Misc. Uptown Projects/News

[Matthew.Brendan]

WF has their broadcast studios in 2WFC along with various data servers and tons of AV equipment that goes into that operation. Used to work on that floor

[KJHburg]

It sounds like all of Wells office space with one exception is in company owned buildings uptown which makes sense.  They own the 550 South Tryon old DEC building always have and Three Wells Fargo.   They do lease all that building on Caldwell the old 300 South Brevard building that was renovated after AT&T left.  

[J-Rob]

Can someone explain to me the difference between UMUD and UMUD-O? Practically speaking, how might this change their development? I didn't realize they were considering a hotel as part of a mixed use development. With all of the talk of needing a convention hotel, it would be interesting if they built a hotel here as part of a mixed use high rise.  I would think that would impact the size of a future convention hotel.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/02/02/mvc-rezoning-uptown-property-duke-energy-developer.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_23&cx_artPos=3#cxrecs_s

 

Edited February 2 by J-Rob

[KJHburg]

^^ someone else like @CLT Developmentwould have to explain the difference between UMUD to UMUD-O I am not sure.  With the this land swap with the CRVA the convention center is getting a small slice which leaves other land for the Berlin group to develop.  

One thing to note in a Biz Journal article about convention business they mentioned they CRVA may be more interested in getting two 500 room hotels developed than one super sized 1000 room hotel.  This maybe a much better strategy and this article most in the hotel business oppose massive subsidies for a huge hotel but are more hotel to land given to a developer to build a hotel.  This .7 acre the CRVA gets on S College could be for one of these 500 room hotels.  

[KJHburg]

in other uptown news Center City Partners came out with their year end report and this article summarizes it.

https://www.wfae.org/business/2023-02-02/charlottes-center-city-settles-into-a-new-normal-hybrid-work-hipper-offices-trying-to-be-commute-worthy

One thing to note about all this proposed office development.  Over 5 million sq ft announced by not started in uptown and southend.  I think half or less of this will be built in the next couple of years.  Uptown has some HUGE blocks of vacant space.   From loopnet and the buildings themselves I found these vacancies. 

200 North College Wake Forest Center will have 419K sq ft vacant

301 S Tryon the old 2 Wells Fargo building built in the 1970s that Wells is vacating is over 750K sq ft.  Not sure how many other tenants are there beside Wells but block of space will be there.

301 S College the old 1 Wells Fargo the Jukebox has over 500,000 sq ft available basically 50% vacant

One South Plaza the old BofA Plaza at the Square has 354,000 sq ft available

even the new 300 South Tryon Barings has 83,000 sq ft available

Carillon on W Trade has 119,000 sq ft available

400 South Tryon  589,000 sq ft total building Duke occupies 90% and will leave it this year leaving huge block of space here

I mention all of this as some of these older building will have to be repurposed into other uses like residential and hotel etc.   All this shuffling around uptown and tenants wanting less space and newer space is a big problem for uptown and we need to start thinking on new uses for these building.  the 2 Wells Fargo tower built in the 70s maybe it could be residential and hotel.   Without massive renovations I dont see how some of these buildings are viable office buildings in the future.  

[J-Rob]

That is a lot of square footage.   I know it is outside of Uptown, but I think of the empty Centene building as well, because it will likely be marketed to similar large-block tenants.

[CLT2014]

The big banks and Duke have been the back bone of Uptown real estate and you don't see a lot of new to market firms select Uptown.... the trendy thing is South End, et..

I just don't see an easy path forward where an employer with thousands of employees needs to move people to Uptown Charlotte to take 750,000 square feet in a building like Wells Fargo 2. Tough road ahead for these older buildings. Wells Fargo 2 is a prime block of real estate that is going to be a quiet dead zone of activity too.

Edited February 2 by CLT2014

[kermit]

^ Somebody has gotta find a way to convert large floor plate office buildings to residential. I hear that some folks in NYC are pulling this off (but suspiciously I don't have any details on how they are doing it)

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

^ Somebody has gotta find a way to convert large floor plate office buildings to residential. I hear that some folks in NYC are pulling this off (but suspiciously I don't have any details on how they are doing it)

I agree and they are doing it in Dallas and Houston with some 1960s 70s buildings too.  

