but what I am saying unless heavily preleased it will slow down a bit.  Office leasing nationwide has slowed down considerably.   and Legacy 4 tower is about 25% preleased to Robinson Bradshaw.  

well this is good a new high end steak house coming to Charlotte Plaza on S College in the old Carolina Ale House space.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/09/06/stk-steakhouse-charlotte-plaza.html

""STK Steakhouse is bringing its high-energy, upscale vibes to Charlotte Plaza. The fine-dining venture has signed a lease for a 7,000-square-foot restaurant at 201 S. College St. — formerly home to Carolina Ale House.  The ONE Group Hospitality Inc. (NASDAQ:STKS) is behind that steakhouse concept, which has 22 locations in major metropolitan cities in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.   We’re thrilled that STK has selected Charlotte Plaza to launch their entry into this market, capitalizing on an opportunity that positions the brand on one of uptown’s most prominent corners,” says Lynne Lawrence, executive vice president, asset management for Rabina.  The New York real estate investment and development firm owns that 27-story, 650,000-square-foot Class-A office tower. It is managed by Foundry Commercial.""

Wow, I used to take clients and vendors to the STK in Midtown Manhattan all the time, fronting 6th avenue just north of 42nd street.  Decor/Ambience a bit like nightclub meets steak.  It's where you go for weekday industry networking in an environment that feels like you're partying somewhat and planning to get a bit lit.  This is quite the jolt to Uptown and certainly a vote of confidence.  STK not everyone's cup of tea, but this is yet another example of Uptown drawing some clear lines of distinction versus South End and pushing back hard against the notion that it's on life support because all its energy has drifted south.

It's the block adjacent to Epicenter...wonder if STK owners know something we don't.

Everyone laments Uptown's lobbies, and perhaps property managers finally wising up to the idea of injecting street-level life through curating the right mix of ground-level restaurant/entertainment options.  

Edited September 6, 2022 by RANYC

[atlrvr]

I'm assuming it will be more the NYC vibe than the Miami Beach location vibe.  Completely different scenes 

STK is pretty good for the corporate expense account crowd.  Definitely better than Steak 48 in my opinion, which is very similar concept.

Edit:  Reading RANYC comments, maybe NYC does get a bit more interesting at night.  Have only done lunch there (and dinner but outdoor COVID seating) and it was pretty (very) tame in comparison to M.B.

 

[RANYC]

17 minutes ago, atlrvr said:

I'm assuming it will be more the NYC vibe than the Miami Beach location vibe.  Completely different scenes 

STK is pretty good for the corporate expense account crowd.  Definitely better than Steak 48 in my opinion, which is very similar concept.

Edit:  Reading RANYC comments, maybe NYC does get a bit more interesting at night.  Have only done lunch there (and outdoor COVID seating) and it was pretty (very) tame in comparison to M.B.

 

I'm recounting STK NYC circa 2014-2016.  Could be a very different place now.  I'm sure MB STK was and is quite a bit more colorful than the NYC one, although a preponderance of May-December Relationships on full display is what they likely have in common.