Independence Corridor

[Madison Parkitect]

Without curb cuts on Independence how would people get into the center? By passing it and driving back through the WalMart parking lot?

[rjp212]

Independence is going to be a Freeway.  They need to rearrange the entry into the complex, perhaps by using the same entrances as the Walmart center. 

[southslider]

At least the City's Tree Ordinance should kick in and help green up the large sea of asphalt.

[Third Strike]

Independence is going to be a Freeway.  They need to rearrange the entry into the complex, perhaps by using the same entrances as the Walmart center. 

 

I've might have read this in the Independence Blvd area plan, but I think one of the long term approaches to this area is connecting that lot with Eastway Drive (I'm guessing they would remove part of the adjacent exit ramp).

[DEnd]

Without curb cuts on Independence how would people get into the center? By passing it and driving back through the WalMart parking lot?

It needs a service road from walmart to eastway. It and Wal-Mart also need a reentry point for Albemarle Rd as well.

[southslider]

The Walmart entry off Independence should be enter-only, no exit. That would prevent fools from cutting across three lanes to Albemarle Rd. If the Walmart were connected to the renovated Coliseum Shopping Center, then that traffic would have more options. Keep the faster flowing at-grade curb cuts built more like streets, closing only the slower humped ones built more like driveways. Granted, such design discourages pedestrians, but should pedestrians even be accommodated along Independence? Ideally, the accessible path would go closer to the stores than the pseudo-freeway.

[Madison Parkitect]

It seems like taking out all of the entrances along Independence is a good way to kill off any potential retail in that center. People have to be able to get into it from a main road. There are ways to make the entrances better and more traffic-friendly, but I don't think you can just close up all the curb cuts and make people enter from a future Eastway connector or the WalMart parking lot. Retailers would be really wary of going into a center like that, I would think.

[southslider]

^Don't close all driveways, just reduce their number. Even Walmart only has one driveway on Independence, and two on Pierson. Surely, Coliseum Shopping Center could live with a similar number of no more than three driveways on Independence. Three also happens to be the number of driveways street-level with Independence, thereby enabling faster right turns on and off.

[Third Strike]

Construction on Meridian Place, a multi-use development, will begin this Spring. This site is right behind the Independence Shopping Center, which formerly had TJ Maxx and Roses. The site also appears to be TOD in nature, possibly in hopes of benefiting from future construction of mass transit.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/22/4857422/major-new-mixed-use-development.html#.U17y9FfiiHg

 

 

 

[CLTProductions]

wow this will completely transform the area, bring it on

[Niner National]

I noticed that there is fencing and some heavy machinery on site at the old Coliseum Shopping Center.

 

I guess work will get underway on that project soon.

[RiverwoodCLT]

They have started construction on that site.  Looks like a tower for stairs.

[RiverwoodCLT]

The new bridge a Conference Drive and Independence will open next Friday by the way of WCNC news tonight.

[Nolan]

I guess that means Idlewild will be closed soon, NCDOT needs Conference Drive to open to allow the detour for Idlewild. 

[KickinChicken23]

The work on Coliseum Shopping center is definitely going on, they seem to be digging a huge trench close to the road. Not sure wether they are pulling things out of there or putting things in but there is a good bit of work happening daily.  

[southslider]

Roy Goode's redevelopment covers the former Silver Oak / Castlewood apartments along Monroe behind the Independence Shopping Center. The Monroe Rd redevelopment will hopefully spur redevelopment, or at least remodeling along Independencd, but so far, nothing confirmed.

I also hadn't heard of any major plans for the Coliseum Shopping Center just west of Walmart, which was the former Amity Gardens shopping center.

[Niner National]

Roy Goode's redevelopment covers the former Silver Oak / Castlewood apartments along Monroe behind the Independence Shopping Center. The Monroe Rd redevelopment will hopefully spur redevelopment, or at least remodeling along Independencd, but so far, nothing confirmed.

I also hadn't heard of any major plans for the Coliseum Shopping Center just west of Walmart, which was the former Amity Gardens shopping center.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2014/02/texas-firm-to-buy-renovate-coliseum-center-on-east.html?page=all

[Nolan]

Whatever is being planned at Amity Gardens/Coliseum Shopping Center needs to have a parallel access road, and limit the curb cut outs. 

[ah59396]

Looks like the Bojangles reno project with GoodSports is starting to hit some road blocks, I.E. lack of financing for both the project in Charlotte and also it appears, a project they were going to do in Indianapolis.  This was the project where the city would spend $12m to reno Bojangles and $25m to help subsidize the GoodSports field house, GoodSports pays the additional $39.7m.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/09/24/5196231/amateur-sports-complex-at-bojangles.html#.VCQFR5RdV8F

 

 

 

I've asked this in the past and don't recall if we ever got a solid answer.  If this falls through, could the money potentially be diverted to other....investments? (Memorial Stadium  )

 

If so, count me in  the camp that hopes this project follows the lead of Studio Charlotte.

Edited September 25, 2014 by ah59396

[HopHead]

^Yea, put me in the camp of someone that wasn't necessarily thrilled with the public money being dumped into Bojangles coliseum renovation.... While the venue serves its purpose, I think the money is spent better elsewhere. 

[southslider]

Considering surrounding socioeconomics, Bojangles is a safer investment than Eastland.

[ah59396]

This is basically beating a dead horse, but more bad news for the Eastland mall "Studio Charlotte" site.

 

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/10/01/5212406/company-says-it-may-locate-movie.html

[Madison Parkitect]

With all the foggy details, it sounds to me like it's the same thing as Charlotte: the guy's trying to drum up support and money for a project that's never going to happen.

[go_vertical]

I had a hard time believing that this thing would have been completed as promised had the city given the ok. This guy is either extremely shady or he is ignorantly promising way more than he would be able to deliver. All he had to do was provide more detailed information, which he claims he had, but was asked by his anonymous investors not to? Really? One if the last hurdles to most likely getting approval and you refuse?

 

Now he is giving the same old "incentives" pitch in SC and we know that they will probably give him as much as they can get away with. Let this happen across the border. It's going to be a flop. I think he is the kind of guy that will drag it out as long as he can by saying "phase x, which is scheduled to break ground in six months, will need to be scaled down or component y has to be removed unless the state ponies up a little more." I think it will get started but then either not be completed for 25 to 30 years or simply abandoned .

[tozmervo]

They can film the reboot of PTL down there.