SouthEnd Midrise Projects

[HopHead]

And you didn't even run past Spectrum or 1225 Church!

Actually you touched on something else that's going to need addressed: foot traffic. Bland street is already a pretty lousy pedestrian street (you may have noticed a certain lack of sidewalks...) I know the apartments will be correcting that to an extent, but I also hope the intersection of Bland and South gets some major TLC as Circle wraps up. A protected crossing light at Rensselaer Ave wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

I know! My route only took me so far

I agree that the Bland/South area does need some TLC... The one thing I did notice with Circle is that it will have much wider sidewalks, which will be good. I'm interested in seeing what the retail space would be? I think a coffee shop would be perfect there... Though, I wonder if we'll get stuck with another dry cleaner or something there

[Charlotte_native]

In my quest to not drive at least one day a week,

This is part of our every week routine as well. At least on the weekends we don't or we barely drive a car. We have bikes and almost exclusively use them to go out, go to the store, visit friends, etc. The cluster of restaurants and bars in Southend make it easy as well. We are often at Common Market where there are usually quite a few bikes locked up on the rails. We even biked to a show at Amos' last night -- TV on the Radio.

Once these places are full in Southend I suspect there will be a little burst of new small businesses opening to cater to them. As it is you are right -- what is there will probably be overrun since they are already quite busy most of the time.

[HopHead]

The street landscaping for Circle has progressed considerably this week. The sidewalks are all paved except near the last corner of the building they are finishing the exterior on. They've also planted a number of shrubs and trees. Some "Circle at Southend" signage is up now too... All in all, I'm liking the way this turning out, minus the stupid power lines still being up.

[JBGB]

A new office building has a sign up to be built on Hawkins St. and the corner of Doggett St. across from the Design Center. I work in this area and there seems to be a lot of vacant office space for lease. How is it possible to build even more in this area?

[voyager12]

Read an ad for Circle today that listed complimentary folding bikes for residents. Pretty nifty

[Charlotte_native]

Also Takeover Friday will be at Ashton's pool this Sunday (Takeover Sunday??)

[Spartan]

Read an ad for Circle today that listed complimentary folding bikes for residents. Pretty nifty

Can it be exchanged for a non-folding bike?

[tozmervo]

A lot of people gave LEED flack for the whole "point for a bike rack" thing, but I think it has gone a long way toward making developers think about bikes. When I toured Ashton I asked if they have bike storage - they do, for something like 150 bikes. I'd bet good money if Ashton had been built 5-10 years ago, they would have laughed at something like bike storage.

[Bikeguy]

A lot of people gave LEED flack for the whole "point for a bike rack" thing, but I think it has gone a long way toward making developers think about bikes. When I toured Ashton I asked if they have bike storage - they do, for something like 150 bikes. I'd bet good money if Ashton had been built 5-10 years ago, they would have laughed at something like bike storage.

It wasn't their choice. Long term bike parking ( lockers) and short term parking are part of the new parking ordinance.

[tozmervo]

Interesting... I wasn't aware that CLT zoning had a bike parking requirement. Well, it should at least be noted that (according to TABLE 12.202 in the zoning code) they greatly exceed the city's requirement of 1 per 20 units. Even LEED 2.2 only requires secured bike parking for 15% of residents.

[tozmervo]

Well this is interesting - over at News 14 they have a story about two new Boulevard Homes projects in the Southend.

One is a 12 unit townhome project at Camden and S Tryon. I can not figure out what location this would actually be at, unless its just down S Tryon a little bit closer to Gin Mill or the Haworth showroom.

The other is a 63 unit project at Summit and Church, so I would guess something like a 4-6 story building.

I think it is notable that they use the word "affordable" now like the word "luxury" was used just a year ago.

Edited June 27, 2009 by tozmervo

[monsoon]

You know, this will bother a lot of people. Here you have a developer essentially stating that prices have not been right, as in too high, so now they are going to substantially lower prices on these developments, if they are even built. This is going to upset some of those people who were paying upwards of $500,000 for one of those homes in Wilmore that was close to falling to the ground. Some of them posted here about this still being such a good deal.

[atlrvr]

The 12 unit project will go where the surface parking lot is betwen the Trolley Museum and Canine Cafe building. This is a real positive in my opinion, as original (or really one of many plans) had them tearing down the Canine Cafe building and putting a large apartment building covering that site and the current parking lot.

