SouthEnd Midrise Projects

[Dub_Ag]

Is there another city with a comparable neighborhood to what Southend will look like in about 5 years?

 

What I'm saying is, does Houston have a Southend?  Or Dallas?  Or Atlanta?  Obviously not specifically called Southend, but just a similar neighborhood that has seen a boom from transit that is dense, oriented close to downtown possibly contains mill architecture.  Or will this be unique to Charlotte?

I think best example is Midtown in Houston. Just south of downtown Houston, light rail runs right through it, was slowly redeveloped over the years (apartments started the movement) through what is called a TIRZ, similar to Charlotte's brownfield redevelopment incentive program. It is now the spot for not just nightlife- bars, restaurants and young professionals, but there are a number of really high end restaurants and boutiques that have come in and transformed the area. This transformation started about 5 years earlier than South End, but if you go there today, property values have skyrocketed and the area is truly a nice walkable area.

 

One difference: Charlotte's done a much better job at creating development around the rail and determining early on that the rail is an amenity to the area. Midtown is just now starting to pick up on that ideal, but development did not particularly follow along the rail like it does in Charlotte.

[kermit]

The Pearl district in Portland reminds me a bit of Southend. It was recently developed (in part) by the streetcar (not LRT). I have the impression is features higher-end condos rather than apartments but the vibe feels similar to me.

 

Seattle has a great deal of archetecture which is simillar to Southend around the Stadium ./ SoDo LRT stops but I don't think there has been the same volume of housing development there (but I don't know the area well so I may be wrong)
 

Edited December 5, 2012 by kermit

[HopHead]

Per a story in the Observer, the 324 unit Camden/West Blvd apartment building will be 10 stories tall. So that would make it 1 or 2 stories shorter than the Ashton apartment building in South End. 

[Norm2]

Per a story in the Observer, the 324 unit Camden/West Blvd apartment building will be 10 stories tall. So that would make it 1 or 2 stories shorter than the Ashton apartment building in South End. 

 

10 stories!? That wow! Never imagined a building that tall in that area. I hope they can pull it off!

[Norm2]

Color rendering of Colonial Reserve at South End.  Pretty massive.

 

 

I can't believe how massive the apartment buildings are that are being developed. I wonder if all of them will be developed. I also wonder if the apartment boom will bubble at some point.

[DCMetroRaleigh]

wow, such a booming corridor

Edited December 5, 2012 by DCMetroRaleigh

[DCMetroRaleigh]

Is there another city with a comparable neighborhood to what Southend will look like in about 5 years?

 

 

 

Arlington (NoVA) has its highly tauted Ballston-Clarendon-Rosslyn corridor along the Metro.

[Niner National]

Arlington (NoVA) has its highly tauted Ballston-Clarendon-Rosslyn corridor along the Metro.

If SouthEnd ever gets to that point I'll be very impressed. 

[dubone]

10 stories is way more than I expected there, but maybe that is enough mass to warrant street retail purely for the opportunity to profit off their own residents (a la Post [Circle]).

 

Colonial Reserve at 5 stories is decent mass, and certainly being as large a block will be good for continuing a midrise 'landscraper' model urbanism in South End.  In their case, it is somewhat of a shame they did not include some corner retail because with the Marsh shopping strip across the street, they could create a bit of a destination for pedestrian shopping.  But they are somewhat exempt in my mind, because they will definitely support that existing retail in a pedestrian way, and also drive continued growth in retail conversion of the light industrial buildings on Youngblood/Griffith/etc. toward Tryon in that area. 

 

While certainly this is only one voice, I appreciated watching a segment with Barbara Corcoran on CNBC about the national boom in apartment building and the real estate market overall.  Her main points were that banks are loaning to apartments, but if they would simply agree to fund condos there is a market growing again for them.   

 

I personally interpret the apartment boom as being a proxy for condo development that would occur with the typical healthy condo market.  The condo market share being artificially diverted to apartments by the financiers, but like happened a decade ago, can easily be resold as condos when the market is healthy again.  Then also there would be a permanent market for apartments that is also taking place. 