[RANYC]

6 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I agree and they are doing it in Dallas and Houston with some 1960s 70s buildings too.  

We're doing it too with the proposal for the old Duke Energy building.  Sometimes we see headlines from other places and think those other cities are seeing a wave of activity, when really they have the one-off transitional project in the same way we do.  Are Dallas and Houston doing anything more impressive than the plans announced for the old Duke HQ brutalist building?

[KJHburg]

4 minutes ago, RANYC said:

We're doing it too with the proposal for the old Duke Energy building.  Sometimes we see headlines from other places and think those other cities are seeing a wave of activity, when really they have the one-off transitional project in the same way we do.  Are Dallas and Houston doing anything more impressive than the plans announced for the old Duke HQ brutalist building?

their office building conversions are much larger and taller.  Yes the Duke Energy old HQ is a great conversion but we have 2 1970s era buildings that are getting ready to be emptied out.  This city needs to get ahead of it no one with is going to swoop into uptown and take these huge older buildings.  Everyone wants new or recently renovated.   Before your time here 230 South Tryon condo building next to Ruths Chris uptown was the Northwestern Bank building an office building.  It has been done in Charlotte before and I am just saying office space usage has changed greatly in the last 3 years.  

Houston  check this building out in Houston   https://realtynewsreport.com/exxon-skyscraper-sold-for-apartment-conversion/

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-apartments-exxon-building-17736880.php   look at the size of this building if they can convert this we can with our 1970s towers.  That is some huge floorplates. 

from the Big D   Dallas   https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2022/08/17/downtown-dallas-offices-apartments

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/downtown-offices-apartments-conversions/    

https://www.globest.com/2022/08/04/50-story-dallas-office-tower-to-convert-vacant-floors-to-apartments/?slreturn=20230102192517

https://www.globest.com/2022/08/04/50-story-dallas-office-tower-to-convert-vacant-floors-to-apartments/?slreturn=20230102192517

the reason these are great examples is that they are huge building tall buildings and I dont want us to end up like St Louis, Memphis and New Orleans with 30 plus story empty buildings. 

Maybe some tax credits or something because if these buildings are empty for long their valuations thus tax values will drop.   If you converting to residential you can put a hotel on the lower floors too.  

 

[AirNostrumMAD]

2 hours ago, kermit said:

^ Somebody has gotta find a way to convert large floor plate office buildings to residential. I hear that some folks in NYC are pulling this off (but suspiciously I don't have any details on how they are doing it)

DC is leading in the conversions by far and those floor plates are giant so I imagine the ones in Charlotte could be easier. Especially the older towers with narrower floors 

There is only one way to make it work… Government… Literally, the government has to legislate (principally through abatements). DC adopted the Downtown  Abatement Program. 

“District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser is aiming to add more than 100,000 new residents to the city’s downtown, including 15,000 over the next five years, by converting office space into residential housing.” Downtown is a small neighborhood that is 93% office currently. 
 

In late 2020, when the city realized the new realities of a post pandemic world, by the end of 2020 an entire department of the city was opened to converting office to residential and a detailed large report issued by November 2020 and the city has been pumping out conversion announcements rapidly almost biweekly it seems for a long time. There was actually a Law specifically to establish a task force of office to residential conversion (D.C. Law 22-103). There’s lots of resources but here’s some on the challenges https://planning.dc.gov/commercial-residential-conversions with the 3 focuses of the city being to “change the space, fill the space, being the people” because the city was terrified of what could happen over the near mid-term as downtown office was critical to DC’s tax base, an anchor to the region and if it goes into decline, the region could. 
 

