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Metropolitan, Midtown Redevelopment


uptownliving

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Apples and Oranges.

 

Modern grocery stores like to be where there is cheap land, traffic and lots of families with children -- they are products of the Kar-Kulture after all. We are not going to see the same level of market penetration in urban markets that we have in places like Fuquay until grocers get more comfortable with a post-car store model. That said, I think Charlotte will see more urban grocery store development than historic intown markets like Savannah or Charleston thanks to our 'blank-slate' land-use patterns.

 

FWIW: In 2007 Charlotte metro area had 3900 people per grocery store -- this number is pretty typical of large, auto-oriented, American cities. Charlotte's grocers had sales totalling around $1500 per resident  (these numbers were taken from the Census of Retail). I would bet that the arrival of Publix has caused both numbers to decline in Charlotte. 

 

For comparison, Charlotte had 1400 people per grocery store in 1977 -- this is reflective of the massive inflation of grocery boxes to sell more prepaired food, pharmacy, flowers, cards, etc.

Edited by kermit
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apples and oranges guys. Modern grocery stores like to build where there is cheap land and lots of traffic and lots of families with children since the stores are products of Kar-Kulture. We are not going to see the same level of market penetration in urban markets that we have in places like Fuquay until grocers get more comfortable with a post-car store model. I would also think that a blank-slate urban market like Charlotte will see more grocery store development than historic intown markets like Savannah or Charleston.

 

FWIW: In 2007 Charlotte metro area had 3900 people per grocery store -- this number is pretty typical of large, auto-oriented, American cities. Charlotte's grocers had sales totalling around $1500 per resident  (these numbers were taken from the Census of Retail). I would bet that the arrival of Publix has caused both numbers to decline in Charlotte. 

 

For comparison, Charlotte had 1400 people per grocery store in 1977.

 

Very good points!

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Is center city getting a little over-grocered at this point? 

 

I was talking about this with my wife recently. We live in Cherry, and within 1.5 miles or so we have 4 Harris Teeters, Trader Joe's, Target grocery, Food Lion, Publix. Opening in the next year or so we'll have Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and BJ's. Obviously, if you're in Manhattan (for example) you'll have a million small places you can buy food from. But I can't think of any place with a concentration of full-size supermarkets like this.

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I was talking about this with my wife recently. We live in Cherry, and within 1.5 miles or so we have 4 Harris Teeters, Trader Joe's, Target grocery, Food Lion, Publix. Opening in the next year or so we'll have Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and BJ's. Obviously, if you're in Manhattan (for example) you'll have a million small places you can buy food from. But I can't think of any place with a concentration of full-size supermarkets like this.

You don't really have to look too far. I live in Huntersville and within 2 miles of my house there are 3 HT's, a FoodLion, 2 Publix, a Whole Foods, a Fresh Market and an Earth Fair. Add a few more yards to that radius and you get another FoodLion and a new HT under construction with 2 Wal-Mart groceries just down the road.

Edited by jednc
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You don't really have to look too far. I live in Huntersville and within 2 miles of my house there are 3 HT's, a FoodLion, 2 Publix, a Whole Foods, a Fresh Market and an Earth Fair. Add a few more yards to that radius and you get another FoodLion and a new HT under construction with 2 Wal-Mart groceries just down the road.

4 Harris Teeters. Jetton, NorthCross, Rosedale, and Near the intersection of Catawba & Sam Furr.

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So, I know others have been skeptical of Midtown 205 on Kings Dr making their deadlines, but they had dropped out of my mind a bit until I went past yesterday.  They have signs and marketing that they open Summer of 2015, but the exterior isn't even finished yet.

 

 

Their Facebook and website have nothing on construction, so it is hard to know if they are better off in the interior than they appear on the exterior.  

 

https://www.facebook.com/Midtown205

 

The original articles said they'd be done by Fall of 2014, but that clearly didn't happen.  Now I'm skeptical that they'll finish within this summer:

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/09/lennar-begins-construction-on-midtown.html

 

 

post-670-0-20566900-1435680185_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Today is La Paz's last day open. 