 

Time will tell, but it is a massive endorsement of transit, transit oriented densification of industrially blighted neighborhoods.  This was the destination of the city's first modern-era streetcar line, and now part of its only mass transit line.  Not only do people want to live in the area, they are moving there in droves.   I have countless friends who have relocated to SouthEnd in the last few years because of the apartments going in.

[15895]

I wonder how southends growth will affect uptown. I wonder if these 2,000 new people will spend their leisure dollars/time in uptown. Obviously they will, but I comparison to where thy once lived (assuming suburbia or other neighborhoods without LRT)

Edited December 5, 2012 by AirNostrumMAD

[DCMetroRaleigh]

I wonder how southends growth will affect uptown. I wonder if these 2,000 new people will spend their leisure dollars/time in uptown. Obviously they will, but I comparison to where thy once lived (assuming suburbia or other neighborhoods without LRT)

I think the Light Rail connectivity between South End and Uptown makes South End development a win-win for the entire corridor.

[dubone]

Well, on the flipside, look at Levinetown in First Ward or Graham Street corridor in Fourth Ward.  These are corridors that would easily warrant the type of 5 story dense apartment developments that South End is getting. They are on the light rail, they are walkable to important destinations in the city.  Yet for some reason, this is not happening uptown.  I think SouthEnd is somehow gaining what would have gone uptown because uptown land prices reflect the potential for high rise development that is allowed in zoning, but the market cannot bear at this time.   So the development dollars and residential growth is now shifting in large part to SouthEnd whereas it was very much focused on the high rise condos downtown during the Bush Bubble. 

 

We will see if some of that momentum comes back to uptown with Levine finally moving on some of his blocks, Renaissance Place redevelopment, or Childress Klein's high rise apartments by Bearden Park, or even Hines' Gateway-adjacent land.  Those projects all seem quiet, although certainly could be moving forward, yet the only one under construction is Gateway West. 

 

However, as an uptown resident, I find myself hopping on the light rail or bus or b-cycle or carpooling to Midwood, Midtown, and SouthEnd an awful lot for my social life rather because the smaller scale seems to feel friendlier to people versus them coming in to the core of uptown to eat or drink. 

[WilmoreHarbor]

Does anyone know what is going in across the street from the empty lot where the Friday night Food Trucks park? Its at the corner of West Park and Tryon behind Prices Chicken. I assume it is going to be more apartments, but I have not seen any posts in this thread related to this location.

[Guest]

Does anyone know what is going in across the street from the empty lot where the Friday night Food Trucks park? Its at the corner of West Park and Tryon behind Prices Chicken. I assume it is going to be more apartments, but I have not seen any posts in this thread related to this location.

Park and Kingston Apartments. Kermit created a database/map of all the projects, you can find info on ALL projects in Charlotte in the below link.

http://goo.gl/maps/QrPtb

[nonillogical]

^ There are posts about it, referred to as "Park & Kingston" apartments. 4 stories, podium parking, no retail. Not much more info than that.

[carolinagarnet]

Arlington (NoVA) has its highly tauted Ballston-Clarendon-Rosslyn corridor along the Metro.

I actually thought the same thing. The height cap in DC means that Rosslyn is the focus of all high rise development in DMV, with four or five buildings above 25 stories planned or under construction, so that area is becoming more similar to Uptown. Courthouse is a mix of low and midrise buildings, much like the area between Uptown and East/West Blvd (Post Uptown, Camden South End, Camden Grandview, the Arlington, 1221 South, etc). Clarendon is a more concentrated version of the area on South Blvd between East/West Blvd and Magnolia Ave, while the absolutely booming Ballston neighborhood is like a higher rise version of the light rail corridor between Magnolia Ave and Remount Road. The areas are actually pretty similar in size (2.5-3 miles long) and both very linear. I think the increasing density in South End will have the same effect as it has had in Arlington, which is to make anything metro accessible increasingly attractive and over time, expensive. The price difference between Rosslyn and Ballston metro stations not as great as the difference between properties within walking distance to metro and those father away. This will probably happen in Charlotte as the Uptown surface lots begin to disappear and parking becomes more expensive. I can't wait to see how much South End has added density in a few years.