[voyager12]

^ Great News One less surface lot in this town is always welcome since we are oversaturated. Especially in this district which encourages higher density, this will give a great boost of life to that side of Camden.

[Charlotte_native]

Nice to see some smaller projects potentially moving along. There have still been condo sales in Southend, though slow, and a few more smaller and less expensive units will probably hit the market just right. At The Tremont recently there were 4 or 5 sales after months of none, all for the lower priced 1 bedroom units and one of the larger 2 bedroom units.

[Charlotte_native]

paying upwards of $500,000 for one of those homes in Wilmore that was close to falling to the ground. Some of them posted here about this still being such a good deal.

They never sold nearly that high. The highest priced home that sold in Wilmore was just around $500,000 and it was a large, renovated, basically new home. The tear-downs sold, at their highest, for around $150,000 - $175,000. The highest, far beyond the average, sold for $225,000 which is way too high and was sold to a speculator that didn't know the market. The average home price, at its peak, in Wilmore was around $300,000.

[nonillogical]

The 12 unit project will go where the surface parking lot is betwen the Trolley Museum and Canine Cafe building. This is a real positive in my opinion, as original (or really one of many plans) had them tearing down the Canine Cafe building and putting a large apartment building covering that site and the current parking lot.

that is awesome, exactly the type of small dense infill i want to see around here. i'm excited to see something go in at summit/church as well, between that and the project going up a little farther up church (unsure of its name) i think that area could spring to life and attract retail fairly easily.

unfortunately Tastefully Yours, a really nice catering/cafe place at Church and Bland, moved out just the other week.

[voyager12]

It makes sense for these projects to incorporate LRT in their marketing but it's not practical for the close in complexes. It's a pretty easy walk or bike ride to the CBD from Circle or Millenium. Why pay even a small fee if you don't have to? With movies intown and the Target nearby there is also no incentive to ride in the other direction.

[InitialD]

It makes sense for these projects to incorporate LRT in their marketing but it's not practical for the close in complexes. It's a pretty easy walk or bike ride to the CBD from Circle or Millenium. Why pay even a small fee if you don't have to? With movies intown and the Target nearby there is also no incentive to ride in the other direction.

Though, if you can afford to rent in one of these, them I'm sure you can afford the convenience of paying to ride light rail into uptown. Some people may not want to walk or bicycle while trying to carry bags of groceries back from, say the uptown farmers market or Reid's or whatnot.

It would make more sense for the light rail to be a selling point if somebody was looking at buying - specifically advertising the prospect of being able to access UNCC and NoDa via light rail in the future.

Off topic, but does a monthly pass include light rail, or just local buses?

[tozmervo]

Off topic, but does a monthly pass include light rail, or just local buses?

Unlimited Rail and Busses for $55 $60 a month. On the occasion that I get on an Express bus, it's $.50 extra.

Edited June 30, 2009 by tozmervo

[HopHead]

I noticed that the lot where Southhaus was supposed to go up is now for sale (two signs are up)... Wonder what the asking price is for that? It would be nice if the owner at least took a weedwhacker and cleaned it up. It's pretty unsightly.

[InitialD]

Millenium:

There is a parking deck off the the left of this photo that is unfortunately not entirely hidden from view. It look like it is sinking in the middle due to the slope of the parking deck levels. Also, I thought this project would be along the light rail line from Camden apartments all the way to Bland St (where this photo was taken). Anybody know what is supposed to happen to the lot here at Bland and the light rail line?

Circle:

[New Name]

^ I am totally impressed with Circle. I was one of the naysayers when we saw the proposal, but I think they will do very very well. I see the biggest problem with the condo craze being that it's hard to get excited about buying into a giant beige box full of smaller nondescript box condos. Circle broke out of that and offered some nice individuality to the condo world. Two thumbs up.

[voyager12]

I like Circle too. Would have been nice to have a little differentiation in design. It's a little monotonous but that's par for the course for all complexes these days.

[atlrvr]

I for one still think Circle is the worst project in Charlotte. In fact, I've added another reason. The sidewalk doesn't even though the back-of-curb along South Blvd! There are other examples of this around town, but one would think that in this urban location that you wouldn't have a planting strip between RECESSED parallel parking and the sidewalk. Shameful. The sidewalk itself appears to be only 6' (though I haven't gotten close enough to say with absolute certainty) and if so, that is only 1' wider than what is built in single-family subdivisions.