Are they shutting down for good? Or just moving? I only ever ate there when they were located next to Sullvan's and thought their food was bland. Pretty hard to screw up Mexican IMO. Not sure how much that changed after they moved to the Met.

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Are they shutting down for good? Or just moving? I only ever ate there when they were located next to Sullvan's and thought their food was bland. Pretty hard to screw up Mexican IMO. Not sure how much that changed after they moved to the Met.

They are closing their doors for good today

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I heard that Greek Isles was moving to Midtown. Wonder if they're taking the La Paz spot if true? If so, it would be a little ironic since a Mexican restaurant is taking their spot in SouthEnd.

I've heard rumors about the restauranteur who is looking at the space, and it was not greek isles. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
Are they shutting down for good? Or just moving? I only ever ate there when they were located next to Sullvan's and thought their food was bland. Pretty hard to screw up Mexican IMO. Not sure how much that changed after they moved to the Met.

We ate there once after they moved. The food was decent, but not great. The atmosphere was definitely improved over the South End location, but it was just plain old Mexican food - not great, but not bad either. They have consistently struggled financially. My sister in law worked there when they were in South End and her paychecks constantly bounced, or they just didn't give them out. They did things like say, "well, how about I give you $45 today in cash, and take that out of your paycheck when we can give it to you. You'll get this week's paycheck as soon as we have the money." Sketchy. I doubt that changed when they moved. In a city with too many Mexican restaurants as it is, I won't miss this place. I do hope that Greek Isles moves there - that place was awesome and got replaced by....another Mexican restaurant.

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Rezoning petition for Baxter Place by Goode & Partners was denied. Honestly SHOCKED the city actually denied this. Hey kids, lets deny well designed and PED friendly projects, but let every freaking terribly designed project through no proble,

According to the Bizjournal, the reasoning request for this project may get reconsidered.  I was upset that it got denied as it would have been a great project for the area.

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This has got to be dumbest thing I have seen since the no alcohol signs on the Latta parklets .  Re-vote on Monday cause the developer lowered the height to 100ft from 106ft first go around.  How could this possibly make a difference if you support this or not.  We truly live and are governed in some wired warped reality.

maybe Jayvee done one of his Twitter Bombardments

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maybe Jayvee done one of his Twitter Bombardments

'twas a group effort by all of us. But in all seriousness... I agree with the thought that a 6 foot difference being the deciding factor on whether this building go back before the city council or not is absurd. Actually originally it was 119, then it went down to 106 for this rezoning. That however is beside the point. The 119/106 feet does not directly abutt to a residential street and there were measures taken to take into account the buildings scale and its relationship to the surrounding neighborhood. The fact that the city has taken nearly a year on this building, only to reject it at 106 feet and rethink it at 100 feet shows just how fascicle the current system is. The most important thing is, it's mixed use, it takes the pedestrian experience into account, the scale is appropriate, it contributed to the neighborhood in a positive manner, and to top it off... It looks pretty damn good.

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Per the original article from the Observer back in Sept. 2014:

"Goode Properties is requesting that Charlotte City Council approve a rezoning request to allow a 140-foot-tall building on the site. That’s 40 feet above the site’s current height restrictions. Roy Goode, owner of Goode Properties, said the eight-story building would house the hotel and the office and retail space. He said the building needs to be 140 feet tall or the project wouldn’t make economic sense, given land values and construction costs." 

While I could possibly see the original denial of the height at a 40 ft. differential, 6 ft. is really just splitting hairs here.  Apparently Goode was able to still make this project work at 100 ft. instead of 140' somehow...:rolleyes:

 

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When Council had just approved Levine's request for three additional stories across the street, it seemed sensible for Goode to think Council would go for six additional feet.

Now wonder if Goode thinks he has the votes, time, and energy for another rezoning petition. Or if given the by-right staff review process of PED, he can bypass Council with a lower height.

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