SouthEnd Midrise Projects

[Dub_Ag]

I think they should take some design cues from the confederate warehouse they converted.

Out of all the projects I've seen, this would be the most inline for the current asthetics and vision of historic Southend.

 

 

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Where is this? This is great!

[carolinagarnet]

Columbia, South Carolina!

[navigator319]

this came up on my FB news feed this morning thought I would share....

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/newu1085/reasons-why-publix-is-the-best-grocery-store-to-ev-654m

[DCMetroRaleigh]

Come on Wegman's, how did you let Publix beat you to the Old North State?

[Guest]

Video for Colonial Reserve...I wish they would stop making all of the buildings look EXACTLY the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzldlTvVdAw

Edited January 10, 2013 by Guest

[Norm2]

Yea all of the South End buildings are all starting to look the same aren't they. I do wish development would spread out more from the light rail instead of all of the development just being so linear.

[ajfunder]

^Well an obvious solution to this could be build east west light rail/transit. If only the money were available...

[Niner National]

Yea all of the South End buildings are all starting to look the same aren't they. I do wish development would spread out more from the light rail instead of all of the development just being so linear.

It'll happen in time. Developers are going to want to put their projects directly adjacent to the stations first, but they'll eventually start putting them a block or two away in each direction as those become the new best spots available. You're already starting to see this in the portion of south end closer to uptown.

[Spartan]

I think they should take some design cues from the confederate warehouse they converted.

Out of all the projects I've seen, this would be the most inline for the current asthetics and vision of historic Southend.

 

 

.

 

 

I was in school at USC when this old Confederate warehouse was renovated. South Carolina's currency during the Civil War was printed there, and it has only been uised for warehousing/storage since. This building's renovation is one of the key reasons I am so fond of Publix. Their willingness to commit to unique spaces (and have great service) with their urban/compact format is very appealing to me. In all likelihood, that building would have continued to sit and rot were it not for Publix. Now you have a building that is over 150 years old with a great tenant that will maintain the building. It also has some live-work spaces on the far end. The only complaint I have is that they don't have a pedestrian entrance on Gervais St... though at the time there was much less pedestrian activity in The Vista. If you look at the 'before' picture, you can see the lower level entrace on Huger St that has been covered up after the renovation.

 

It's a shame that Charlotte doesn't have more old warehouses like this one, and more old buildings in general. I expect that whatever is built won't feel quite as special as that one in Columbia, but I do hope that Publix will work to make the architecture something noteworthy. The alternative is something kind of boring, like this other Publix store in Columbia, seen in this streetview image. Kinda boring/generic, but still the compact format.

[New Name]

There is one building, in one very under-served neighborhood, next to a future light rail stop, that I would LOVE to see Publix do this to someday.

Chadbourne Mill

 

Sorry to veer off topic here...

[carolinagarnet]

I think Publix will need to make a statement with the new location since the competition for supermarkets in Charlotte is so fierce. Whereas a generic design might work well in the suburbs, this building will be held to a higher standard due to its placement in the city. The fact that Lowe's has such a great facade will necessitate that Publix at least match that quality if not beat it.

[RVA2CLT]

 I was running the Light Rail Trail on Sunday I saw the the Northbound track was closed and there was a work crew with a road/rail truck cutting-down and clearing-out all the trees, vegetation and miscellaneous debris growing from Atherton Market down to Remount, basically the whole backside of the Publix/Camden development sites.
Could this be the start of prep work for this project, or a CATS planned clean-up and just a coincidence it's in that particular location?

[Guest]

Only renderings I've seen so far for 330 West Tremont, and its very forgettable just like 85% of the apartments going up in SouthEnd. I understand they are just massing, but since its the same firm who designed 1225 phase 1 and 2 I have very low expectations. Some of Urbana's architecture is pretty decent (Steel Gardens, NoDa Lofts, Stowe Building in Davidson), the rest is VERY blah and uninspired. 

 

http://www.urbana-architecture.com/a/urbana-architecture.com/urbana01/projects/multi-family/330-west-tremont-apartments

Edited January 23, 2013 by Guest

[dubone]

It is boring, but hopefully they'll pick something other than beige for color scheme.  I like that density like this can be on the western edge of SouthEnd and hopefully allow for some demand to fill in in between.

[Guest]

It is boring, but hopefully they'll pick something other than beige for color scheme.  I like that density like this can be on the western edge of SouthEnd and hopefully allow for some demand to fill in in between.

http://www.clearskyimages.com/southend-charlotte-011913-aerial-photos/h53086030#h53085134

 

There are new images on clear sky up this evening. I cannot get over how strange the whole southend neighborhood is as a whole. Its such a patchwork of urbanity, it really needs some serious help. I really wish neighboring parcels would get developed more often.

 

It really seems like some great things are happening, but yet there are old warehouses that would be great for retail sitting there with no roof on Worthington, and across from that is what appears to be a dirt lot. Then you have all that great urban development on the west side of the light rail that has no logical outlet to south blvd, meanwhile everything between Atherton (minus soon to be Publix) and Remount Road is just empty. 

Edited January 23, 2013 by Guest

[dubone]

That pattern is hopefully a GOOD thing.  If we can seed the crystalization at various spots, it can grow organically in between, hopefully without wiping out all of the old stuff.   Being such a long neighborhood, there are lots of different parts of the neighborhood, and we are luckily that there is at least some activity in each of the areas.  Interestingly, the LEAST activity is closer to downtown near Morehead, but that may change with the Simpson Lighting site.