Uptown is even more vitally important to the success of the region of Charlotte. There needs to be a plan of post Covid uptown. Charlotte even needs to focus on investing more than ever in uptown with housings, more parks, more schools and focus on bringing people. SouthEnd shows the economic value of being a vibrant community in attracting business. There needs to be bike lanes on Tryon, subsidies for small business, affordable housing needs to be built uptown. We can’t wait for the problem to become glaringly obvious because it’ll be too late. The only answer to rebooting uptown for the future & the economic success of Charlotte is for a plan in place. Unfortunately, we can’t sit around on auto-pilot anymore like we grown accustomed to. The world has changed. 100,000+ commutes to uptown 5 days a week before Covid. We need 50,000+ people more in uptown. And that requires it being a proper neighborhood. It requires in depth planning, people to execute etc. 

Edited February 3 by AirNostrumMAD

[RANYC]

41 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

their office building conversions are much larger and taller.  Yes the Duke Energy old HQ is a great conversion but we have 2 1970s era buildings that are getting ready to be emptied out.  This city needs to get ahead of it no one with is going to swoop into uptown and take these huge older buildings.  Everyone wants new or recently renovated.   Before your time here 230 South Tryon condo building next to Ruths Chris uptown was the Northwestern Bank building an office building.  It has been done in Charlotte before and I am just saying office space usage has changed greatly in the last 3 years.  

Houston  check this building out in Houston   https://realtynewsreport.com/exxon-skyscraper-sold-for-apartment-conversion/

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-apartments-exxon-building-17736880.php   look at the size of this building if they can convert this we can with our 1970s towers.  That is some huge floorplates. 

from the Big D   Dallas   https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2022/08/17/downtown-dallas-offices-apartments

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/downtown-offices-apartments-conversions/    

https://www.globest.com/2022/08/04/50-story-dallas-office-tower-to-convert-vacant-floors-to-apartments/?slreturn=20230102192517

https://www.globest.com/2022/08/04/50-story-dallas-office-tower-to-convert-vacant-floors-to-apartments/?slreturn=20230102192517

the reason these are great examples is that they are huge building tall buildings and I dont want us to end up like St Louis, Memphis and New Orleans with 30 plus story empty buildings. 

Maybe some tax credits or something because if these buildings are empty for long their valuations thus tax values will drop.   If you converting to residential you can put a hotel on the lower floors too.  

 

I'll take a look at these links.  Do you know if Houston or Dallas is incentivizing these conversions, or are they just markets which happen to be on the radar of specialist developers who can do such office-to-residential conversions?  Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but I feel there's enough attention on Charlotte that maybe the city doesn't really have to do much in the wake of these announcements other than continuing to work toward Uptown being a desirable district for living: actual safety and perceived safety, and getting the ball rolling on the massive mixed-use projects proposed through public-private partnerships but not yet started.  Developers will find new uses for these buildings, and the more I talk to white-collar industry senior management, the more convinced I'm becoming that there will be a massive demand surge for class-A space in the next few years.  All this talk of working-from-hermit for knowledge-industries/roles just isn't sustainable.  Corporates just need time to figure out the right commute-worthy configuration for their offices of the future, and those determinations are in formulation.

 

Edited February 3 by RANYC

[RANYC]

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/02/02/charlotte-center-city-partners.html

• Article discusses nearly $7bn in projects under construction or proposed between just uptown and South End
• Center City Partners is concerned enough about long-term office trends that it's convening an assemblage of property owners, investors, and city officials to discuss boosting uptown real estate
• Quote at end of article discusses increasingly blurred lines between uptown and south end, but ONLY cites the Crescent Communities project at Carson & Tryon, yet makes no mention of Queensbridge Collective

[tozmervo]

34 minutes ago, RANYC said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2023/02/02/charlotte-center-city-partners.html

• Article discusses nearly $7bn in projects under construction or proposed between just uptown and South End
• Center City Partners is concerned enough about long-term office trends that it's convening an assemblage of property owners, investors, and city officials to discuss boosting uptown real estate
• Quote at end of article discusses increasingly blurred lines between uptown and south end, but ONLY cites the Crescent Communities project at Carson & Tryon, yet makes no mention of Queensbridge Collective

"608,000 square feet of retail, with 62,000 square feet under construction and 546,000 square feet announced."

Um, what? What definition of "retail" are they using?