[krazeeboi]

Is there another city with a comparable neighborhood to what Southend will look like in about 5 years?

 

What I'm saying is, does Houston have a Southend?  Or Dallas?  Or Atlanta?  Obviously not specifically called Southend, but just a similar neighborhood that has seen a boom from transit that is dense, oriented close to downtown possibly contains mill architecture.  Or will this be unique to Charlotte?

 

A comparable example in Atlanta might be Old Fourth Ward, just east of downtown and adjacent to the Sweet Auburn district (home of the MLK National Historic Site). The anticipated Beltline project, which has already resulted in new trails, is spurring lots of new residential development in the area although the actual transit component has yet to be built.

[Guest]

http://southendclt.com/2012/12/06/civic-by-design-forum-on-south-end-development/

Civic By Design is having a SouthEnd related meeting to try to curb the single use development in the neighborhood. Its nice to see that there are people that are as interested in the vitality and vibrancy of the neighborhood. 

[Prodev]

^note the 277 cap at the bottom of the page. Very unrealistic as far as scale and eliminating the college st ramp, but still gets me excited just to see. 

[kermit]

The Observer just posted a longer article on the Southend apartment boom. They have some interesting (if unsurprising) information on pricing but there is not much there that we don't already know. It is good to see the facts presented in a way that will make the anti-transit set squirm.

 

 

of the more than 4,000 new apartment units announced in Charlotte this year, 60 percent are within a 15-minute walk of the light rail line,

 

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/06/3711178/light-rail-attracting-apartment.html#storylink=cpy

 

Edited December 7, 2012 by kermit

[kermit]

The CBJ cover story this week is on the retail potential of Southend. http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/print-edition/2012/12/07/retail-next-up-for-south-end-boom.html

 

The article does not reveal much that we don't already know -- it mostly just rephrases the mantra that retail follows rooftops. But I'll pull out a couple tidbits:

 

• The retail building at Remont and South (home of Good Bottle and Penn Station subs) along with Publix were cited as bellweathers of future retail growth in the hood.
• They mention rapidly rising land prices, financing difficulties and the costs associated with TOD as an impediment to retail growth in Southend
• Junction 1504 reports being 17% leased already and the property manager is very happy with their leasing progress.

Jennifer Stanton, a retail analyst and consultant with Retail Advisory Services, says the apartment development in South End isn’t what makes the neighborhood intriguing for Publix or larger retailers. “It’s less about the apartments than it is about the proximity to Dilworth,” she says. Stanton says that higher-income demographic [....] makes South End an interesting option. That’s particularly true for retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond or Stein Mart, which are currently in Charlotte’s suburbs. “Those kinds of tenants, I would expect, are buzzing around,” she says.

Edited December 7, 2012 by kermit

[DCMetroRaleigh]

Just imagine how exciting and robust 2013 is gonna be for South End as the economic recovery takes off even more!  I am so excited!

[Guest]

After what feels like Months of looking I finally found renderings for Park and Kingston Apartments. 

 

Overall I like it, and is it just me or does that appear to be some retail space?

[Missmylab4]

Count me as impressed. That does look like retail and the design is more interesting than the majority of new projects. Good addition for the area

[nonillogical]

Wow, I am pleasantly surprised. The placement of the parking columns going in right now made it look like the deck would be right up to the street and I was already bummed out on it. We'll have to see what materials get used in the end but I like the style a lot more than most of the other southend apartments underway, which was starting to get a little 1-note. 

 

I don't think that's retail though, since there's only the 1 main entrance door. I think its a lobby/lounge. 

Edited December 8, 2012 by nonillogical