[nonillogical]

I hope that apartment proposal for the Simpson Lighting site is dead and it actually sits until something worthy can be built there. I can live with these 4-story podium-parked retail-less apartments in most of the locations we're seeing them, but its getting excessive and that site definitely deserves something better.

 

But yes it strikes me every day driving to work how much insane potential there is for the area between Carson and 277 from South to Mint. I wonder if the land is just so valuable that its going to sit vacant until it can be built out with near uptown levels of density rather than an extension of southend. 

[Matthew.Brendan]

Maybe something to top the Arlington....

[SouthEndCLT811]

But yes it strikes me every day driving to work how much insane potential there is for the area between Carson and 277 from South to Mint. I wonder if the land is just so valuable that its going to sit vacant until it can be built out with near uptown levels of density rather than an extension of southend. 

 

I agree with this and that is what makes me excited about the potential of the neighborhood.  I was on the VC Charlotte web page and did come across another residential proposal for the corner of Morehead and College which is currently being called 135 Morehead in the documentation.  Nothing much to it other than the paperwork submitted in August but still nice to see people are planning for this side of the neighborhood as well.

 

https://aca.accela.com/charlotte/Cap/CapDetail.aspx?Module=LandDevelopment&TabName=LandDevelopment&capID1=12LDR&capID2=00000&capID3=00183

[atlrvr]

No such luck on 1200 South (Simpson site) dying.  Contractor paid for their building permit for the foundations last week.  It is going to be bigger (unit count) than I think we anticipated.  Their GC has the property on their website and states 331 units.

[RVA2CLT]

I was at the South End Community Monthly Meeting last night. It was great to see a full meeting and i encourage you all to come out to next month's meeting as every topic we discuss in regards to development, LTR, bike-lanes, walkways, uptown/neighborhood connectivity is discussed and plans revealed.

A couple points of interest:

Obviously, Camden Rd will be the center focus of the neighborhood for developing retail, stroll, socializing area, The 9k sqft of retail for the Camden/West project will be the cornerstone to pull the whole strip together. This will be considered South End's core and the focus of developing the neighborhood around it., especially down through the industrial/undeveloped section between Tremont to Remount west of LTR.

Increasing neighborhood amenities, landscaping, strees-scaping, road diets, benches, bollards, flower pots/borders and opportunities along and improvements to the rail trail.

Most notable though, several consultant developers from the Northeast were in town to meet with Center City Partners and evaluate the South End situation.
Their impression was "We love what you have going here, it's amazing and there is so much to offer. However, we would never consider investing in a project here."  

Why???? Because there are currently no zoning or neighborhood guidelines/restrictions as to the quality of what can be built.

Example: I could come in and build something like The Arlington with high-end materials and produce a high quality product; then right next door someone could build something like Junction 1504 and have the exact some capability to capture the same amount of tenants, in the same locality and proximity to uptown, dining, shoping and transit. I invested 10s of millions more $ and time, but could have yielded the same results with a smaller, lower quality project. As an investor/developer, it doesn't make any since for me to bring a high quality project (like we are all looking for) to an area where the current status-quo, stick built, 4/5 stories multifamily developments are filling up faster than they can be built.

 

So it seems that after the current projects are done, there will need to be some restrictions/neighborhood guidelines in place for developers as well as having the chutzpah
to say "No, your project does not meet our community standards and aesthetics and we would rather have an empty lot until the right project comes along than to settle for this."

So we will have to deal with infill podium style at least for another year and hopefully the Camden & West as well as the Kingston will set a better architectural precedence for the next round of developments for South End.



 

[dubone]

I'm glad the 135 Morehead site is in play, but that is a very large site for only 244 apartment units, especially given it is on a major address (Morehead) and very close to uptown.

[atlrvr]

Those consultants are 100% on the money in my opinion.  The only thing that has dictated quality of product to this point has been land costs.  Land purchased for cheap 2-3 years ago allowed for a profitable property even with lower density/aesthetics.  As land price rises, you need greater density, or ability to charge higher rents (or really both) through greater perceived superiority.

 

The ability to command premiums isn't that strong as the avg renter at Junction 1504 wouldn't pay a 40% premium to live at Colonial Reserve (I'm guessing) just because it is denser, and I'm not sure they'd even pay a 40% premium to live at the new Camden/East/West Blvd project no matter how nice the finishes and amenities are.

 

Basic point.....TOD-M left way too much wiggle room as to what is acceptable, so maybe taking a one-by-one approach to BLE parcels is better.

 

This is a ligitamate problem that I'm surpised hasn't discouraged development already in South End, though I suspect some of the last entrants will be very disappointed in their returns.

 

That said, critical masses of affluent residents should drive retail to the area which should make the area more marketable, and perhaps the land prices will escalate to a point that requires high-quality projects and the demand will be enough to jusitfy to developers.

[Missmylab4]

The quality of south end apartments is piss-poor. Some quality and respect for the urban fabric is needed pronto. Too many podium built no retail apartments that don't conform to anyone style.

[Synopsis101]

^^ exaggerating  

Edited January 24, 2013 by Newlopw