[SydneyCarton]

This is going to be very nice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tarhoosier]

It is a timed entry for two hours at 10$, 20$ or 25$. Other discount options may apply. Entry allows access to rest of museum before and after two hour Picasso experience. One of our contributors arranged the online access link and purchase site. I am 8 March, 1-3. Mariposa is open for lunch now and I assume during that period as well.

[DMann]

Dirt is going into the former clock tower at the Wells/Hilton plaza.  Making space for another tree!

[KJHburg]

Cousins CEO talks about office buildings in the sunbelt and says many older buildings will have to be repurposed.  Their 3 owned buildings in Charlotte are over 90% leased and that includes Fifth Third Center and 550 Caldwell (Nascar) uptown and the Railyard in Southend.  They do have 2 sites in Southend for mixed use projects one on Tremont and one across from the Railyard on S Tryon and Bland. 

https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/office/cousins-ceo-obsolescence-is-boosting-sun-belt-office-markets-117632

I agree with what he says about office buildings in Atlanta and that carries through to several Charlotte office towers.  

[DMann]

And here is the tree!

[DamicoKaren]

Not sure if this is already posted but looks like uptown will be getting a good hall at One Independence

https://charlotte.axios.com/321119/a-new-food-hall-is-coming-to-uptown/

Construction is underway on a new food hall in Uptown.

What’s happening: Monarch Market, an 18,000-square-foot food hall at One Independence Center (101 N. Tryon St. at the corner of Trade and Tryon streets), will open later this year.

Why it matters: Food and drink spots in Uptown are becoming more plentiful as workers return to the office. Monarch Market promises to deliver options for everything from after a Carolina Panthers game to after a show at Belk Theater.

• “This space will provide an opportunity for One Independence Center to be a true food destination in the heart of Uptown Charlotte, one that will not only be attractive for the daytime worker, but a unique destination for nights and weekends as well,” Charles Thrift, founding partner of Thrift Commercial Real Estate, said in a statement.

Details: Expect 12 food stalls, a full-service restaurant and three bars (one of which will be outdoors facing North Tryon Street). It will also have four event spaces:

• A cocktail lounge with outdoor space facing Tryon Street.
• A partially-private space available for reservation.
• An indoor/outdoor bar.
• Access to the tenant lounge if you work in One Independence Center.

This is the first project of its kind for Crescent Communities, the developer behind a number of mixed-use developments across the region. They’re developing it in partnership with Nuveen Real Estate. Hospitality HQ will operate the food hall.

• “We are proud to provide a future home to up-and-coming culinary talent, many of whom are local and launching their first brick and mortar locations or taking the chance at expanding their business with us as vendors at Monarch Market,” chef and co-CEO and founding partner at Hospitality HQ,  Akhtar Nawab, said in a statement.

By the numbers: One Independence Center underwent a three-year, $33-million renovation. It includes 26,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The 20-story office building is 565,694 square feet.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

This is big time! Love food halls and this is in a great location. Maybe there will be some spillover of ppl eating in the atrium between the Marriott hotel. It’s still kind of awkward space  in there. 
Trade & Tryon will continue to be the heart of uptown. Would love to see the bottom level BoA branch at founders be a restaurant or something. They have the perfect plaza for a one of a kind outdoor dining experience.  Also, Polk park renovation needed to happen yesterday. No running water in the fountains and it’s getting pretty rundown looking over there. I know it’s winter time but it’s been inoperable for quite a while now. I know they had plans to renovate but can’t seem to find the plans. 

Edited February 15 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[DMann]

The BOA branch in Founders Hall was a restaurant at one time.  Polk Park had a rat infestation situation and the fountains were turned off during the elimination of that issue.

The building that the Chase Branch is in was once projected to be a boutique hotel but it fell apart when the individual owners of the property, they are condo office spaces, could not agree to sell.

[Yeahdoug]

What do we have here? Taking samples for selling or for some plans? Installing something?  Others side of the tracks on W Trade. 

Edited February 21 by Yeahdoug

[kermit]

^ Johnson and Wales preparing for liquidation?

(Polaris shows about half of this parcel as being in the railway easement and that boundary is roughly taped off in the photo)

Edited February 21 by kermit